Bad Data Can Create Bad Business Decisions: A Small Business Guide
Improve the reliability of analysis by checking dates, categories, duplicates, missing records, and mismatched reporting periods before acting on the results.
Key takeaway
The quality of a recommendation cannot be stronger than the data and assumptions used to create it.
Check the basics first
Confirm that revenue, expenses, targets, and operating metrics refer to the same period. Remove duplicates and investigate unusually large or missing values.
Use stable categories
If the same vendor is classified differently every month, trend analysis becomes noisy. Create simple category rules and apply them consistently.
Keep assumptions visible
When a metric is estimated rather than observed, label it. Decision-makers should be able to tell the difference between a direct variance and a modeled opportunity.
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