The leads and cables to the various power supplies, batteries and loads have resistance. The current meters also have series resistance. The charger dynamically reduces charge current depending on the voltage sensed at its VBUS pin (using the VINDPM feature), BAT pin (as part of normal termination), and TS pin (through its battery temperature monitoring feature via battery thermistor). Therefore, voltmeters must be used to measure the voltage as close to the IC pins as possible instead of relying on the digital readouts of the power supply. If a battery thermistor is not available, that shunts JP11 and JP13 are in place.
When using a source meter that can source and sink current as your battery simulator, TI highly recommends adding a large (>=1000+ μF) capacitor at the EVM BATTERY and GND connector in order to prevent oscillations at the BAT pin due to mismatched impedances of the charger output and source meter input within their respective regulation loop bandwidths. Configuring the source meter for 4-wire sensing eliminates the need for a separate voltmeter to measure the voltage at the BAT pin. When using 4-wire sensing, always ensure that the sensing leads are properly connected in order to prevent accidental overvoltage by the power leads.
For precise measurements of input and output current, especially near termination, the current meter in series with the battery or battery simulator should not be set to auto-range and may need to be removed entirely. An alternate method for measuring charge current is to either use an oscilloscope with hall effect current probe or by a differential voltage measurement across the relevant sensing resistors populated on the BQ2526xEVM.