02.CData Visualisation

Two dashboards, one figure.

Every chart embeds a decision about what was counted and over what period, and almost no chart states it. These state it, and name the person accountable for the wording.

One figure per quarter, and a stated denominator
Sheet 02, the five in full

The problem

A chart states a number without stating what it counted

Every chart embeds a decision about what was included, what was excluded, and over what period. That decision is made by whoever wrote the query, usually under time pressure, and then it disappears into the chart. Two teams solving the same question a month apart make it differently, and the disagreement only surfaces when the two charts sit on the same slide.

A board seeing two figures for one quarter does not conclude that the definitions differ. It concludes that the data is wrong, and the next twelve months are spent proving otherwise.

One quarter, two dashboardsQuarter ended 31 March 2026

Dashboard A$48.2m

The extent dashboard A reports. The line runs the whole quarter, and the slice struck off at its end is the credit notes billing recorded inside the period.

Invoiced value in the quarter, before credit notes. Sourced from billing.

Dashboard B$44.9m

The extent dashboard B reports, drawn to the same scale. The line stops where the struck slice on the line above begins.

Recognised value on the accounting standard, net of credit notes raised after close. Sourced from the finance ledger.

They differ by$3.3m

Credit notes raised after close. Billing counted them in the quarter and the ledger took them out of it.

Each figure is correct in the system that produced it, and neither dashboard states which reading it used. Illustrative of the pattern, not a record of one organisation.

What the work produces

Three things you keep

  1. 01

    Charts bound to a register entry

    Every figure on the surface names the definition it was built from. A reader who doubts a number can find the wording and the owner without asking anyone.

  2. 02

    A stated denominator

    Rates and percentages carry what they were measured against, on the chart rather than in a note somebody removed. A percentage with an unstated denominator is decoration.

  3. 03

    A retirement list

    The dashboards this work replaces, named, with a date they come down. New surfaces built beside old ones is how an organisation gets to eleven answers.

The governed spine

How it answers the spine

A dashboard is the most public place a definition appears, and the place a disagreement does the most damage. Agreeing the term before the first chart is cheaper than reconciling two finished surfaces, and it is the same work either way.

Three artefacts, every engagement

  • The written record of what a contested term means, who owns it, and the date the wording was agreed.
  • Every hop a number takes from the system that first recorded it to the report that shows it.
  • When a definition changed and why, written at the point the call was made rather than reconstructed afterward.
Sheet 03, the method in full

02.CCommission the work

Bring the term two systems report differently.

A 30-minute diagnostic, not a sales call. Bring the disagreement and the deadline that made it matter.

Book a 30-minute diagnosticSheet 04, other ways to reach us