Lesson 3 of 25 · 7 min
Why the statement date and the period end are different days
The period closes on the last calendar day; the page is dated when the ledger is struck.
Period end and statement date are two clocks. Period end is the last day that enters the interest sum and the as-of date of the positions table. Statement date is the calendar day the document is produced. They are almost never the same day, because a ledger is struck after the last accrual day has finished, not during it.
On this page the period ends 31 March 2026 and the statement date is 2 April 2026. One full calendar day sits between them. That day is production lag. It is not an extra Act/360 day. Interest for March is the two printed legs, $3,934.07 and $7,409.40, covering eleven days and twenty days. Those already sum to thirty-one. Nothing in the charge is labelled 1 April or 2 April.
The lag exists because close-of-business marks, index publications, and the addition of the interest legs take time after midnight on the last day. A statement dated the morning after a month-end is a completed March ledger. A statement dated two days after is the same object with a slower print run. Neither date extends the period.
The confusion is mechanical. Readers count days from the first date they see to the last date they see. From 1 March to 2 April is thirty-three calendar dates if both ends are included, or thirty-two if the end date is excluded. Either count overstates the thirty-one days the legs actually used. The day-count that belongs in the formula is the period label, not the corner date.
Key terms
- Period end
- The last day of the reported window. Interest stops accruing for this statement on that day, and positions are marked then.
- Statement date
- The calendar day the document is produced. On this page, 2 April 2026 — after 31 March, and not an accrual day.
- Production lag
- The gap between period end and statement date. It is administrative time, not extra interest.
Worked example
Thirty-one days, not thirty-three
A reader counts from the first date on the page to the last date on the page and then rebuilds interest at the closing stated rate.
- First date in the header
- 1 March 2026
- Last date in the header
- 2 April 2026
- Inclusive count of those two dates
- 33 days
- Days the two legs actually cover
- 11 + 20 = 31
- Invented extra two days at 7.22% on $1,847,220
- $1,847,220 × 0.0722 × 2 ÷ 360 = $740.94
- Error that count would insert
- $740.94
The statement date, not the period end.
The printed total would then fail to match.
The corner date is a print stamp. The period label is the only date range the interest formula accepts.
Check yourself
March has 31 days, the legs cover 11 and 20 days, and the page is dated 2 April. If interest is rebuilt from 1 March through 2 April inclusive at 7.22% on $1,847,220, Act/360, what figure appears, and why is it not the printed $11,343.47?
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Educational only. Nothing in this lesson is investment, legal or tax advice, or a recommendation to enter into any transaction. Figures are illustrative and computed from the inputs stated in the lesson.