If your Sales, Finance, and Payout reports show different numbers for the same period, nothing is broken — they're measuring different things over different timeframes. Each is built for a specific purpose, and knowing which to use for which question makes the differences make sense. For the full map of report families, start with the Reports overview.
In this article
Sales reports — revenue created or occurring
Sales reports show revenue created or occurring in a period, which suits accrual accounting (revenue recognized when the service is delivered). You can run them two ways:
- By date created — trips created in the period. Use this to tie revenue to marketing activity: a paid campaign that generated bookings shows up here, even if the tour runs months later or isn't fully paid yet.
- By activity date — trips whose activity occurred in the period. Use this for accrual: revenue earned for the period, even if payments came in earlier.
Finance reports — money changing hands
Finance reports show when payments and refunds happen, regardless of when the activity runs or when funds reach your bank. They're for cash-flow and payment analysis. If your business takes deposits or partial payments, money for a single sale can arrive across many weeks — so a Finance report won't line up with a Sales report for the same dates. Cash, checks, wire transfers, and reseller payments also appear here but not on a Payout report.
Payout reports — deposits to your bank
Payout reports show the deposits TripWorks makes to your bank account. A payout is a batch of transactions from a few days earlier, so totals won't match Finance or Sales reports for the same period. Common reasons:
- Timing. There's typically a 2–3 day gap between a payment and its deposit, and payouts don't run on weekends or major holidays. So the first payout in a period includes payments from before that period.
- Payment types. Payouts don't include cash, checks, wire transfers, reseller payments made directly to you, or gift-card redemptions. TripWorks lets you record those, but the funds are handled outside the payout.
- Adjustments. Payouts can be increased by service credits or reduced by debits like chargeback fees or hardware purchases. Expand an individual payout to see these itemized.
See Using the payout report for how to read one.
The short version
- Want revenue you booked? Sales report.
- Want cash that moved? Finance report.
- Want what hit your bank? Payout report.
They rarely match — and that's by design.
Frequently asked questions
Is a mismatch a sign of an error?
No. Sales, Finance, and Payout reports measure different things over different timeframes, so their totals are expected to differ.
Which report should I give my accountant?
It depends on your accounting method. Accrual accounting generally uses Sales reports (by activity date); cash-basis and cash-flow work uses Finance and Payout reports. When in doubt, share the Reports overview with them.
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