Where the numbers live and why they never match
AI for finance and accounting · Lesson 1 / 21
One company, five versions of revenue
Ask five people in your company how much revenue you made last month and you will get five numbers. Sales will quote signed deals. Accounting will quote closing documents. The bank statement shows money received. The CRM shows paid invoices. The owner will recall a figure from a deck three weeks old.
Nobody is lying. Each source answers a different question: when it was promised, when it was delivered, when it was paid, when it was recognised. A finance professional does not start with a report. They start by answering which version of the truth is the official one, and why.
Four typical sources
- The accounting system. The most formal truth. Always late, because it waits for documents.
- Bank statements. The most reliable on cash, but they know nothing about the meaning of a payment.
- CRM and billing. The fastest, but they follow sales logic rather than accounting logic.
- Managers' own spreadsheets. Private files full of adjustments that are documented nowhere.
What to do before any automation
Build a source map. For every metric write down where the primary record lives, who owns it, how long the update lag is, and the rule by which an event is recognised. Without that map, every report becomes an argument about numbers instead of a conversation about decisions.
SOURCE MAP (one per metric) Metric: ... Primary source: ... Data owner: ... Recognition point: shipment / document / payment Update lag: ... days Known discrepancies: ... and why Who settles a dispute about the number: ...
Cheat sheet
- Five versions of revenue are fine, as long as each has a name and a recognition rule.
- Before automating, map sources: owner, lag, recognition point.
- A persistent gap always has a cause. Find it once and write it down.
- One number means one official source.