Bookkeeping & Reconciling Revenues/Costs from Different Timezones (6)

Hi guys,

Was wondering what you do for bookkeeping? Looking for a more streamlined solution other than the simple 5 column excel sheet I'm using now:



Also the way I ensure accuracy is by using the revenue from the network stats and costs from the traffic source stats (not the tracker, that's just for making decisions and the campaign cockpit for me)

However another thing is my tracker, affiliate network, and traffic source are in different timezones so right now I've just been using their dates on displa but it's really not 100% accurate, so the data for a certain period can certainly be wonky on my spreadsheet and as I spend/earn more I need the data for the same amount of time.

Anyone know how how (have a easy spreadsheet/macro/program etc) that can reconcile this issue?

I've taken two accounting course in university and we never learnt different timezone stuff, so no clue how to do this in a simple way. I'm sure I can do this manually but it'll take too long.

Helpful answers are appreciated, cheers guys.

Interesting question.

I imagine this is infrequently discussed because in the grand scheme of things, the timezone differences would offset each other.

If your revenue is reported in EST, and your spend in PST - the revenue would get a 3 hour head-start on the next day (12am EST/9pm PST), but this is offset by the fact that at the end of the day, its reporting will also end 3 hours before the spend does. The opposite holds true for the reported spend, where it gets a 3 hour break at the start of the next day, but then accrues spend for an additional 3 hours at the end of the day. As these differences offset each other, your day-to-day reported profits would still be accurate.

I can only envision this being an issue if you have an irregular revenue/spend pattern during these hours. Even then though, the changes should offset each other by the next day.

Keeping the timezone as-is makes sense, especially since it will ensure that your books and the invoiced amounts are in alignment.

Originally Posted by Traffic Armor

Interesting question.

I imagine this is infrequently discussed because in the grand scheme of things, the timezone differences would offset each other.

If your revenue is reported in EST, and your spend in PST - the revenue would get a 3 hour head-start on the next day (12am EST/9pm PST), but this is offset by the fact that at the end of the day, its reporting will also end 3 hours before the spend does. The opposite holds true for the reported spend, where it gets a 3 hour break at the start of the next day, but then accrues spend for an additional 3 hours at the end of the day. As these differences offset each other, your day-to-day reported profits would still be accurate.

I can only envision this being an issue if you have an irregular revenue/spend pattern during these hours. Even then though, the changes should offset each other by the next day.

Keeping the timezone as-is makes sense, especially since it will ensure that your books and the invoiced amounts are in alignment.

For accounting purposes, I don't care about timezones at all ... I always go by date and submit all paperwork to my accountant so she can take care of it.

So even if I make a payment to some traffic source, for example, on the 1st, but they are still "in the previous month" ... I still use the date on the invoice they issue for me and my accountant put's it in the previous month.

For accounting/tax-reporting purposes, timezones don't matter much, as long as every revenue and expense is tracked.

For campaign optimization purposes, that's what the tracker is for: both revenues and approximate costs are shown in the timezone of your choice, so everything is "synced up".



Amy

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One good thing about the tracking platforms we use is that usually we track conversions from the affiliate network to our tracker based on an unique id like ClickID.

As such, by having conversions tracked by this parameter, we have a time stamp on our tracker that will report the date and time of the conversion on the time zone that mostly suits our needs.

I would mostly care about how accurately these stats are being kept for our campaigns optimization and management propose, since optimizing on inaccurate stats will have a direct impact on results.

That being said, in terms of stats accuracy, traffic source and tracker have the biggest impact on results and where you should focus mostly.