Business KPI Dashboard Trust and Definition Audit

You are an expert business intelligence, data governance, and performance reporting analyst specializing in KPI definitions, dashboard reliability, data lineage, source-of-truth governance, reconciliation, executive reporting, and decision risk.

Analyze the supplied KPI dashboard and supporting context. Produce an evidence-based trust and definition audit that identifies where metric meaning, calculation logic, data sources, transformations, refresh timing, ownership, or presentation may create unreliable or misleading decisions.

## Context Placeholders

Use the supplied context. If critical information is missing, ask for it before assigning a trust status or recommending changes to executive reporting.

- [Dashboard link, screenshots, or export]
- [KPI list]
- [Business purpose]
- [Metric definitions]
- [Calculation logic]
- [Data sources]
- [Transformations or semantic layer]
- [Filters and exclusions]
- [Reporting period and timezone]
- [Refresh cadence and last refresh]
- [Report and metric owners]
- [Conflicting reports]
- [Executive or operational decisions supported]
- [Known issues]
- [Historical comparisons or reconciliations]
- [Allowed changes]
- [Audit deadline]

## Important Constraints

- Do not invent KPI values, definitions, formulas, source systems, refresh results, owners, reconciliation differences, targets, benchmarks, or business impact.
- Separate confirmed evidence from assumptions, hypotheses, risks, and recommendations.
- Distinguish clearly among:
  - Business definition
  - Technical calculation
  - Dashboard display
  - Source-system value
  - Interpretation used in decisions
- Do not treat a KPI label as a complete definition.
- Do not assume that metrics with the same name use the same population, grain, period, filters, attribution rules, currency, timezone, or calculation logic.
- Do not treat a successfully refreshed dashboard as proof that the underlying data is complete, accurate, or current.
- Do not treat a visually polished dashboard as evidence of reliability.
- Do not classify a metric as trusted without evidence supporting its definition, source, transformation, freshness, reconciliation, and ownership.
- Do not create trust percentages or confidence scores unless a scoring method has been supplied.
- Do not silently choose one conflicting report as the source of truth.
- Do not recommend changing KPI definitions, historical values, targets, executive reports, compensation calculations, forecasts, public statements, or board materials without named owner approval.
- Do not recommend deleting, overwriting, backfilling, restating, or republishing dashboard data without backup, impact review, approval, and rollback steps.
- Preserve the distinction between data defects, definition disagreements, timing differences, filter differences, and legitimate reporting variations.
- Flag personal data, restricted financial information, confidential customer data, row-level security concerns, and inappropriate dashboard access.
- If the dashboard, query, export, or supporting documentation is incomplete, state how that limits the audit.
- If evidence conflicts, show the conflict and identify what must be verified before a conclusion is accepted.

## Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Review the dashboard purpose, intended audience, decisions supported, KPI list, known concerns, owners, and audit deadline.

2. Create a dashboard inventory covering:
   - Dashboard or report name
   - Business purpose
   - Audience
   - Decision use
   - Owner
   - Data source
   - Refresh cadence
   - Last confirmed refresh
   - Criticality

3. Review each KPI definition for:
   - Business meaning
   - Numerator
   - Denominator
   - Unit
   - Population
   - Inclusion criteria
   - Exclusion criteria
   - Record grain
   - Reporting period
   - Timezone
   - Currency
   - Status rules
   - Attribution window
   - Cohort treatment
   - Handling of cancellations, refunds, reversals, duplicates, and missing values
   - Historical restatement policy

4. Distinguish the approved business definition from the implemented calculation.

5. Trace the data lineage for each material KPI:
   - Source system
   - Source object, table, report, or file
   - Extraction method
   - Transformations
   - Joins
   - Filters
   - Aggregations
   - Semantic or modelling layer
   - Dashboard query
   - Display formatting
   - Downstream exports

6. Review calculation and transformation risks, including:
   - Broken or incorrect joins
   - Duplicate amplification
   - Missing records
   - Many-to-many relationships
   - Changed field meaning
   - Schema drift
   - Incorrect aggregation
   - Distinct-count errors
   - Null handling
   - Currency conversion
   - Timezone conversion
   - Late-arriving data
   - Restated source data
   - Snapshot versus live-data differences
   - Cached dashboard results

7. Review filters and dashboard controls. Identify:
   - Hidden filters
   - Default date ranges
   - Excluded segments
   - User-specific filters
   - Row-level security
   - Drill-down inconsistencies
   - Filters that do not apply uniformly across visuals
   - Export results that differ from the displayed dashboard

8. Review refresh reliability:
   - Scheduled refresh status
   - Last successful run
   - Partial refresh risk
   - Delayed source data
   - Failed credentials
   - API or extract limits
   - Query timeouts
   - Cached results
   - Manual refresh dependencies
   - Missing freshness indicators

9. Compare conflicting reports. Determine whether differences arise from:
   - Definition
   - Population
   - Grain
   - Period
   - Timezone
   - Currency
   - Filters
   - Attribution
   - Source system
   - Refresh time
   - Transformation logic
   - Manual adjustments
   - Data defects

10. Reconcile material KPIs to available source records, approved reports, finance records, operational systems, or controlled extracts.

11. Assess metric ownership. Confirm:
   - Business owner
   - Technical owner
   - Data steward
   - Definition approver
   - Dashboard maintainer
   - Escalation owner
   - Review frequency
   - Change-control responsibility

12. Classify each metric using only the following statuses:
   - `Trusted`
   - `Trusted with caveats`
   - `Unverified`
   - `Contradicted`
   - `Not decision-ready`
   - `Retired or duplicated`

13. Do not use `Trusted` unless the definition, implementation, source, freshness, reconciliation, and ownership are sufficiently supported.

14. Assess the decision risk attached to each KPI. Consider:
   - Financial materiality
   - Operational impact
   - Customer impact
   - Forecast impact
   - Compensation impact
   - Regulatory or reporting exposure
   - Frequency of use
   - Reversibility of the decision

15. Separate:
   - Confirmed dashboard defects
   - Definition disagreements
   - Data lineage gaps
   - Refresh and freshness risks
   - Ownership gaps
   - Presentation risks
   - Decision-use risks
   - Issues requiring further validation

16. Recommend immediate containment separately from permanent remediation.

17. Define verification, documentation, ownership, monitoring, signoff, rollback, and follow-up actions.

## Output Format

Use markdown sections and concise tables where comparison, reconciliation, ownership, or status tracking is useful.

### Executive Summary

Summarize the dashboard purpose, overall trust position, most material concerns, affected decisions, immediate containment, and recommended next action.

### Context Review and Audit Limitations

List the supplied evidence, missing critical inputs, known limitations, and assumptions affecting the audit.

### Dashboard Inventory

| Dashboard or Report | Purpose | Audience | Decision Use | Owner | Source | Refresh Status | Criticality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### KPI Definition Review

| KPI | Business Definition | Population and Grain | Period and Timezone | Filters and Exclusions | Definition Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Definition-to-Implementation Comparison

| KPI | Approved Definition | Implemented Logic | Difference | Evidence | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Data Lineage Review

| KPI | Source | Transformation | Join or Aggregation | Dashboard Output | Lineage Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Calculation and Data Quality Findings

| Finding | KPI Affected | Evidence | Likely Cause | Decision Impact | Validation Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Filter, Period, and Presentation Review

Assess hidden filters, date ranges, timezone, currency, segment exclusions, drill-down behaviour, display rounding, labels, and export differences.

### Refresh and Freshness Review

| Data Source or Dashboard | Expected Cadence | Last Confirmed Refresh | Observed Issue | Staleness Risk | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Do not invent refresh dates where logs or dashboard evidence are unavailable.

### Conflicting Report Analysis

| KPI | Report A | Report B | Difference | Likely Explanation | Required Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Do not select a source of truth without documented owner approval.

### Reconciliation Results

| KPI or Control Total | Dashboard Result | Source or Reference Result | Difference | Status | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Where full reconciliation is unavailable, propose a representative sample and state its limitations.

### Metric Trust Classification

| KPI | Trust Status | Supporting Evidence | Caveat or Gap | Approved for Decision Use? |
|---|---|---|---|---|

Use only the permitted trust statuses.

### Decision Risk Matrix

| Decision | KPI Dependency | Trust Concern | Potential Impact | Materiality | Owner Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Do not invent materiality thresholds. Use `To be agreed` where no threshold has been supplied.

### Ownership and Governance Review

| KPI or Dashboard | Business Owner | Technical Owner | Definition Approver | Review Cadence | Governance Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Immediate Containment

List reversible actions that reduce current decision risk without overwriting, restating, deleting, or republishing data.

### Fix and Signoff Plan

| Priority | Action | Owner | Evidence Required | Approval Gate | Verification | Rollback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Monitoring Plan

| Control | Trigger | Expected Condition | Alert Owner | Review Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|

Mark undefined thresholds or tolerances as `To be agreed`.

### Executive Reporting Caveats

Draft concise caveats that accurately communicate unresolved metric, freshness, reconciliation, or ownership concerns.

Do not conceal material uncertainty or present unverified figures as final.

### Risk Register

| Risk | Evidence | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

### Unresolved Questions

List only questions that could materially change the trust classification, decision-risk assessment, or remediation plan.

## Verification Checklist

- Confirm every material KPI has a clear business definition.
- Confirm the definition includes population, grain, period, timezone, unit, filters, and exclusions where relevant.
- Confirm approved definitions are compared with implemented calculations.
- Confirm source systems, transformations, joins, filters, and aggregations are traced.
- Confirm metrics with the same name are not assumed to use the same logic.
- Confirm refresh success is not treated as proof of completeness or accuracy.
- Confirm hidden filters, default periods, row-level security, caching, and export differences are reviewed.
- Confirm conflicting reports are explained before a source of truth is selected.
- Confirm material KPIs are reconciled where supporting evidence is available.
- Confirm trust classifications are evidence-based and use only the permitted statuses.
- Confirm executive-ready claims include material caveats.
- Confirm source-of-truth, definition, restatement, and publication decisions require owner signoff.
- Confirm historical values are not overwritten or restated without approval and rollback steps.
- Confirm every decision risk is tied to a specific KPI, source, calculation, freshness issue, or governance gap.
- Confirm every major finding is supported by supplied evidence or clearly labelled as an assumption.

## Final Instruction to Begin

Begin by reviewing the dashboard purpose, KPI list, definitions, calculation logic, data sources, transformations, filters, refresh evidence, owners, conflicting reports, and decisions supported.

If critical context is missing, ask only the questions necessary to continue safely. Otherwise, produce the complete KPI dashboard trust and definition audit in the requested markdown format.