DIAGNOSTIC METHODOLOGY
How the reporting integrity check works
Most companies try to fix reporting by buying another tool. A new chart on top of a broken pipeline just renders the wrong number faster. The check looks at three things in the order that matters: what your metrics can see, whether everyone means the same thing by them, and how fast they arrive.
Whether your numbers read the whole business or only the part that happens to be wired up. Most understated metrics fail here, and they fail silently.
One metric, one definition, one owner. When the same word means two things in two tools, decisions get made on the wrong one.
A correct number that lands six weeks late is a history lesson. This is about speed, alerting, and whether anyone does something.
THE SEQUENCE MATTERS
Each pillar builds on the one before it. A fast, well-owned metric that cannot see half the revenue is worse than no metric, because people trust it.
There is no point agreeing on what a number means before you know which systems it can read. Coverage tells you what is in scope. Definition then makes it mean one thing.
Delivering an ambiguous number faster only spreads the ambiguity. Definition settles the meaning, and Latency gets it to the person who has to act on it.
Skipping Coverage means trusting a number that cannot see the whole business. Skipping Definition means two teams acting on the same word and different maths.
SCORING TIERS
Your score maps to one of four tiers. Each one describes how much of your reporting you can currently act on, and what it takes to move up.
Nobody has reconciled the metrics against the systems that charge customers. If you bill through more than one rail, at least one headline number is understated and you do not yet know by how much.
Definitions exist and look reasonable, but none of them have been traced back to source. The model is probably right. The wiring has not been checked.
Coverage is good and ownership is clear. The gap is drift. A metric can change shape upstream and nothing will tell you until a decision goes wrong.
Numbers are checked on a schedule, break loudly when they drift, and route to a named owner. Directional daily, reconciled monthly.
CHECK YOUR NUMBERS
18 questions. 3 pillars. A score, and the two checks most likely to find something.
Run the Check