A reported value is challenged.
Audit
The auditors have asked how this number is produced. It comes from a report that has run for years, and I have until Thursday to show the workings.
The finance controller
Can we trace this reported value and defend the answer?
The product at work
The management report, with the challenged figure ringed: the month-end total.
The route from that figure to the code that produced it, one step per line.
Each step with its condition and its grade: directly observed, or inferred.
The Evidence record, sealed for the audit file, the last step read named on it.
What usually happens
Someone follows the report back through a view, then a job, then a stored procedure written by a contractor who has left, and two days later the answer still rests on what one person recalls.
With a reading
With a reading, the route from the figure to the code that produced it is drawn from the code itself, with the condition on each step, so the line the auditors want is on the page with the source beside it.
A source-linked route from the reported value to its producing expression, including the conditions and dependencies established by the supplied materials.
The workings here come from the code you supplied. The opinion on the figure belongs to the audit team, and what a production run did on the day is outside the reading.
Who it is for
For the finance controller or audit partner defending a reported figure with the Lineage record, and whoever is asked next year.
What to bring
The code, configuration and job schedules on the path to the figure, under your access controls.