Discrepancy Report

Overview 

Commerce Grid supports a standardized DSP discrepancy reporting process to investigate differences in metrics. 

This article explains how Commerce Grid validates submissions and communicates investigation outcomes.

Commercial value for DSPs and Publishers 

Discrepancies are a normal part of programmatic reporting. A standardized discrepancy intake and investigation process helps: 

• Protect revenue by enabling early detection of underbilling or overbilling 

• Build trust with DSPs and advertisers through transparent, consistent handling of reporting differences 

• Improve operational efficiency by reducing manual checks and repeated back-and-forth on formats, identifiers, and methodology 

• Set clear expectations on how discrepancies are handled and what outcomes are possible 

Reporting & Billing Data 

Commerce Grid reporting and DSP reporting systems are independent. 
They are used according to the contractual agreements between the parties. 

For Commerce Grid–managed supply, billing, payout, and IVT filtering are based on Commerce Grid logs. DSP-submitted reports may be used as supporting inputs during discrepancy investigations but do not override Commerce Grid reporting unless explicitly defined by contract. 

DSP-submitted reports support reporting system alignment, enabling early detection of discrepancies and improving overall reporting reliability. 

Billing and publisher payout are determined according to commercial agreements. Commerce Grid logs and DSP-reported data are used together during discrepancy investigations and validation. Any financial adjustments follow internal approval processes. 

When discrepancy reporting is used 

DSP-submitted reports are used by Commerce Grid teams to monitor and track discrepancies over time and to proactively identify potential issues before month-end close. 

This reporting process supports early detection of: 

• Persistent variance trends across days or reporting periods 

• Potential financial risk (under- or over-billing) 

• IVT classification differences 

• Technical or integration-related issues (e.g., identifiers, time zones, delivery logic) 

DSP reports are reviewed on an ongoing basis, rather than only in response to a single-day variance. 

How to submit a discrepancy report 

First, contact your Criteo representative to confirm the required report mapping. 
Once confirmed, send the discrepancy request by email with the supporting report attached to grid-dsp-reports@criteo.com.

Submission guidelines 

• One report file per email 

• Supported formats: CSV or XLSX 

Reporting frequency & data window 

• Reports should be submitted on an agreed reporting cadence (for example, daily (recommended) or weekly ), aligned with the commercial agreement. 

• The reporting period should include complete and finalized DSP data. 

• DSP data for very recent days (for example, the last few days) may still be subject to delays, corrections, or adjustments. 

• To ensure data completeness, the reported date range should either: 

• exclude incomplete periods, or 

• overlap recent, potentially incomplete days across consecutive submissions until data is finalized. 

• File naming convention: 
  
  Use a clear and consistent file name that includes: 

• DSP name 

• Reporting date or date range 

• Report type (e.g. revenue or IVT) 

• Time zone 

Example: 
DSPName_RevenueReport_2024-06-01_to_2024-06-07_UTC.csv 

DSP Spend Report- Format and Schema 

Supported file formats 

• CSV (.csv) — UTF-8 recommended 

• Excel (.xlsx) 

Data Requirements

Date format 

• The Date column must use the following format: 
  YYYY-MM-DD 
  Example: 2024-06-01 

Numeric values 

• The following columns must contain numeric values only: 
  Impressions, Spend, IVT Impressions, IVT Spend 

• Numeric fields must follow these rules: 

• no extra characters (for example, no spaces, currency symbols, or text comments) 

• no thousand separators (10000, not 10,000 or 10 000) 

• use a dot (.) as the decimal separator for fractional values (for example, 75.50, not 75,50) 

Identifiers 

• Values in the DSP Creative and Ads.txt Id columns must match the identifiers previously agreed between the DSP and Commerce Grid. 

• Consistent identifiers are required to ensure accurate data matching during investigation. 

File time zone constraint 

All rows in a single report file must use the same time zone. Mixed time zones are not allowed. 
If included, use standard IANA identifiers (e.g., UTC, Europe/Berlin, America/New_York). 

Example CSV 

Date,Ads.txt id,DSP Creative,Impressions,Spend,Deal Id,Creative Type,Media Type,Inventory Type,IVT Impressions,IVT Spend 
2024-06-01,1001,2001,15000,75.50,3001,Banner,Display,Web,1,2.00 
2024-06-01,1002,2002,25000,125.00,3002,Video,Video,App,3,6.00 

How the reconciliation process works 

Submission 

DSP sends a discrepancy email with the CSV/XLSX attachment to grid-dsp-reports@criteo.com. 

Intake & Validation 

Commerce Grid validates scope and checks the report format (columns, data types, time zone, identifiers). 
 

Why reporting discrepancies occur 

Typical causes include: 

Timing & Time Zones 

• Different report time zones (e.g., UTC vs local) 

• Data latency or late-arriving events 

Counting Methodology 

• Bid win vs ad render counting 

• Handling of partial or aborted loads 

Traffic Filtering 

• Differences in IVT detection 

• Post-bid filters applied by Commerce Grid 

Technical Factors 

• Request timeouts, network interruptions 

• Placement / GPID mapping inconsistencies