Your numbers, explained in a minute.

The figure as the board sees it: 1,284 active customers at 30 September.

board_pack_2026_09.pdf  p.3
source: dashboard "Board summary" / tile "Active customers"

The dashboard tile shows whatever the Customer summary report says and does no counting of its own.

dashboards/board.yml:12
  tile: active_customers
  query: reports.customer_summary.active

The report counts every account whose status is "open". The sales dashboard uses a different report that also checks for unpaid invoices.

-- reports/customer_summary.sql:41
select count(*) as active
from analytics.customer_status
where status = 'open';

An account paused for unpaid invoices keeps the status "open", and that is where the two figures split. 44 accounts are paused today.

-- models/customer_status.sql:18
case
  when closed_at is not null then 'closed'
  else 'open'          -- paused_at is ignored
end as status

The billing system pauses an account after 30 days unpaid but never closes it, so paused accounts stay "open" in every layer above.

// billing/accounts.ts:88
if (daysOverdue(account) > 30) {
  account.pausedAt = now();   // never sets closedAt
}