One advertising platform reports ten conversions, another reports eight and the CRM shows twelve enquiries. Adding the platform totals and comparing eighteen with twelve creates a question, but not necessarily an error. Different systems may be describing different events and assigning credit differently.
A reconciliation process should identify which differences are expected and which indicate a real implementation problem.
Start with the definition
Write down what each system counts. Is it a click, a successful submission, a purchased order or a qualified lead? Check whether repeated actions from the same person are counted once or more than once. Confirm whether internal tests and spam are included.
If the CRM excludes duplicate enquiries while a website event counts every successful submission, the totals are not measuring the same thing. Rename the report rows before attempting to make them match.
Align dates and time zones
Check account time zones and the period used in the report. A campaign managed in one time zone and a CRM viewed in Toronto time can assign an evening enquiry to different calendar days.
Also inspect whether the report organises results by interaction date, conversion date or another basis. Allow for delayed reporting and later changes to records. A report downloaded immediately after a campaign ends may differ from one reviewed after outcomes have matured.
Understand credit assignment
A person can encounter multiple campaigns before contacting the business. More than one platform may assign credit under its own rules. Platform-reported conversions should not automatically be added together as unique customers.
Review the account's actual attribution settings and available documentation. Do not assume that similarly named measures use identical windows or methods. Consent choices, device changes and browser restrictions can also limit the signals available to different systems.
Investigate genuine defects
Look for duplicate tags, events triggered before form validation, broken redirects and missing campaign parameters. Check a small set of authorised test journeys with expected outcomes. A sudden step change after a site release deserves a technical investigation before the team explains it as a market trend.
Keep a reconciliation sheet listing source, definition, time zone, counting basis, known lag and limitations. This is often enough to separate an expected difference from a problem that needs engineering work.
Choose a decision basis
Use each source for the questions it can answer. Advertising reports help manage delivery inside their platforms. Analytics helps examine website behaviour. A well-maintained CRM helps describe business outcomes. None is automatically complete.
For an acquisition review, begin with unique business records and clearly defined outcomes, then use platform and website data to investigate how those outcomes developed. Explain uncertainty in plain language.
The goal is not to force every dashboard into the same total. It is to make the differences understandable enough that the business can act without mistaking reporting mechanics for customer behaviour.
EBJ FIELD NOTES / RECONCILE THE REPORT
| 01 Definition | 02 Timing | 03 Credit |
Compare the same outcome, period and counting basis before trying to reconcile totals.
Put it to work
Compare the same outcome, period and counting basis before trying to reconcile totals.
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