What is a statement balance, and why doesn't it match my app?
Your banking app shows an available balance: what you could spend right now, after holds and pending card payments have been taken into account. Your statement shows a closing balance: what the bank recorded at the end of the period, once every line had posted. They are both right; they answer different questions. The app answers what can I spend today. The statement answers what did the bank hold on that date.
The gap between them comes from timing. A card payment at a petrol station may sit as a hold for a day or two before it posts, at a slightly different figure. A transfer you made on the last day of the month may post on the first day of the next. A cheque deposited on Thursday may not clear until Monday. The app moves with each of these as they happen. The statement waits until they have all settled, then records the result on the closing date and never changes it.
That fixed figure is what makes the statement useful to anyone who has to rely on it. A lender reading several months of statements is reading a series of fixed points, not a moving line. When the two figures differ and someone asks, the statement is the one they will read.
The statement's opening balance, plus money in, minus money out, equals its closing balance. If you ever add up a month and the figures don't tie, a line is missing or counted twice. That check, opening plus lines equals closing, is the oldest test in bookkeeping and it takes a minute with a calculator. It is also the check Recofolio runs on every statement it reads.
On a credit card the words shift a little. The statement balance is the total owed on the closing date, and it is the figure to pay in full to avoid interest; the minimum due is a smaller number the bank will accept, with interest charged on the rest. Paying the minimum keeps the account in good standing; paying the statement balance keeps the interest at zero.
Try it freeConvert one of these statements to a spreadsheet; the file stays on your device.