Skip to main content

Reconciliation & Match Rate

This is the promise that makes Signal Sparrow different: our numbers always add up to your real Stripe revenue — down to the cent. No inflated figures, no black box.

What "reconciled" means​

For any period, your revenue splits into just two buckets:

Attributed (traced to a source) + Direct/Unknown (couldn't be traced) = your net Stripe MRR

Because the two buckets always sum to what's actually in Stripe, you can trust the totals. If they ever drifted apart, that would be a data problem — and Signal Sparrow flags it rather than hiding it.

A worked example​

BucketAmount
Attributed to campaigns$42,180
Direct / Unknown$6,920
Total (matches Stripe)$49,100

What match rate is​

Match rate is the share of your revenue that Signal Sparrow could trace back to a marketing source:

Match rate = Attributed ÷ Total

In the example above, that's $42,180 ÷ $49,100 = about 86%. It's shown right on your dashboard so you always know how complete the picture is. (For a plain-English recap, see Key Concepts.)

Why some revenue is "Direct/Unknown"​

A sale lands in Direct/Unknown when there was no trail to follow. Common reasons:

  • The customer was never identified (no email link between visit and payment).
  • They arrived through a channel with no click ID or UTM — e.g. typed your URL, or an untagged link.
  • Their browser blocked all tracking.
  • The purchase happened offline or through a route the SDK never saw.

A little Direct/Unknown is completely normal. A lot of it usually means there's an easy win available.

How to raise your match rate​

1. Identify users at signup and login   → the biggest lever
2. Set up a first-party tracking domain  → fewer visits lost to blockers
3. Add UTM tags to your own links        → labels email, social, partnerships
Give it time, too

Match rate climbs naturally as more identified visitors turn into paying customers. Day one will look low — that's expected.