When you analyze your billing indicators, you may notice discrepancies between the amounts displayed in your widgets and those in your invoice lists. These differences are normal and are due to distinct calculation logics between these two tools.
This article presents the main cases where these differences appear, to help you correctly interpret your data.
Case 1: Filtering by Business Unit
What happens?
When you filter your data by Business Unit, the widgets and invoice lists do not show the same amounts as they apply different logics.
How do widgets filtered by BU work?
Widgets like "Invoiced Gross Margin by BU" or "Invoiced Gross Margin over the period" only calculate the invoiced amounts distributed over the selected Business Unit.
Concrete example:
Invoice Y linked to a project: €10,000 in Revenue
Project distribution: 60% BU A / 40% BU B
Project MB: €5,000
Invoice represents 50% of the project
Result in widgets:
Widget "Invoiced MB" filtered on BU A → €1,500 (60% of €2,500 invoiced MB)
Widget "Invoiced MB" filtered on BU B → €1,000 (40% of €2,500 invoiced MB)
The widgets calculate the invoiced gross margin according to the project distribution over each BU.
How do invoice lists filtered by BU work?
Invoice lists display all invoices linked to projects that contain at least one distribution on the selected Business Unit, with the total amount of the invoice.
Concrete example (same invoice):
Invoice Y: €5,000 (50% of the €10,000 project)
Project distribution: 60% BU A / 40% BU B
Result in lists:
List filtered on BU A → displays invoice Y with €5,000
List filtered on BU B → displays invoice Y with €5,000
How to analyze invoices by BU?
To analyze the distribution of your invoices by Business Unit in detail, use the accounting export:
Finance > Account exports > Invoice tab > Export invoices (with project details)
This export contains dedicated columns:
Invoice Revenue BU: Revenue invoiced on the BU(s) associated with this invoice
Invoice Gross Margin BU: Invoiced gross margin on the BU(s) associated with this invoice
⚠️ Note:
The BU analysis depends on the distribution of rate card lines configured on your projects. Check the CHECK Gross Margin indicator shows Gross Margin ok in your project lists to ensure this distribution is correct and to obtain reliable data.
Going further
Key takeaway
Differences between widgets and invoice lists are explained by distinct calculation logics: widgets filter by invoiced amounts distributed on each BU (according to project distributions), while lists display the total amounts of invoices. Check the Gross Margin Ok indicator to ensure the reliability of your BU analyses.