By Unmesh Sheth, Founder and CEO, Sopact. All fund, company and numerical examples are fictional.

Incoming data should pass through a review area before it becomes approved reporting data. Keep the submitted value, proposed extraction, clarification and approved value distinguishable. A processed document is not an approved result.

RouteWorks reports 120 people reached in Q2, compared with 100 in Q1. Its financial upload shows revenue of 240,000 for January through June, while the reporting question asks for April through June. The document may be correct; its period is wrong for the requested observation.

Start with the agreement reached during onboarding

Use Check each partner report against the agreement as the review method. List the metrics due under the approved agreement, then compare the submitted report with each definition, reporting period and required breakdown. Mark a due item as matching, defined differently, missing or lacking the required breakdown. Keep items not yet due separate.

Turn each unresolved item into a specific question, consolidate questions for the investee and retain the answers in a gap log. A match establishes alignment with the definition; the source checks and human approval below still determine whether the value can be released. If the conversation left a definition unclear, both sides clarify and version the agreement rather than silently changing the rule during report review.

Extract with source context

For each candidate value retain company ID, metric ID, source period, currency or unit, document version, page or cell, extraction method and review status. Record the date of collection separately from the period covered by the evidence.

A fund may label its quarterly collection by the survey deployment date. That convention does not turn an annual statement into quarterly evidence. Keep both the collection-cycle label and the actual source dates.

After clarification, RouteWorks supplies evidence supporting Q1 revenue of 90,000 and Q2 revenue of 150,000 on the same basis. Nina retains the six-month source; the finance reviewer approves the quarter observation. Do not derive the quarter from subtraction unless periods, basis, versions and completeness have been checked.

Make financial calculations explicit

Define each financial measure with the finance reviewer. Revenue, cash received, financing raised and receivables describe different events. A combined source label such as “additional cash raised” needs a written definition before any calculation.

In this fictional exercise, RouteWorks received 20,000 in new debt and 10,000 in new equity. The financing total is 30,000, shown separately from operating revenue and the 12,000 receivable. These are teaching inputs, not a standardized reporting definition.

For an agreed illustrative calculation, quarterly net cash burn of 30,000 over three months corresponds to an average monthly burn of 10,000. A cash balance of 90,000 divided by that monthly amount gives nine months of indicative runway. This assumes the same burn continues and the stated cash is available. It does not establish an exact cash-out date. If the quarter has no net burn, the same positive-burn formula should not be applied mechanically.

Retain employee counts at their actual observation dates. Headcount, full-time employee count and full-time-equivalent calculations need separate definitions; do not substitute one for another. Informal financial updates can be added as dated, attributed evidence but remain distinct from reviewed statements.

To compare burn at the beginning and end of a quarter, obtain monthly source evidence. A quarterly total alone does not reveal that pattern. Keep forecast assumptions separate from actual observations.

Investigate changes without declaring a problem

RouteWorks's reach rises from 100 to 120: an increase of 20 people, or 20%, if definitions and periods are comparable. A configurable threshold can flag unusual changes, but a flag asks for review. It does not prove a data error or deteriorating performance.

Show the current value beside the earlier value and definition. Check whether the company added a site, changed its population, corrected an earlier figure or reported a cumulative total. When the prior value is zero, use an absolute-change rule instead of dividing by zero.

Show what is missing and which report it blocks

A useful exception list identifies the company, period, required metric or document, reason, owner, next action and affected reports. Distinguish a missing return from a submitted return with an empty answer, an inaccessible document, an unapproved observation or an absent geographic breakdown. Each needs a different response.

RouteWorks may have an approved total of 120 people reached but no supported split for the donor's service area. Its company-total requirement is complete; its place-based reporting requirement remains unresolved. Ask for the geographic split or mark that requirement unmet. Do not request the entire quarterly return again or estimate a split from the donor's funding share.

Show these exceptions before report drafting. A report can disclose a known gap when the reporting agreement permits it, but the missing value must not be silently converted to zero or omitted from the coverage explanation.

Require an actual release decision

Use a clear approval action by the authorized reviewer. Unapproved observations can appear in the review queue, visibly labeled, while approved dashboards and report datasets exclude them. Test this boundary with a deliberately incorrect submission.

If a correction is required, send one focused request identifying the source and question. For RouteWorks: “The uploaded revenue statement covers January–June. Please provide April–June revenue on the agreed basis and identify its source.” Preserve the original response, correction, rationale, reviewer and approval date.

AI-assisted calculations need their own explanation: inputs, exclusions, formula, source locations, missing values and assumptions. Review the explanation as well as the headline number. Approval means accepted for a stated reporting purpose; it does not mean independently audited.

Build this part of your plan

Write the extraction table for RouteWorks. Hold 240,000 from the Q2 revenue field. Add the supported 150,000 correction without deleting the six-month figure. Calculate the 20% reach change and the conditional nine-month runway, naming the assumptions.

Check your reasoning: Q2 revenue is 150,000 only after source and basis review. Unknown financial values remain unknown. No disputed extraction enters the released dataset merely because AI produced it.

Test a tool: insert a clearly erroneous value and ask for a portfolio report before approval. It must not appear as approved fact. Approve the correction, then retrieve both the original submission and the reason for the change.

Next: Build explainable portfolio rollups.