Why festival gross and bank deposits disagree

Every regional festival season, someone asks why the live-ops “gross” slide does not match the bank. The gap is rarely fraud; it is usually timing and classification.

Refund lag

Players refund after the festival ends. Live-ops may freeze the campaign chart on the last event day; finance absorbs refunds in the following settlement cycle.

Fee and tax timing

Some storefronts withhold taxes and fees before remittance; others show gross then deduct. Mixing the two in one board pack creates phantom growth.

FX on multi-currency titles

A USD settlement converted at month-end will not match daily MYR management accounts. Document the rate source before arguing about performance.

Offer-wall mislabels

Credits from offer walls sometimes land in the same analytics events as IAP. Finance books them differently. Reconstruction must separate the streams before anyone “optimizes” the festival.

If your next festival needs a bridge memo, consider a Monetization Integrity Audit scoped to the event window plus trailing refunds.