The AI Inbox: Emailed Reports as Finance Pipelines

A requested report is not a received file

Some native systems email a report after it is requested. Keep the request, delivery, actual attachment and parsing result distinct. An email subject with the expected report name is not enough to show that the attachment covers the chosen company, period or basis.

Save the original file exactly as received, somewhere private and approved. If you decrypt or convert it, keep both the original and converted copy, labeled, instead of overwriting the original. Compare hashes and report definitions when versions arrive again. An exact duplicate can be recognized; a changed report should remain a new version with its own review. Public teaching examples should use invented data, never a real attachment with customer identifiers.

Distinguish a repeated delivery from a revised report

Use separate identities for the delivery and its attachment. A second email may carry identical bytes; a similarly named attachment may contain a changed report. An original-file hash can identify the first case, while period, report title, filters and contents establish the second. Neither the email subject nor the filename supplies both answers.

Keep the reviewed version attached to the decision it supported. When a corrected attachment arrives, retain the earlier version and identify which records or totals changed. Recompute affected outputs against the new source; do not silently replace the evidence behind an already reviewed cash forecast. If the attachment cannot be opened or parsed, the state remains "file saved, contents not yet read."

The useful operating distinction is between delivery, extraction and finance acceptance. A request can be pending, a delivered file can be unreadable, and a parsed file can still contain the wrong company or an incomplete period. Give each failure its own next action instead of retrying the entire workflow or reporting that the pipeline is green.

{
  "fictional": true,
  "unit": "USD cents",
  "id": "complete-export",
  "rawRows": 4,
  "distinctRows": 3,
  "coveragePct": 60,
  "missing": [
    "D",
    "E"
  ],
  "costMissing": [
    "B"
  ],
  "completeProfitCents": null,
  "limitation": "This is teaching arithmetic from supplied invented inputs, not source authenticity, financial assurance or authority to post."
}

Define what the scheduled file must contain

Open the related financial check when the next question concerns that workflow. The Financial Systems Field Guide holds the named-system collection notes, pitfalls and bounded prompts.

Sources and method

Field Guide. This guide shows how to check whether the numbers are ready to use. The examples use made-up numbers, clearly labeled and available to download. They do not include private customer documents or measured customer results. Before using the method, check that your account has the required access and that your reports count the same things.