The Overview page of your event dashboard shows three financial figures under Payments: Paid, Revenue and Pending. The first two are often confused. Understanding the difference helps you accurately track your event's finances.
Paid
Paid represents the total amount that has been collected. These are payments that have been successfully processed through your payment gateway or confirmed as paid by invoice. This figure updates in real time as payments are received. Refunds don't reduce it.
Revenue
Revenue represents the actual earnings from your event.
It excludes:
Pending payments (e.g., unpaid invoices)
Registrations where the payment was skipped (payment method Ignored)
It includes:
Successfully paid registrations
Adjustments from refunds (refunds reduce revenue)
How revenue is calculated
Revenue is calculated differently depending on your setup:
If “Pass the Fourwaves service fees to participants” is enabled:
Revenue = Item totals − payment gateway fees
For standard payments:
Revenue = Total paid − payment gateway fees − service fees
In both cases, refunds are deducted.
Pending
Pending represents payments not received yet: invoices not marked as paid, and forwarded payments the participant hasn't completed.
Why the two numbers differ
The difference between Revenue and Paid typically comes from:
Refunds (reduce Revenue, but not Paid)
Fees (gateway fees are deducted from Revenue, and so are service fees unless you pass them to participants)
Service fees paid by participants (when you pass them to participants, they are included in Paid but not in Revenue)
Pending payments and skipped payments count in neither figure.
Example
If 10 participants register at $100 each:
6 pay by credit card
4 choose invoice (not yet paid)
Your dashboard may show:
Paid: $600
Revenue: slightly less than $600 (after fees, and adjusted for any refunds)
Pending: $400
Tracking unpaid invoices
To see which participants still owe payment:
Go to Registration > Registrations and filter by the Pending payment flag