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Data & Intelligence

Revenue intelligence: follow the money from spend to revenue

Marketing reports leads, sales reports bookings, accounting reports revenue, and nobody can say which channel actually paid off. Revenue intelligence joins them: each lead traced from the click or call that started it, through the quote and the job, to the invoice that was paid. Then you can see where each channel leaks. We connect your marketing, sales and accounting records, and agree the attribution rule with you.
Talk through your revenueSee one invoice traced ↓
September leads, revenue to dateSpendLeadsBookedWonRevenuePer $1Search ads$6,200884126$25,400$4.10Referrals$0312419$21,900no spendMarketplace$3,90064186$5,100$1.31leaks after the quote

Everyone reports their part

The ad platform says it delivered 88 leads. The CRM says 41 were booked. Accounting says revenue was up. Each report is right, and none of them can tell you whether the marketplace is worth its $3,900, because nothing connects a lead to the invoice it became.

Revenue intelligence makes that connection once, for every lead, under one written rule for which channel gets the credit. Spend, pipeline and revenue then line up by channel, rep and service, and the place each channel loses people becomes visible.

Today, and with revenue intelligence

Today

  1. 01Each platform reports its own results, in its own terms.
  2. 02Leads are counted; revenue is counted; nothing joins them.
  3. 03Budget follows whichever channel reports the most leads.
  4. 04“Where did this customer come from?” has no recorded answer.

Spend goes to the channel with the best report, not the best results.

With revenue intelligence

  1. 01Every lead keeps its first source, through quote, job and invoice.
  2. 02One attribution rule, written down, applied to everyone.
  3. 03Spend, pipeline and revenue by channel, rep and service.
  4. 04Each channel shows the stage where it loses people.

Budget decisions start from revenue, not leads.

One invoice, traced to its first call

Every invoice can be followed back to where the customer started.

  1. invoice

    INV-2241 · $1,180, paid Sep 19

  2. job

    J-442 · water heater repair, completed Sep 5

  3. quote

    Q-212 · approved Sep 2

  4. opportunity

    OP-688 · E2, won Sep 2

  5. lead

    L-2190 · created Aug 30 from a call

  6. first touch

    call from a search ad · campaign “water heater repair”

Three ways to read it

  • Search adsbooked 41won 26
  • Referralsbooked 24won 19
  • Marketplacebooked 18won 6

How it counts

The rules are written down, so the numbers can be argued with, and fixed.

  1. One attribution rule

    Written down

    The first recorded source gets the credit, unless you choose another rule. Either way, everyone uses the same one.

  2. The time lag

    Revenue arrives later

    A lead from September may pay in November. Results are shown by the month the lead arrived, with revenue to date.

  3. Unknown sources counted

    Not hidden

    Leads with no recorded source appear as “unknown”, so gaps in tracking are visible.

  4. Net of refunds

    Money actually kept

    Credits and refunds come off the channel's revenue.

The parts it's built from

Each part is built and tested on its own, so you can start with one and add the rest.

  1. Collect

    Data Ingestion

    Ad spend, calls, forms, the CRM and accounting.

  2. Join

    Data Transformation · Data Modeling

    • leads with their first source
    • opportunities
    • jobs
    • invoices

    no recorded source → counted as unknown, never assigned

  3. Define

    Business Intelligence

    One attribution rule and agreed revenue.

Underneath every stepData Quality & ValidationChecks that spend and invoices arrived complete.

What changes from one business to the next

ChannelsWhich ad accounts, marketplaces and referral sources
Attribution ruleFirst source, last source or another rule you choose
ViewsBy channel, rep, service, location
PeriodBy lead month, with revenue to date, or by invoice month

A common starting point is PostgreSQL for the joined model, dbt for the rules, call tracking and ad platform exports as sources, and Metabase for the views. These are starting candidates, not requirements.

Is revenue intelligence the right system?

Good fit

  • You spend on more than one channel.
  • Leads, jobs and invoices live in different systems.
  • Budget decisions are made from lead counts today.

Avoid when

  • Nearly all work comes from one channel.
  • Leads aren't recorded with a source yet. Start with instrumentation and lead capture.

How we'd approach it

Most of the early work is listing the channels, writing the attribution rule down and agreeing the views and periods.

  1. 01

    Understand

    As much as the problem needs

    We map how the work runs today: who does what, which systems hold the records, and where it breaks.

  2. 02

    Design

    Decided before it's built

    Ownership, rules, integrations and exceptions, agreed with you and written down with acceptance criteria.

  3. 03

    Build

    Connected to what you use

    We build the scoped system, connect it to the tools you already run, and test it on the cases that matter.

Related systems

The capabilities underneath

Questions about revenue intelligence

Does it prove which channel works?

It shows what happened under a stated rule. It doesn't prove cause, and we say so on the page; tests, like pausing a channel, answer that.

What about calls?

Calls count as leads when call tracking records their source. Untracked calls appear as unknown.

How far back can it go?

As far as the systems can be joined. Often a year or two, with gaps marked where sources weren't recorded.

Can it include marketplace fees?

Yes. Any cost you can export by month and channel can sit beside the spend.

Find out which channels actually pay

Tell us where leads come from and how revenue is reported today. We'll show you where each channel leaks.

Start a project