Trusting your numbers

A report loses credibility once, permanently. Somebody quotes a figure, somebody else contradicts it from the ERP, and from then on every number from the shop gets a raised eyebrow. These are the drifts worth knowing about before that happens. They apply to a spreadsheet built from a CSV export today as much as to a dashboard later.

Know how old the number is

Per-account metrics are calculated on a schedule rather than live. Each organization_metrics record carries computed_at, when it was calculated, and orders_as_of, how far the order data it read reached. The organization's Orders tab shows Last order as a relative time and flags it as stale once it is older than 180 days. An organization whose figures have not been computed yet says No figures computed yet rather than showing zeros.

When Analytics Studio ships, expect the same discipline to apply to widgets: a widget runs its query when opened and does not run it again until refreshed. Two people opening the same board an hour apart can legitimately see different numbers. Until then, the equivalent is the timestamp on your export file. Put it in the file name.

Know what the number is built on

Before a number leaves the Cockpit, into a slide, a mail or a meeting, be able to say where it came from. Today there are three sources, and they do not always agree:

The first two can differ by the recalculation lag. Either can differ from the ERP by the four definitions in Agree what counts as an order.

Watch the period boundaries

Two things move quietly:

Time zone. An order placed late on the last evening of a month can land on either side of the boundary depending on which time zone the export or report uses. It affects a handful of orders, which is exactly why nobody finds it: never big enough to investigate, never small enough to reconcile.

Partial and unequal periods. A month-to-date figure next to a full month always looks like a collapse; February always looks worse than January. See Currency, time zones and periods.

Watch for truncation

Every export has a row limit, and hitting it does not raise an error. It quietly returns fewer rows.

The tell is a row count that is exactly round. If your export has precisely 1,000 or 10,000 rows, assume it is truncated until you prove otherwise. Page through, or narrow the date range and export twice.

Watch for definition drift

The expensive failure is not a wrong number. It is two right numbers built on different definitions, both in circulation.

It starts innocently: one spreadsheet counts orders from placed, another from completed; one chart uses net, another gross. Both are defensible, neither is labelled, and the difference only surfaces in a meeting.

Three habits prevent it:

• Put the definition in the title. "Net revenue (placed, excl. VAT)" is a long title and a short argument. This applies to a spreadsheet tab today and a widget later.
• Reuse a saved selection rather than rebuilding it. A segment in CRM is a filter that will not differ between two people. A filter rebuilt from memory will.
• Delete reports nobody opens. An abandoned report with a stale definition is worse than no report, because somebody eventually finds it.

Freeze anything you are going to discuss

Before a review, fix the numbers: export the file, date it, and present that version. It stops the number changing mid-discussion, it is reproducible afterwards, and it gives you something to compare against next month. The planned snapshot mode in Analytics Studio is the same idea with less manual work; the habit is the same.

Reconcile once, properly

Do this once, and only once, for one closed month:

1. Take the month's order count and subtotal from the order list in Commerce Studio.
2. Take the same month from your ERP.
3. Work through the difference until every euro is named.

The gap will come from the four decisions in Agree what counts as an order: status boundary, tax and shipping, cancellations and returns, test orders. When you can explain it, write the explanation next to the report. That paragraph is what makes the number defensible for the next two years.

Next

• Agree what counts as an order
• The metrics that matter in B2B