Shopify, analytics, and ad platforms disagree on revenue

These reports measure different things. The order system records orders, analytics records events it received, and ad platforms assign credit under their own models.

Typical symptoms

• Ad dashboards report more revenue than the order ledger.
• Analytics misses or duplicates purchase events.
• Teams reconcile dashboards by hand every week.
• Differences grow after consent, checkout, or tracking changes.

What to capture

Collect order totals and transaction IDs, analytics events, channel reports, date range, timezone, currency, tax and refund treatment, consent coverage, and attribution windows.

Keep the meanings straight

Steps

1. Fix the date range, timezone, currency, and included order states.
2. Match transaction IDs before comparing aggregate totals.
3. Find missing, duplicate, late, or transformed events.
4. Write down each platform's attribution window and identity rules.
5. Distinguish tracking defects from expected model differences.
6. Assign each fix to the commerce, analytics, consent, or channel owner.

Done when

• Transaction-level matches can be reproduced.
• Missing and duplicate events are documented.
• Modeled conversions are still labeled as modeled.
• The reconciliation rules can be reused in the next reporting period.