Data: Disconnected Data
Explore how gaps between customer, billing and finance systems can hide missed billing—and where to start investigating.
Article
Where Are You Losing Revenue? Fixing the Data Gaps That Hide Missed Billing
By Propella ·
A customer expands their service. A contract includes an annual price increase. An account is ready for billing.
But does the right information reach the right system?
When customer records, contract terms, billing and accounts sit in separate platforms, gaps can be difficult to spot. A change recorded by one team may never reach the next.
Those gaps can leave agreed charges unbilled or incorrectly billed—and make it harder for leadership to understand what is happening.
The blind spot between sales, billing and finance
Revenue leakage can occur when charges that should be billed or collected are missed in the handovers between systems and teams.
Sales may see an active customer. Billing may hold an outdated subscription. Finance may see the invoices that were raised, without a clear view of accounts that never reached the billing process.
Each department can have a reasonable view of its own work while the wider picture remains incomplete.
KPMG’s 2025 research into technology, media and telecommunications businesses identifies fragmented customer information, billing errors and timing issues among the challenges affecting revenue operations. It recommends integrating relevant systems and strengthening data ownership.
Source: KPMG, RevOps Redefined (opens in a new tab)
Disconnected software is only part of the problem
Connecting systems helps, but the information within them also needs to connect reliably.
The same customer might appear under different names across platforms. Old and duplicate accounts may remain active. Important contract terms may sit in notes that never feed into reporting.
Simply displaying that information in a dashboard will not resolve the underlying inconsistencies.
The first task is to establish which records belong together, which details can be trusted and which differences need investigation.
ACCA and KPMG’s Performance Reporting: An Eye on the Facts emphasises consistent data structures and governance as foundations for dependable reporting. Although published in 2015, these principles remain relevant to connecting business information.
Source: ACCA/KPMG, Performance Reporting: An Eye on the Facts (opens in a new tab)
What a connected customer picture makes possible
Bringing relevant records together helps the business compare what was agreed with what was billed.
This might reveal:
- An account that should be billed but has no matching billing record.
- A price increase that appears not to have reached an invoice.
- An additional service that is missing from recurring charges.
- A customer or subscription record that needs updating.
An exception does not automatically mean revenue has been lost. It provides a question to investigate.
Someone needs to establish whether the difference reflects a genuine billing issue, a valid commercial arrangement or inaccurate information—and take the appropriate action.
Project example
Missed billing uncovered through connected data
A project undertaken by a member of Propella’s team helped a B2B services business connect information held across Salesforce, Stripe, Xero and legacy payment environments.
The work addressed inconsistent customer records and unstructured contract information, then brought the data into a reporting approach using Google Sheets and Power BI.
It identified accounts that should have been billed but were not, representing tens of thousands of pounds in potential annual revenue. Reducing manual reconciliation also saved 18 hours per month.
The revenue figure represents an identified billing opportunity, rather than amounts confirmed as invoiced or collected.
Read how connected data uncovered missed billingMake the reporting usable
The reporting environment needs to work for the people responsible for investigating and resolving issues.
They should be able to understand where information comes from, how current it is and what an exception means. There also needs to be a clear way to maintain relevant inputs and follow up on discrepancies.
The right approach depends on the business’s systems, complexity and internal capabilities.
A useful starting point is a focused commercial question—such as whether every account that should be billed is reaching the billing process—supported by dependable information.
Is disconnected data costing your business?
Consider three questions:
- Can you reliably match customer records across your CRM, billing and accounting systems?
- Do legacy platforms or multiple payment accounts require regular manual reconciliation?
- Can you follow an account from the agreed service through to billing and payment?
Gaps in those answers are worth investigating. They may reveal billing issues, unnecessary manual work or information that needs improving.
Propella combines commercial finance expertise, data integration and clear reporting to help growing businesses understand and strengthen the processes behind their numbers.