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Start with the disagreement

Finance has one revenue number. The online store has another. The commercial team brings a third to the Monday meeting. Each may be correct for the question it was built to answer.

Before connecting more systems, choose the decision you want to support. A trading report, a cash forecast and a monthly close need different dates and different treatments of returns, tax and shipping.

Write down the definition in plain language. Which orders count? Which date matters? What happens when an order is cancelled or refunded? Work through a few actual examples with the people who own the numbers.

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Build a small piece you can check

Bring in the sources needed for that first decision. Keep a copy of the original data, make the transformations visible and record when each source last arrived. Use stable order and product identifiers so that joining two tables does not quietly multiply a sale.

Choose a completed period and reconcile the result with the records the team already trusts. Follow the differences to individual transactions. A total that happens to match can still hide two errors cancelling each other out.

Keep those checks running after launch. A new sales channel, a renamed warehouse or a change in an export can break an assumption that held last month.

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Make it useful to the people doing the work

The report should show its definition, its freshness and a route back to the detail. Give someone responsibility for answering questions about it. A team will keep its private spreadsheets if the shared view is hard to question.

Train people using the questions they actually ask. Show a controller how a cost is assigned. Show a planner how to trace an available-stock figure. Keep the system and access in the company’s own accounts.

Once that first view earns trust, add the next decision. You get a better foundation by checking one useful piece properly than by connecting everything and hoping the definitions will follow.