Who this is for, and the moment
Every finance team has the same five reference documents and nobody can find them: the expense coding guide, the delegation of authority, the glossary, the close calendar, the cost centre map. They live in four folders and one person’s head. The questions they answer get asked in Slack every week, usually by someone new.
The question, as typed
“The sales team wants a new software subscription. Which account and cost centre does it get coded to?”
The answer
GroundedCode it to:
- Account: 7410 — Software licences & SaaS
- Cost centre: CC-40 — IT & Digital
Even though the sales team will use it, the cost centre map says software licences & SaaS sit in IT & Digital, and the analyst note confirms software goes to 7410/CC-40 no matter whose team uses it. 114
Account 7410, Software licences & SaaS, in CC-40, IT & Digital. Software goes to IT & Digital no matter whose team uses it. Chips: Cost Centre & Ownership Map, the cost centre rows · a handover note, “things I wish I’d known in week one”.
The citation clicked
The map opens on the cost centre row; the note opens on the line that says software is 7410/CC-40 whoever uses it.
The trust chain
Nothing to add up. The one code is traced to the map and the note, and the guard passes on that.
The rest of the sheet
- “Who has to approve a £30,000 purchase order?” The CFO. £30,000 sits in the £25,001 to £100,000 band of the DoA spend table.
- “Who must authorise a £342,000 bank payment?” Any two of CFO, Financial Controller, CEO. Bank payments are dual-authorised whatever the amount.
- “What does LF1 mean?” Latest Forecast 1, the in-year reforecast prepared with the March close, covering April to December. Plan columns are never actuals.
- “On which working day is the flash issued, and who owns it?” WD3, Priya Nair in FP&A. An early indication only; the WD8 pack governs.
- “How does the monthly reporting cycle work?” WD1 cut-off through WD8 issue, with owners, from the calendar.
What to notice
- Five documents, four formats. Nobody needs to know which one holds the rule, only that the answer points at it.
- The rule and the exception are both quoted. Software goes to IT & Digital “no matter whose team uses it” because a colleague wrote that down in a note, and the map agrees; nothing was inferred from the account pattern.
- The person who used to answer these in Slack stops having to. Bert doesn’t mind being asked the same question twice.
Video
Related
Use cases: A new user coming in · It says no · Easy queries.