How every figure is tied to its source before a report goes out

A CFO receives the report going to the board. The operating income in it does not match the balance sheet that accounting sent over. Someone asks where the figure came from, and the answer takes a while, because it went through a spreadsheet, a manual adjustment and an email before it reached the report.

Margin works the same way. Sales calculates it on list price, finance on sales net of discounts and returns, and the plant on standard cost. All three figures are called margin and each one measures something different. The report shows one of them and does not say which.

XPTNova’s analyses and its DataNova platform start from the same rule. Every figure that reaches a report says where it came from, and anyone other than the person who wrote it can get to that source without asking around.

Seven letters for seven origins

In every XPTNova analysis, each figure carries a letter that says where it comes from. Each letter requires citing whatever that kind of source lets someone check.

• L for ledger. The figure comes from an account in the client’s accounting ledger, for a closed period.
• F for financial file. It comes from the client’s own financial model or file, citing the sheet and the cell.
• R for record. It comes from a system, an export or a document such as an invoice, a contract or meeting minutes, citing which one and for what period.
• A for arithmetic. It is a calculation on other figures, citing the figures that go into it.
• E for interview. A person said it, citing their name, their role and the point in the conversation where they said it.
• S for assumption. It is stated as an assumption, along with how much the result changes if the assumption does not hold.
• M for market. It is a figure published by a third party, cited with its date and never presented as a promise.

The letter changes how a figure is read. An E on monthly order volume signals that the number is an estimate from the person who does the work. For volume, delay and effort, the system’s measurement governs when it exists, and the interview fills in what is not measured.

The interview, on the other hand, governs what only people know, such as where a process hurts, how a system is really used or who owns a task.

The source goes on the same line

Beyond the letter, every statement in the analysis carries its source on the same line where it is written. A source attached to the sentence travels with it when the sentence moves to another chapter, a presentation or the final report.

The source is written with a precise locator. For a document, the analysis cites the document and the place where the data appears. For an interview, it cites the conversation, the turn in which it was said, and the name and role of the person speaking.

When three departments give three definitions of the same data point, the analysis keeps all three, each with its source. Picking one while writing would erase the difference, and the difference is often the finding, as with margin. Which definition governs is decided separately, with the client, and the decision is written down along with who made it.

A model describes a document. A person asserts a fact.

Artificial intelligence tools help read and summarize documents. The statement that something is true about the company is made by a person on the team, and it keeps its source.

A citation that does not resolve blocks publication

The analysis is written by hand, as text. The client’s knowledge index, with every fact, every figure and its source, is built automatically from that text.

That index is never edited by hand. To correct a fact, the text is corrected and the index is rebuilt. That way there are never two versions of the same data point, one in the document and another in a database someone adjusted on their own.

Before anything is published, a verifier goes through every citation and checks that it leads to the document, the sheet or the interview it names. If a citation does not resolve, the analysis is not published until it is fixed.

In DataNova, every figure opens down to its document

DataNova is the data platform XPTNova implements at each company. It applies the same rule to the work that repeats every month, such as the board report, the month-end close and the reconciliations. Every data point in the company’s model knows which system or document it came from.

Whoever reads the report can open any figure and reach the record or document behind it. If the operating income in the report does not match the balance sheet, the question of where it came from is answered right there.

When two sources disagree about the same data point, DataNova flags it before the report goes out. The difference goes to the person who resolves it, and what that person decides is recorded under their name.

The decisions the client makes during the analysis about which source governs are carried into DataNova as source priority rules, and the platform applies them whenever those sources differ again.

What changes for whoever receives the report

For the CFO or the board member, the question of where a figure came from no longer depends on the memory of whoever put the report together.

Differences between sources show up before the board meeting, while there is still time to resolve them and decide which figure to present.