Statements are probably the most common kind of bill sent out of Trash Flow. All the varieties of statement (In accounting terms these are technically a "statement of account") tell a customer how much money they owe you. Statements always list a customer's current balance—that cannot be changed in the bill options, even accidentally. Unless you decide to change some billing options they also list all transactions that happened, oldest to newest, since the last time the customer was billed.

There are a number of bill formats available; since the Plain Paper Statement is the most used an example is provided below. Underneath is an explanation of the bill, a list of other useful information about statements in general, and explanations of our other statement formats.

Your business name and return address print at the top left so it appears correctly in windowed envelopes. At top right is the date the bill was printed, the customer's account number, and (in bold) the amount due. Below is the customer's name, billing address (left), and physical address (right). The billing address lines up in windowed envelopes, and if you use our Trash Billing service to process electronic payments it will also include a QR code that can direct the customer right to the website and log them in. A block of space below the addresses is set aside for a brief message, the Trash Billing login information, and the due date.

The next section starts with a line repeating the business name, customer account number, and service address. That's because some companies use perforated paper so the top third can be detached and mailed back with payment, keeping the section below to file away. The charges section lists all charges, payments, credits, etc. oldest to newest along with a running balance on the right. (If the customer owed a balance on the Last Billing Date chosen then the statement will list the balance as of that date before listing the later transactions.) The Balance Due shows up in bold and matches the Please Pay amount at top. Most statements will also include the aged balance: this shows the customer how long they have owed you money. Below this is the Trash Billing login information and any message you chose to include.

Here's an explanation of the fields you can choose when printing statements; not all of these will apply to all companies.

• The 30 Day, 60 Day, and 90 Day Note fields affect late customers; anything you type here will show on the bill if the customer is at least that many days late.
• Show Containers is used by some companies that track which box number a customer has. Any charges associated with a container on the Boxes tab will list the box number as part of the charge description.
• Sort Charges by Container shows the first container placement with associated charges and lists the charges only for that placement. It then repeats for other placements that have charges, closing with a list of any payments and charges not associated with a placement.
• Show Var. Charge Detail is relevant only if you charge by the ton, pound, etc.; it shows the amount next to the charge, e.g. "Landfill Fee     2.4 TON     $120.00." Show Var. Charge Rates adds the rate as well as the final dollar amount, e.g. "2.4 TON @ $50.00/TON."
• Incl. W.O.'s on Bills does just that, showing any work order numbers since the date of last billing.
• Only Show Open Invoices overrides most other options here: the bill instead shows only the open invoices for a "pay by invoice" customer, no matter how old they are.
• Finance Charges and Invoices Only similarly changes the bill format; it lists only invoices and finance charges since the date of last billing.
• Print Bar Codes adds a bar code meant to be used by keyboard wedge scanners when entering check payments. If you are also sorting bills using CASS it will include the necessary bar codes for the post office.
• Your have two options to add an extra message to print on bills. When you go through the bill printing process there are fields titled Message Line 1 and Message Line 2. Each of these is limited to 30 characters and will print under the billing address. In addition, you can create a longer message to print at the bottom of the bill. This message can be as long as you want, though note that making it too long might cause the bill to print an extra page.

Here are some other useful things to know when printing statements.

• The Statement Date will always be the current business date in Trash Flow. You can certainly change the business date, but please keep in mind that Trash Flow will then print how much the customer owes as of that date—charges after that will not be counted.
• There are two ways in Trash Flow to tell customers when to pay their bill: Enter Your Payment Terms and Setting Due Dates for Plain Paper Bills. Either will work, but it's best to choose one and stick with it.
• The Plain Paper Statement keeps a running total to the right of each transaction; older statement formats typically do not.
• Listed transactions do not include taxes. Instead the tax amount is listed just above the bill total. In cases where separate taxes are charged they are each totaled individually.
• If you print a statement involving a bill-to customer Trash Flow will always print a statement for the master account showing a separate breakdown of charges for each sub-account, the total due on each account, and a grand total summing up all the balances.
• If you use our Trash Billing service to process electronic payments the customer's web account number will be listed twice: once underneath their addresses and again just under the total amount due. The latter will also have a note directing them "Pay your bill and see account information Online at [website name]."

Other statement formats

• 6 1/2 x 7 inch statement: this is meant for continuous-feed dot-matrix printers.
• 8 1/2 x 11 inch statement: this is an older form of statement for laser and inkjet printers, but many Trash Flow haulers still use it. It is meant to be used with the blue and white statement paper we sell.
• CSV File Statement: this generates a CSV file that can be opened with Microsoft Excel. These are formatted in a consistent manner and are meant to be handed off to a printing company.
• Email Statement: an example is provided below. if you send an email statement to one of your customers this is what they will receive. They still follow the same theory as a plain paper statement.

Further resources

Print Bills for a Group