Prepare scattered spreadsheets, contracts and records for financial analysis
Organise spreadsheets, contracts and business records around a financial question, preserving evidence, uncertainty and corrections.
An owner asks, “Can we pay our supplier next month?” The evidence is scattered across bank records, a receivables spreadsheet, contracts, correspondence and several versions of an export. You do not need to reorganise every file into a new system before beginning. Connect the information that can change the answer to the question at hand.
A useful preparation should identify the company and period, what has been checked and what remains a plan or unknown. Finance professionals need a result they can trace and correct; decision-makers need to understand the conclusion, its important conditions and the available actions.
Start with the decision, then choose the evidence
Different questions require different records. Establish the decision, entity and period, then locate relevant material in the business's existing systems, files and confirmed business facts. A single task does not require every item in the table.
| Question | Evidence to connect first | A commonly missed distinction |
|---|---|---|
| Will cash cover next month's bills? | Available bank balance, expected receipts and payments, contractual terms | A receivables balance is not a confirmed receipt before a payment deadline |
| Why is a product or project unprofitable? | Sales and refunds, product or project costs, expense statements, delivery records | Shared advertising or staff cost may not be reliably attributable to one item |
| Why has a customer not paid? | Contract, delivery and acceptance, invoice, receipts and dispute records | A ledger ageing bucket can differ from the contractual due date |
| Why do marketplace orders differ from settlement? | Store orders, after-sales activity, settlement, withdrawals and bank records | Payment, receipt confirmation, settlement and bank dates can cross periods |
A service business may not have inventory; a cross-border transaction may need original-currency and exchange-rate evidence. Follow the actual question. If something necessary is missing, explain which conclusion it affects instead of making the owner supply every historical file before any work can start.
Connect records about the same event
One receivable may appear in a sales contract, customer statement, ageing report and bank record. Those are not four separate sales, and none is automatically correct merely because it appears in a file.
Contract and delivery → receivable → due date and payment arrangement → bank receipt → unresolved difference.
Retain the customer or project, legal entity, amount and currency, business dates, source and file version. Match a bank receipt to the relevant receivable and allocation. A contractual due date, a customer's verbal expectation and cash already received have different statuses. When two exports contain the same transaction, check the overlap before summing them.
Formal accounting records and reports must meet the rules applicable to the actual entity. The 2024 amended Accounting Law of the People's Republic of China addresses the review of original vouchers and reconciliation of records with relevant evidence. Organising material for a management question does not mean every business analysis must wait for every statutory report to be completed.
A hypothetical payment-planning example
Assume a business wants to know whether it can make a supplier payment within two weeks. Its checked available bank balance is RMB 80,000; the supplier payment due in that window is RMB 90,000; a RMB 40,000 receivable has been verified, but the customer has not confirmed its payment date. Assume no other receipts, payments, restricted funds or additional costs, and that the RMB 90,000 must be paid before the later receipt in the second scenario.
| Scenario | Result under these assumptions | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| RMB 40,000 arrives before the supplier payment | 80,000 + 40,000 − 90,000 = RMB 30,000 remaining | Customer's payment timing, receiving account and actual receipt |
| RMB 40,000 arrives after the supplier payment is due | A RMB 10,000 funding gap exists before payment: 90,000 − 80,000 | Whether payment timing can be changed or an available funding source secured |
The second scenario does not mean the bank balance can first become negative, or that the customer is confirmed to be overdue. It identifies a RMB 10,000 gap that must be addressed before the planned payment. If payroll, taxes, other receipts or restricted balances also apply, add them on their actual dates and recalculate rather than reusing the simplified result.
The three amounts might come from the bank balance, supplier contract and receivables records. The fact that changes the decision is when the RMB 40,000 will arrive. If the date is not confirmed, show both scenarios and the evidence gap. Do not invent a receipt date or treat the receivable as cash already in the bank.
Preserve sources so the result can be corrected
Keep original files and note extraction time, period and filters. Separate working classifications, assumptions and calculations from the source. When corrected material arrives, record which version it supersedes and which conclusions change; do not overwrite the original or quietly change the definition.
Distinguish:
- Events recorded as having occurred: for example, a bank credit, which still needs matching to the underlying transaction.
- Supported but not yet occurred: for example, a contractual payment date, with its current confirmation status.
- Estimates or gaps: for example, an unconfirmed customer payment date, with the range, assumption and person following up.
If amounts or periods disagree, check currency, VAT basis, transaction versus posting date, payment direction and overlapping exports. Keep an unexplained difference open rather than altering a source figure to force a match. For formal financial reporting, China's Ministry of Finance explanation of accounting controls discusses complete records, reconciliation and appropriate periods; management analysis also benefits from traceable evidence.
Owners should not have to design field mappings first
A business may already use ERP, accounting software, marketplace accounts, ongoing file sources or manually held records. Depending on actual support and authorization, the work can use an application connection or authorised browser or computer access, or begin with existing files supplied for the task. Verify what is available and whether updates are continuous. A successful one-time export does not establish automatic synchronisation.
The person or assistant carrying out the analysis should organise relevant evidence where possible, retain its source, explain uncertain fields and ask only for facts that affect the decision. An owner should not need to write code or configure every field mapping before asking a business question. Finance professionals continue to review professional judgments and corrections.
CaiGeek is an AI financial assistant for small and medium-sized businesses. Start with one clear question and the material already available. Explore the cash-planning example, read about working alongside existing ERP, or contact CaiGeek about the missing information that most affects your decision. Connections, processing and deliverables depend on actual availability and verification. Do not post original company records in a public comment.
Public sources checked on 6 November 2026. Amounts are hypothetical; formal accounting and tax questions require review of the entity, period and applicable requirements.
Written with AI assistance. Examples illustrate analysis methods; apply them using business records and relevant conditions.
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