The platforms say AED 480,000. The accounts say AED 296,000. Neither is lying.

• Attribution window. A platform credits a sale to the click that came before it, by default up to seven days after a click or one day after a view. A sale booked on the 2nd of the month can be credited to spend from the previous month.
• Double counting between platforms. Each platform claims the same order independently. Add three platforms together and the total can exceed everything the business actually sold.
• VAT. Platforms report the gross order value, including the 5% you collect and remit to the FTA. Your accounts recognise revenue net of it.
• Cancellations, returns and failed payments. An order counted at checkout is not always revenue. Cash on delivery that is refused, failed cards and returns come out of the accounts later, and never out of the platform.
• Recognition date. Platforms report on order date; accounts recognise on invoice or delivery date. Every month boundary moves revenue between periods.
• Sales the platform never sees. An order placed on WhatsApp or by phone after an ad was seen arrives in the accounts with no source attached to it.

• Platform-reported revenue, three channels added together: AED 480,000.
• Less orders claimed by more than one platform, 20%: minus AED 96,000, leaving AED 384,000.
• Less the 5% VAT inside the gross order value: minus AED 18,286, leaving AED 365,714.
• Less cancellations, returns and failed collection, 12%: minus AED 43,886, leaving AED 321,828.
• Less orders that fall into the following month on the accounts basis: minus AED 25,828, leaving AED 296,000.
• Booked revenue in the accounts: AED 296,000, which is 62% of the platform figure.

1. 01

   Agree one definition of a sale

   Pick the event that counts as revenue, usually invoiced or delivered and paid, and apply the same definition to both sides before comparing anything.

2. 02

   Deduplicate at order level

   Join platform-reported conversions to order or invoice numbers from the system that books the sale, and count each order once. This is normally the largest single component of the gap.

3. 03

   Strip VAT and returns

   Bring the platform figure onto the same basis as the accounts. Both adjustments are arithmetic once the return rate is known.

4. 04

   Restate the period

   Move both sides onto the same recognition date. A comparison across a month boundary can move a double-digit percentage on its own.

5. 05

   Test what the platform cannot see

   A holdout or a staged geographic reduction is the only way to find out how much of the unattributed revenue the spend actually caused. Reported conversions cannot answer it.

6. 06

   Write down the residual

   The part that still does not reconcile is a known gap. It belongs in the decision as a stated limit, not rounded away to make the report look finished.

Moving budget between channels, or setting total spend, belongs on the accounts basis. That is the number the business banks, and it is the only one that is consistent across channels.

Platform-reported revenue is still useful for comparing creatives and campaigns inside one platform, where the bias is at least constant. It is not a basis for comparing one platform against another, because each platform measures itself with its own rules.

• Next: why a 4x return on ad spend can still lose money
• How PAS95 turns reconciled evidence into one governed decision