How to

How to fix a statement period: dates, closing balance, or delete it

Bank files lie about dates. You download the August statement and the file says August 3 to August 27, because that's the range you happened to download. Or the file carries no closing balance at all, or one dated the day you downloaded it. Or you started a period by hand on the wrong account. An open statement period can be corrected, given its closing balance, or deleted, and none of it undoes the work you've done on its lines.

Before you start

  • The period is open. A reconciled period has to be reopened first.
  • You have the paper statement (or the bank's PDF). The dates and closing balance printed on it are the ones to use.
  • You have payables administrator rights.

Steps

Save the closing balance

  1. Open the period. In step 1, find Closing balance (from the statement).

  2. If it's missing, a box is already open beside it. Type the balance from the statement (New Balance on a card statement, Ending Balance on a bank account) and press Enter or click Save. The app says Closing balance saved.

  3. To correct a balance that's there, click the pencil, Correct the closing balance, change it and save.

The difference in step 3 shows as soon as the balance is in, even while lines are still being sorted. Later open periods on the account pick up their opening balance from it.

Correct the dates

  1. In step 1, click Edit beside Statement period, or open Periods and click Edit on the period's row.

  2. In Edit this statement period, set Period start and Period end to the dates printed on the statement. You can correct the Closing balance here too; leaving it blank keeps the one already saved.

  3. Click Save. The app says Statement period updated. Bank lines re-sort into periods by date. Nothing you've already matched or recorded is undone.

Delete a period

  1. Open Periods on the account and click Delete on the open period's row.

  2. Confirm. The period goes, and its bank lines are kept and return to the worklist. Anything they cleared stays cleared.

What posts behind it

Nothing. A statement period is the proof, not the books. Changing its dates or balance, or deleting it, writes no ledger entry. The entries made by filing its lines stay exactly as they are.

When it won’t let you

This statement is reconciled. Reopen it before changing it. Reconciled periods are locked. Reopen it from Periods first. The same lock applies to the balance and to deleting.

Those dates overlap the 9/1/2026 – 9/30/2026 statement (already reconciled). Shorten one of them so they meet without overlapping. Periods can meet but not overlap. Make this one end the day before the next starts.

The period ends before it starts.

Enter the closing balance from the statement. You clicked Save with the balance box empty.

The file reports $12,480.16 as of 10/4/2026, which is after this period ended — that is the balance when the file was downloaded, not at close. Enter the closing balance from the September statement. The bank file carried a balance, but from the wrong day. Use the paper statement's figure.

What this doesn't do

It can't change a reconciled period without reopening it, and it never changes the bank lines themselves: their amounts, dates and references are the bank's. Deleting a period doesn't delete its lines or undo their filing. To reverse a filed line, undo it from the Done tab.

Stuck on this one? Call (509) 955-0770 and we'll walk through it with you.

BasicBMS

Business software as unique as your business.