Statements - How to Reconcile

Statements - How to Reconcile

Lightyear can handle Supplier Statements in two ways, automatically by using a map (like an invoice), or by filing a Statement manually. This help document will explain both.

Automatic Supplier Statement matching allowing you to file & automatically reconcile your supplier statement within 1 - 2 seconds of the PDF arriving in your account. This is proven to reduce your month end closure by hours... if not, days.

What's more, if there are any missing documents on your statement, you can email your supplier with a click of a button to request copies of the missing documents, Magic!   

Let's see how it works....





Option 1 - Apply a Map to a Statement (Automatic Statement Reconciliation)

Lightyear has the ability to automatically extract data from statements.  To do this, you follow the usual Lightyear process of finding a map and applying a map.  Make sure to choose 'Statement' as the type in the search box.   If no map is available for that supplier, please request a new map using the 'Map For Me' button (more on that here)

Searching for an existing map

Chances are, a map for your Statement already exists, and you just need to apply it! The process for this is exactly the same as mapping a bill.
  1. From the Processing Tab, select the Statement and if Lightyear does not then suggest a map to use, hit the 'Find Map' button


  • In the pop up, search for the supplier using your choice of criteria (name, Tax Number, Map reference)
  • If the supplier exists in Lightyear, you'll be given a list of maps to choose from. Look for Statement maps

  • If you find one, select Try Map, and then Apply Map if you're happy with the results. Just like mapping a bill

If an existing map doesn't exist

If a Statement Map for your supplier hasn't been created yet, hit the blue 'Map For Me' button after searching to send off a request, and we will create one for you. Keep an eye on your Processing Tab over the next 24 hours (usually much less) for that green check mark to let you know that a map has been created and is ready to be applied.

Once a map has been applied, your Statements will be filed in the Statements section of the app.

Applying a map

Once you have successfully applied a map to a statement, the statement will transition through to the Statements Tab.  Please note, a credit will be deducted each time a statement transitions to the Statement Tab. 

Once a map has been created and applied to a statement, Lightyear will automatically present the correct bills for this supplier statement. We'll search for bills that match based on 3 pieces of key information
  1. Bill Number
  2. Bill Date
  3. Bill Total
Lightyear will then match bills in your system to the statement and mark each bill as either Matched, Partial Match or Missing. Let's take a look at an example statement.



Along with the statement details along the top, you'll also see individual lines for each bill on the statement, and a status for each. These are:
  1. Matched: Lightyear has found a bill with the same bill number, bill date and bill total as a bill listed on your statement.
  2. Partial Match: Lightyear has found a bill that matches on one piece of the key information needed.
  3. Missing: Lightyear can't find a bill.
  4. Disregard:  User has chosen to disregard that line item.

Reconciling variances

If a bill is  Missing, you can use the Match button to the right of the line to search for the document in Lightyear.



You can search for the bill number within a specific date range, and you can add a tolerance amount, in case the amount on the bill differs from the amount shown on the statement. Once the bill is found, hit the green 'Match' button. You can also Disregard a bill entirely, if you don't need it to be reconciled on the statement (or the supplier lists payments for instance).

Whenever all the bills have been matched, or if they haven't but you're still happy with the statement, you're good to go ahead and mark the statement as Reconciled to file it away using the 'Is Reconciled' switch.



Option 2 - Filing Statements Manually (without using a Map)

If you prefer not to automatically reconcile a Supplier statements, or in the very edge case, a map cannot be created due to missing information, your statements can still be filed and reconciled manually for record keeping purposes.

How to file a Statement manually

In the Processing Tab, select the statement via the 'More' menu, then 'Manually File Statement'. Enter the necessary information and your statement will be filed in the 'Statements' Tab for future reference:



If a Statement has been Manually Filed, the data will look slightly different than extraction via a map.

After inputting the Bill Date Range, Lightyear will show all invoices/credit notes that fall between this range. You can click the Is Reconciled check box as normal.

If no invoices/credit notes are found between the range, the below will be displayed:


This option of filing a statement will not display the Match Status or allow you to Match/Disregard lines in the same way Option 1 would.

Emailing suppliers

If any documents are missing, you can send an email directly to your supplier to request a copy of the missing bill/credit note. Simply hit the 'Email Supplier Statement' button. 



You can customise the note, but the above will be presented by default. If an email address is linked to the supplier, it will automatically populate the External Email Address field, but you can change this and choose to save the email for future use. Up to 10 emails can be entered in this field, once you have entered one, click the enter key on your keyboard to enter another one. 

Once sent, the supplier will receive the email listing the missing documents and the PDF statement as an attachment.

Supplier Statement filing incurs consumption of 1 credit per document that is filed either manually or automatically via a map.

Trashing Statements

You can trash a statement by clicking the Trash icon in panel 2.



You can search for trashed statements by clicking the 'include trash' tick box when searching when in the Statements Tab.




      

    Check out our
    Product Blog Series
    to stay up to date

      • Related Articles

      • Statements

        With Lightyear, manually matching, reconciling and then filing statements is a thing of the past. You can now send Statements into Lightyear and watch as they automatically reconcile and file in seconds. You can watch a quick video here. I've sent a ...

      • Bulk Supplier Upload

        Similar to how the Product List, GL Code, Supplier Cards, etc. bulk upload works, users can use a CSV to quickly create all Suppliers within Lightyear. The CSV needs to follow a specified layout, as some columns are required, and others need to ...

      • Setting Supplier Card Country Codes

        In Supplier Cards, Lightyear can import the Country Codes from your Accountancy Software. There are instances where some Accountancy Software don't store the Country Code, or the Country Code they store is different from Lightyear, e.g. GBR vs GB, ...

      • Step 8: Tell your Suppliers what to do

        FOR YOUR TEAM Once your staff have been brought up to speed to the changes re Lightyear, you should now start asking your suppliers to email your bills to your xxxxx@lightyear.cloud account. No-one particularly likes change, but from the very outset ...

      • Uploading Products - Products Catalog and Price Checker

        This is a step-by-step guide to uploading Products in Lightyear. There's a multitude of benefits in doing so. You can use this as part of the initial supplier set up to automate line item coding, create your Product Catalogue in PO's so items can ...