One revenue number you can trust, read straight from the source

Squad reads revenue directly from where your money actually lands — Stripe, Tap Payments, PayPal, Paddle or your store — and turns it into a measured outcome with a guardrail. The connections are read-only, so nothing can move money, and every figure in the monthly report traces back to the system it came from.

Why one number, and why from the source?

Many small businesses have several versions of “revenue”: the figure in the store dashboard, the one in the payment provider, the one in a spreadsheet someone updates on Fridays. They rarely agree, and when they disagree nobody is sure which one to believe.

A measured outcome in Squad is a number read from a connected system, not typed in and not reported by the AI. Pick the source that is closest to the money, define the number once, and every report uses the same definition.

What do you need before you start?

• Where the money lands. Stripe, Tap Payments, PayPal or Paddle — or your store, such as Shopify or Salla.
• A definition. Gross sales, or sales net of refunds? One currency or several? Decide once and write it down.
• Your accountant. The report is something to review with them, not a replacement for them.

How does it work, step by step?

1. Connect read-only. Squad reads payments, refunds and orders. It can’t charge, refund or pay anyone.
2. Define the number and the window. For example: monthly revenue net of refunds, read from Stripe, with a target and a window of 30 to 90 days.
3. Add a guardrail metric. A number that must not get worse while revenue grows: a refund rate that stays under a level you set, or a margin floor you set, such as 30%. Revenue that grows by giving away margin isn’t the result you asked for.
4. Meet the team. A Bookkeeper compares sources — orders in the store against payments received — and flags gaps. A Financial Planning Analyst explains what moved the number and what is likely to move it next.
5. Approve the credit estimate. You see the estimated credit cost before the work starts.
6. Read the monthly results report and take it to your accountant.

How is spending controlled?

Three layers keep costs predictable:

• Budget. Spending outside your plan’s credits is $0 until you set a budget.
• Credits. Each piece of work shows an estimated credit cost before it starts. Spend is paced, and work pauses when credits reach zero instead of spending silently. A per-company spending cap sets the ceiling.
• Deep-work cap. Finance analysis is deep work, so it gets a larger per-task credit cap — and Squad asks before continuing past it.

Plan prices and credit amounts are on the pricing page.

What stays in your hands?

Everything that touches money. The connections are read-only: no refunds, no payouts, no price changes, no invoices sent on your behalf. If you later want the team to act on what it finds — say, adjust prices — that is a separate decision, with its own approval. See price changes with a margin guardrail.

How do you know the number is right?

Every figure in the report traces back to its source. When two sources disagree — an order the store marked paid with no matching payment, say — the report doesn’t pick one quietly. The item is marked “needs your check” and explained in plain words.

That is the point of reading from the source: you can always open Stripe, your store or your payment provider and see the same number yourself.

Where it stops

• Not an accountant. Squad doesn’t give tax or financial advice and doesn’t file anything. Review the report with your accountant.
• No money moves. Read-only, from the first connection to the last report.
• No silent estimates. If part of your revenue isn’t in any connected system — cash sales, a marketplace you can’t connect — Squad says what’s missing instead of filling the gap. Any system with an API can be connected through a custom API connection.

See more about finance work on the finance solution page, or read how Squad keeps your data secure.