Where revenue leaks: 12 places to look this quarter
Most companies lose a slice of revenue they already earned. It hides in prices, discounts, contracts and billing. Here are twelve places to look, and the data that shows each one.
Revenue leakage is money you earned but never collected. Nobody steals it. It slips out through a price that was never updated, a discount that outlived its deal, or a delivery that was never billed.
The good news is that leakage leaves tracks in data you already own. The twelve places below are where we look first. Each comes with the question to ask and the data that answers it.
Pricing
1. Prices that never moved
List prices change; the prices in old contracts and customer masters often don't. Compare the price charged on each invoice line with the current price list and the contract price. Lines billed below both are the first lead.
2. Discounts that outlived the deal
A launch discount, a volume tier, a one-off concession. Many are set up with no end date. Look for discounts still applied after the period, quantity or campaign they were agreed for.
3. Manual price overrides
Every system lets someone type over a price. Count overrides by user, customer and product. A small number of people usually account for most of the value, and that is where the conversation starts.
Contracts
4. Escalation clauses nobody applied
Annual uplifts tied to an index or a fixed percentage are easy to agree and easy to forget. Match contract terms against billed rates, year by year.
5. Minimum commitments not invoiced
Take-or-pay and minimum-volume clauses only pay if someone raises the shortfall invoice at the end of the period.
6. Rebates paid on the wrong basis
Rebates calculated on gross instead of net sales, or on volumes that include returns, overpay quietly for years. See Gross-to-net: why every deduction deserves a second look.
Billing
7. Delivered but not billed
Match deliveries, service tickets or time sheets against invoices. Anything delivered with no invoice behind it is revenue waiting to be raised.
8. Billed but not collected
Short payments written off as too small to chase add up. Group them by customer and reason code.
9. Credit notes without a cause
Credit notes should trace to a return, a dispute or a price correction. The ones that trace to nothing deserve a second look.
Operations
10. Free goods and samples
Free-of-charge shipments are normal. Free-of-charge shipments that grow faster than sales are not.
11. Charges you could pass on
Delivery, handling and expedite charges that the contract lets you recover, but nobody did.
12. Duplicate customers
The same customer under two codes can get two sets of discounts and two credit limits.
How to start
Pick the three areas closest to your biggest revenue streams. Pull twelve months of invoice lines, the price list and the contract register. You don't need a project to find the first number; you need the data in one place and the questions above.
| Area | Data you need | First test |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Invoice lines, price lists | Billed price against list and contract price |
| Contracts | Contract register, invoices | Escalations and minimums applied on time |
| Billing | Deliveries, invoices, credit notes | Delivered but not billed; credit notes without a cause |
When we run this as a revenue leakage scan, every finding comes with a value, an owner and the transactions behind it, so the conversation moves straight to recovery.