How much revenue did I collect?
Revenue on your books and revenue in your bank account are two different numbers. Here's how to find what you actually collected, step by step.
The short answer
How much revenue did you collect?You need your Profit and Loss report filtered to the current period. The “Total Income” line in QuickBooks (or “Total Revenue” in Xero) shows what hit your books. If you use accrual accounting, that number includes invoices you sent but haven't been paid for yet. Below, we'll show you how to find both numbers.
Why knowing your collected revenue matters more than you think
You sent out $110,000 in invoices last month. Your P&L says $110K in revenue. Feels like a strong month. But when you check your bank account, only $74,000 actually came in. The rest is sitting in accounts receivable, with $18K of it already past 30 days.
Revenue that hasn't been collected isn't money you can spend. You can't make payroll with an unpaid invoice. You can't pay your vendors with revenue that exists only on paper. The gap between invoiced revenue and collected revenue is one of the most common reasons small businesses run into cash crunches even when their top line looks healthy.
Understanding your actual collected revenue forces you to confront whether your customers are paying on time and whether your cash flow can support your obligations.
What collected revenue actually means for your business
There are two ways accounting software tracks revenue, and they give you different answers:
- Accrual basis: Revenue is recorded when you send the invoice, regardless of when (or if) the customer pays. This is what most P&L reports show by default.
- Cash basis: Revenue is recorded only when money actually hits your bank account. This tells you what you collected.
- The delta: The difference between accrual revenue and cash revenue is your uncollected receivables. If this gap is growing, it means customers are taking longer to pay or not paying at all.
To get the full picture, you want both numbers: what you invoiced (accrual) and what you collected (cash). Your accounting software can show you both.
How to find your collected revenue in QuickBooks Online (5 steps)
QuickBooks can show your revenue on both an accrual and cash basis. Here's how to pull both:
- 1Open the Profit and Loss report
From the left sidebar, click Reports. Search for “Profit and Loss” and open it.
- 2Set your date range
At the top, set the date range to the period you want (e.g. “April 1 - April 30, 2026”). Click Run report.
- 3Note your accrual revenue
By default, QuickBooks shows the report on an accrual basis. The Total Income line at the top is your invoiced revenue. Write this number down.
- 4Switch to cash basis
At the top of the report, find the Accounting method dropdown (or toggle). Switch it from “Accrual” to “Cash.” Click Run report again.
- 5Compare the two numbers
The Total Incomeon the cash basis report is what you actually collected. The difference between accrual Total Income and cash Total Income is revenue you invoiced but haven't received yet.
Total time: about 4 minutes. You are running the same report twice with one toggle change. The key insight is the gap between the two numbers.
How to find your collected revenue in Xero (4 steps)
Xero also lets you toggle between accrual and cash basis on its Profit and Loss report:
- 1Go to Accounting → Reports
From the top menu, click Accounting, then Reports. Select “Profit and Loss” under Financial Statements.
- 2Set the date range and check accrual revenue
Pick the current month. By default Xero shows accrual basis. Note the Total Revenue figure. Click Update.
- 3Switch to cash basis
In the report options, change the basis from “Accrual” to “Cash.” Click Update again. The new Total Revenue is your collected revenue.
- 4Calculate the gap
Subtract cash-basis revenue from accrual-basis revenue. This is the total uncollected amount for the period. If this gap is larger than usual, check your Aged Receivables report under Accounting → Reports to see which invoices are outstanding.
Total time: about 4 minutes. Xero makes the cash/accrual switch straightforward. The Aged Receivables follow-up adds another 2 minutes if you need it.
What it takes to track collected revenue every month
If you commit to checking this on the first of every month, here is what you are signing up for:
- 4-6 minutes to pull the P&L twice (accrual and cash) and compare the numbers.
- Another 5 minutes to cross-reference the Aged Receivables report if the gap is significant.
- A spreadsheet if you want to track the collection rate month over month and spot trends.
- Discipline to remember. This is a simple check, but it is easy to skip when you are busy. The months you skip are often the months the gap widens.
Or get your collected revenue automatically, every month
Bottomline connects to your QuickBooks or Xero account once. On the first of every month, it pulls both your invoiced and collected revenue and shows you the gap in plain language:
Beyond the numbers your P&L gives you, Bottomline also cross-references your CRM data to flag clients with overdue balances who also have open deals in your pipeline. That context helps you decide whether to follow up on collection or prioritize the relationship.