Puzzling Results

Although I think web analytics are an amazing thing, every so often users in large companies find conflicting results with two types of software. There are usually good reasons such as reporting two different time periods or excluding certain things or often the software has been configured differently. A recent post to an online forum is typical of the frustration shared by a few users

"We have XXXX on one of our sites and we were suspicious of the numbers so we put Google Analytics on it as well. I expected discrepancies in the total numbers, but they trend differently too and that I can't figure out.

For example, using a basic metric like "visits" I find that between day X and day Y our XXXXXwill report we got fewer visits and GA will report we got more visits.Can anyone tell me how something basic like visits can be counted so differently between two reporting suites? "

Indeed Google have answered that question see their answer by clicking HERE