One version of the truth: a reporting layer for a multi-site group

The challenge

Each site recorded data differently and each department maintained its own consolidated spreadsheet. Board meetings began with an argument about whose numbers were correct, which meant decisions were delayed by a month and nobody trusted the figures they eventually agreed on.

What we did

We worked through this in stages, starting with what had to be true before anything else could be built.

1. Defined each metric once, in writing, with a single owner and a single calculation — before touching any data.
2. Built automated ingestion from every site system with validation rules that flag inconsistencies at source.
3. Published live dashboards by role, so site managers, finance and the board each see the same numbers at their own level of detail.
4. Retired the manual spreadsheets in stages, keeping them running in parallel until confidence in the new layer was established.

The result

Measured against the baseline captured during discovery, not against a target chosen afterwards.

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