Bank statement line
A single row on a bank statement representing one debit or credit — such as a BACS receipt, a direct debit, or a card payment — that must be matched to an accounting record before reconciliation is complete.
Also: statement line
A bank statement line is the raw data your bank produces for a single movement of money: a date, an amount (positive for credits, negative for debits), and a reference string from the payment network. It carries no knowledge of invoices, VAT codes, or nominal accounts. That meaning is added during reconciliation.
In Xero, bank statement lines arrive via the bank feed and appear on the Reconcile tab. Each line must be allocated before reconciliation is complete. A straightforward example: a £1,200 credit arrives on 5 June with the reference “Smith Consulting INV-0042”. Xero suggests matching it to the open sales invoice; you confirm in one click. The line is cleared, the invoice is marked paid, and the balance sheet updates.
When a line is harder to clear
Lines become awkward when the reference is vague or a single payment bundles income with a fee — for example, a £980 net receipt representing £1,000 of sales minus £20 in processing fees. That line cannot be matched one-to-one; it requires a split transaction or a manual journal so both the gross income and the fee land in the correct nominal accounts. Until it clears, the bank balance and the books disagree by that exact amount.