Data quality and operational reporting controls

We stop bad data before it reaches the board. We install validation at the point of entry, reconciliations between systems, a data owner for each key field and exception reports that reach an owner each day.

The result is a control framework for reporting, sized to the group, with the tools and workflows that run it.

• A key-data register listing each critical field, its definition, its owner and its source.
• Validation rules for entry, such as required fields, formats and allowed values.
• Reconciliation checks between order, delivery, payment and ledger totals.
• A daily exception report with an owner and a clearing deadline.
• A data-quality scorecard presented monthly to the finance lead.
• A correction log recording what was changed, by whom, and why.

• Every key field has an owner and a rule.
• Exceptions are cleared inside the agreed deadline, measured as the share raised and cleared on time.
• Duplicate customer and product records fall away, and the count of duplicates shows it.
• Month-end reconciliation breaks drop, and the breaks are counted at each close.
• Fewer manual corrections reach board figures.

Most reporting errors are made upstream, in a missing field, a duplicate customer, an unposted delivery or a code used differently by two sites. By the time they reach a report they look like business performance and are acted on.

• Meetings begin with an argument over whose number is right.
• The same customer or product appears under several names.
• Delivery and order counts differ between systems at month end.
• Reports are corrected by hand each month and the corrections are not recorded.
• A lender or investor has queried figures you cannot easily trace.

Finance and operations leaders whose reports are questioned in meetings, groups preparing for a lender or investor review, and boards that want to know which numbers are safe to act on.

Qasim Abbas has answered for treasury above USD 50M at group level, where a reported figure counts when it traces back to its source. We build every control to that test, so the report your teams send up stands up line by line.

We install the controls in the systems and reporting tool the group already runs, through workflows built on your accounts. See how fees work.

Where do we start?

With the five figures the board relies on most. We trace each to its source and fix the controls where the trace breaks.

What do our auditors receive from this?

A key-data register and a correction log that show each figure's source and what was changed, by whom and why, so your auditors trace each key figure to its source.

What does the finance lead see each month?

A data-quality scorecard, with the share of exceptions cleared on time and the count of month-end reconciliation breaks.

Bring the last board pack to a private briefing. We trace a few of its figures live and show which controls catch the problem.