In some situations, customers may notice a small variance between:
the Supplier Invoice total inside LiveCosts
andthe final invoice total after syncing into Sage
This most commonly occurs on invoices containing:
very small unit prices
high quantities
usage-based billing
meter/copier charges
or high-precision pricing structures
Why This Happens
LiveCosts can calculate invoice line values using higher precision unit prices before applying final rounding.
However, Sage may:
round unit prices to 2 decimal places
recalculate line totals independently
and then apply VAT/tax rounding afterwards
This can create small differences between:
LiveCosts totals
Sage totals
and VAT values
Example
Original Supplier Invoice / LiveCosts
Unit Price | Quantity | Calculated Total |
0.00608 | 804 | 4.89 |
LiveCosts calculates using the full precision value:
0.00608 × 804 = 4.88832
which rounds to:
4.89
What May Happen in Sage
If Sage rounds the unit price to:
0.01
before recalculating:
0.01 × 804 = 8.04
This can create a significant variance between:
the original supplier invoice
the LiveCosts invoice
and the Sage invoice
Important Clarification
This is not usually a LiveCosts calculation issue.
The variance is typically caused by:
Sage applying its own decimal precision limitations
unit-price rounding during import
line-total recalculations
and downstream VAT/tax recalculations
Why This Is More Common on Certain Invoice Types
This behaviour is most noticeable on:
copier/meter invoices
utilities
fuel usage
usage-based billing
stock/unit consumption charges
invoices containing extremely small unit rates
because small unit-price rounding differences become amplified across large quantities.
Recommended Best Practice
To minimise rounding discrepancies between LiveCosts and Sage:
Recommended:
keep invoice structures as close to the original supplier invoice as possible
minimise manual line splitting/restructuring
avoid unnecessary unit-price adjustments
review high-precision invoices before syncing
Be Aware:
If Sage only supports/imports:
2 decimal place unit prices
then very small/high-precision rates may not reconcile exactly after sync.
Summary
Operationally:
LiveCosts calculates using the full precision values entered
Sage may round unit prices during sync/import
Sage then recalculates line totals and VAT independently
resulting in potential invoice variances
This behaviour is expected when syncing invoices containing:
high-precision unit pricing
very small rates
and large quantities.