Four numbers that all feel like "how much money did we make" are genuinely different things: sales (what you sold), payments (money that moved), revenue (value you delivered), and liabilities (value you still owe). Owneli keeps them in separate reports on purpose. Mixing them up is how businesses find a gift card shortfall at year end.
Why don't my sales and payments match?
Because selling and getting paid are different events that often happen on different days:
- A deposit is a payment today for a sale that completes next week.
- A pay-later sale is a sale today with the payment arriving later.
- A gift-card redemption is revenue today paid with money you received months ago.
- A package session is delivered today but was sold and paid for up front.
Each report answers one question honestly rather than blending them:
| Number | Report | The question |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Sales summary / Sales list | What did we sell this period, net of discounts and refunds? |
| Payments | Payments summary / Payment transactions | What money arrived, by tender, minus refunds and processor fees? |
| Cash position | Cash flow statement, Payouts | What hit the till and the bank, day by day? |
| Liabilities | Liability summary, Prepayment list | What have customers paid us for that we haven't delivered yet? |
| Liability movement | Liability activity, Deferred revenue & MRR | What moved those balances, and what's the trend? |
The deferred-revenue model
When a client pays up front, for a gift card, a package, a prepaid membership period or a deposit, that money is not revenue yet. It sits as a liability until you deliver:
Money arrives
The payment shows in Payments summary and Cash flow. The liability balance rises by the same amount.
You deliver the service
The redemption shows as revenue; the liability falls. Nothing new shows in Payments, because the money already arrived.
The reports stay honest
Sales tells you trading performance, Payments reconciles the bank, Liability summary tells you what you'd owe if everyone showed up tomorrow to redeem.
Reconciling the bank
To tie Owneli to a bank statement, use Payments summary for the tender totals, Payment transactions for row-by-row matching, Cash flow statement for the daily pattern, and Payouts for when Stripe settles card takings to your account (card money arrives in batches, not per sale).
If something goes wrong
Which single number is "our revenue this month"?
For trading performance, Sales summary net sales. For accounting revenue, it's sales minus new prepayments plus redemptions. The finance reports give your accountant each part rather than a blend.
Where do refunds show up?
Everywhere they truly belong: Refunds & voids for the events, as negatives in Payments summary for the money, and in the period when the refund happened, not the period of the sale.
Why is there both a Liability summary and a Liability activity report?
Summary is the balance (a snapshot of what's outstanding); activity is the movement (every sold/redeemed transaction in the period). Balance questions go to one, "what changed" questions to the other.