The Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM) requires, “that the results of a measurement have been corrected for all recognised significant systematic effects and that every effort has been made to identify such effects”, before the issue of evaluating their uncertainty is tackled. In addition, the GUM also requires that a model is used, expressing the functional dependence of the measurand on identified input quantities. The paper discusses the inter-relations between the so-defined two sets of influence quantities and proposes to unify their treatment.