supplier statement as the debit total seems to show wrong totals. Sample report extract attached…
I think you may find that the totals are showing the activity since the opening balance, but does not included the opening balance. So the opening balance + the debit total - the credit total = 's the final balance figure.
@Brucanna is correct. Customer statements follow the same approach. Were this not the case, a statement prepared for a given period of time might not show the actual amount owed. The statements do not show a simple summation of debits and credits. Instead, they show the position at the beginning of the defined period, additions and subtractions during the period, and the resulting balance payable or receivable, just as @Brucanna points out .
Some companies, of course, especially those engaged in repetitive business relationships, do not send individual invoices, but rather billing statements. If the statements did not include the opening balance, the entity owing money would have to recover all previous statements to know how much to pay to become current. With the opening balance displayed, only the most recent statement is necessary to determine the full balance owed.
As a side note, I actually just spent several hours sorting out a billing problem with a supplier who did not include the opening balance and left out transactions against which they had applied payments already made (on a somewhat arbitrary basis, depending on when they got around to processing receipts). It was literally impossible to determine how much was actually owed from what they sent me. To resolve the situation, I had to reconstruct an inception-to-date statement for them and gain their concurrence that it accurately reflected their books before I could pay the correct amount, which, by the way, was not an amount shown anywhere on any of the several statements they had sent over a 3-month period. Very frustrating, and not something one should have to do for one’s suppliers.
@Tut - if they were happy with the state/status of your account with them - why interfere?
There is one rule in business which I never breach - Its not my job to run other peoples business’s.
If they can’t organise their administration, then its not my job to do it for them. Over the years I would be well in front from businesses who didn’t invoice for deliveries/services. One company in particular made a big deal over receiving signed Purchased Orders and signatures on delivery, yet with regularity forgot to invoice. I use to pay another business every month by credit card and their statements reflected that but my credit card statement never got charged so was unsure who was missing out - the business or the credit card supplier. That one came to an end after an upgraded in credit card equipment.
I’m fairly certain that if I had failed to charge or undercharged, my door wouldn’t be rushed with payment.
Normally, I would agree with you, @Brucanna. In fact, I have had experiences very similar to those you describe and feel about them the same way you do.
But in this case, the billings and payments were related to the very complicated health care law we have in the U. S., which is (partly) administered through taxation. There is interaction between medical providers, subcontracted billing processors, insurers, individuals, employers, independent reimbursement account managers, government-authorized (but not government-controlled) intermediaries, and tax authorities. And all this plays back into individuals’ tax filings. A more complex system could not have been devised. But eventually, mistakes in billing or payment surface; and there can be tax penalties and interest for individuals and employers, who are often blameless, while those responsible go unpunished. So it is easier and cheaper to get it right than suffer the consequences later. 
This was a bug. Customer statement does add opening balance to total column. Supplier statement wasn’t doing it. It’s now fixed.
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