25 examples of revenue leakage

In practice, revenue leakage almost always looks harmless: a deal that never reaches invoicing, a discount that keeps running, additional work that is not recorded anywhere, an indexation that is forgotten. Below are 25 concrete examples from B2B, grouped by where in the revenue chain they arise, each with how to find it. None of these examples requires fraud or a broken system. They all arise in ordinary handovers that do not quite close.

Use the list as a checklist: work through it and cross off what cannot happen in your company. What remains is your list of places to look. For the background, see the complete guide to revenue leakage.

From sale to invoicing

1. Won deal without an invoice. The deal is marked as won in the CRM, but the customer was never set up in invoicing. Find it by putting all won deals next to the invoices and looking for deals with no first invoice within the normal period.

2. Product line not carried over. The deal includes a licence, implementation and training. The invoice shows only the licence and implementation. Find it by comparing at product level, not just on the total amount.

3. Late start of invoicing. The contract starts on 1 March, the first invoice covers May, because the customer was only set up in the administration in April. March and April are never invoiced. Find it by comparing the start date in the contract or deal with the period on the first invoice.

4. Expansion during negotiation not passed on. In the final week the customer adds two extra modules. The CRM is updated, but the email to finance had already gone. Find it by comparing the latest version of the deal with the invoice. More on this type of leak in revenue leakage between CRM and billing.

5. One-off charges forgotten. Installation, implementation or onboarding fees that were in the quote, but only the recurring component was set up. Find it by looking for deals with a one-off component and no matching one-off invoice line.

Prices and discounts

6. Old price list. An item in invoicing still carries the price from two years ago, because the price change was only made in the quoting tool. Find it by comparing prices in the item master with the current price list.

7. Discount without an end date. A 15 percent introductory discount for the first year was entered as a permanent discount and has been running for three years. Find it by comparing all active discounts with the agreement in the contract or deal. See revenue leakage from wrong prices.

8. Discount above policy. A salesperson gave 25 percent when the maximum is 15 percent, without approval. Find it by comparing discounts per deal with your discount policy.

9. Wrong volume tier. The customer is above 100 units and falls into a tier with a surcharge for extra support, but is invoiced at the lower tier. Find it by comparing invoiced quantities with the tier thresholds in the contract.

10. Customer-specific price that no longer applies. A keen price agreed for a single large project is used for every subsequent order from that customer. Find it by checking customer prices against the term or conditions of the agreement.

Indexation and contract terms

11. Indexation not applied. The contract specifies annual indexation on 1 January. The rate has been unchanged for three years. Find it by comparing the rate on the latest invoice with the rate a year earlier, for every customer with an indexation clause. See revenue leakage from missed price indexation.

12. Wrong index. The contract refers to a wage index from a collective agreement, the administration applies a lower fixed percentage. Find it by comparing the index used with the clause.

13. Minimum commitment not invoiced. The customer agreed a minimum of EUR 3,000 a month and buys EUR 2,200. The difference is never charged. Find it by comparing actual volume per period with the contractual minimum.

14. Expired contract on old terms. The contract ended two years ago and carries on silently at a rate well below the current price list. Find it by monitoring end dates and flagging expired contracts. More in revenue leakage from expired contracts.

15. Notice period not enforced. A customer cancels with one month's notice, while the contract says three months. The last two months are not invoiced. Find it by comparing cancellations with the contractual notice period.

Delivery, hours and quantities

16. Additional work not invoiced. Agreed on site, carried out, not recorded as additional work. Find it by comparing hours or materials for additional work in the project administration with invoices for additional work.

17. Billable hours booked as internal. A consultant books hours to an internal project because the client project is closed. Find it by analysing internal hours per employee for peaks that coincide with client work.

18. More users than invoiced. The customer has 58 active users, invoicing is set to 45. Find it by comparing active users or workstations in the management or product system with invoiced quantities.

19. Recharged third-party licences. You buy licences for a customer and recharge them. The customer has been given more, the recharge has not been adjusted. Find it by comparing purchases per customer with recharges.

20. Partial delivery not invoiced. An order is delivered in three parts, and there are two invoices. Find it by comparing deliveries per order with invoice lines per order.

21. Wrong subscription. The customer uses features from the higher plan but is on the lower one. Find it by comparing usage with the plan's entitlements. See revenue leakage from wrong subscriptions.

After the invoice

22. Short payments written off. The customer consistently pays slightly less than the invoice amount. The differences are written off periodically. Find it by analysing write-offs per customer.

23. Credit note without justification. A complaint is settled with a 20 percent credit note, without anyone testing whether the complaint was justified or proportionate. Find it by analysing credit notes by reason, amount and who raised them.

24. Costs not recharged. Travel costs, shipping costs or rush surcharges that the terms say are recharged to the customer, but never reach the invoice. Find it by comparing costs incurred per customer with costs recharged.

Data

25. Invoice on the wrong record. A customer is in the CRM three times. The expansion was recorded on one record, invoicing runs through another, and nobody sees that the expansion was never invoiced. Find it by tracking down and merging duplicate customer records, then running the checks again. See revenue leakage from data problems.

Worked example: how it adds up

Worked example: suppose a business services company with EUR 7 million in revenue finds five of these patterns in a first check.

Together EUR 78,200, of which EUR 51,200 is recurring. The counts and amounts are assumptions for the example. It shows that a few small patterns together make an amount that matters at board level. How to put a figure on each one is set out in how to calculate revenue leakage.

How to use this list

1. Cross off what cannot happen in your business model.
2. Mark the examples you suspect are happening.
3. Pick the five with the largest potential impact.
4. Run the check for each example, on a sample or on all customers.
5. Put an amount on every finding, one-off or per year.
6. Find the cause of each finding: which handover did not close, and how do you stop it happening again?

Eight of these patterns are worked out, with what they cost and how to find them, on the use cases page.

Frequently asked questions

Which example is most common?

It differs by business model. Won deals with no invoice or an incomplete one, missed indexation and unbilled additional work occur in many B2B companies. Which is largest in yours only becomes clear once you measure.

Are these all employee errors?

No. Most arise because processes do not close: a field that is not mandatory, a date that is in no system, a handover by email. The solution therefore lies mainly in the process, not with the person. More on this in revenue leakage from manual administration.

Can I run these checks myself in Excel?

For a one-off sample, yes. On an ongoing basis it becomes laborious, because you have to export and connect the data again every month. At that point it pays to automate the checks.

Should I always recover missed revenue from the customer?

Not always. Decide case by case what the contract allows and what the relationship can bear. The most important thing is that it is right from now on.