Insights
Why your dashboard disagrees with your invoice
Four places a reporting tool and a billing system drift apart, and a quick way to tell which one is lying before the meeting starts.
Priya Raman
Head of Growth
At some point every team notices that the revenue number in their dashboard does not match the one in their billing system. The gap is almost never a bug. It is usually one of four boring definitional differences.
Timing
Billing systems work in billing periods. Analytics tools work in calendar days in whatever timezone the workspace was created in. A payment taken at eleven at night on the last of the month lands in different buckets depending on which tool you ask.
Refunds and failed payments
Most dashboards count a charge when it is attempted. Most billing systems count it when it settles. In a month with a few failed cards, that difference is visible and it always resolves in the billing system’s favour.
Tax and currency
Gross versus net of tax is the single most common cause. Add multi-currency conversion at a different rate or a different moment, and two systems that are both correct will disagree by a few percent indefinitely.
Which one to trust
For anything that touches a bank account or a board pack, trust the billing system and treat the dashboard as directional. For anything about trend and behaviour, the dashboard is fine. Problems start when someone uses one for the other’s job.
Run your own numbers through Orbit.
Fourteen days free, every module included and no card needed.