Operating doctrine
The applicable signed contract, order form, amendment, rate card or client-authorized equivalent controls the settlement position. Public vendor policy can be a reference profile, but it does not override the customer's governing commercial terms.
OutcomeRecon preserves currencies separately, retains vendor-favorable effects, quarantines unsupported financial rows and distinguishes issued credit from applied benefit.
Controlled workflow
| Gate | Required evidence | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Scope | Vendor, invoice period, currency, contract version, finality window | Proceed only with written scope |
| 2. Intake | Redacted exports, source hashes, data terms | Accept, reject or request gap fill |
| 3. Mapping | Role/column map, row counts, joins, exact invoice tie-out | Authorize canonical mapping |
| 4. Rulebook | Applicable pricing and validity rules | Named human approval required |
| 5. Reconciliation | Manifests, quarantine, findings, Claim Graph | Separate exposure from claimable money |
| 6. Claim QA | Evidence trace, caveats, human review | Client sign-off before vendor contact |
| 7. Realization | Vendor response, credit memo, posted invoice or account ledger | Close only at applied outcome |
No-go gates for a money claim
A claim must not enter Recoverable Now when any material gate is unresolved. This includes:
- the governing policy is not an applicable signed or expressly authorized version;
- amount or three-letter currency is missing;
- required operational evidence is absent;
- the contractual finality window is not mature;
- Commission Collision ownership is unresolved;
- material inputs failed, were skipped or unexpectedly quarantined;
- invoice-level minimums, commitments, allowances, discounts, base fees or true-ups change the total but are not modeled.
Claim Graph
Multiple findings can describe the same economic dollar: a reopen event, a later human correction and a policy invalidity can all refer to one billed outcome. The Claim Graph maps those descriptions to a unique economic identity so the same amount is not summed more than once.
Potential cross-vendor double claims are treated separately as Commission Collision. Two fees on the same object do not automatically mean duplication because contracts can legitimately stack fees. Ownership must be resolved before the exposure becomes recoverable.
Recovery realization
| State | Evidence | Applied benefit? |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed / flagged | Internal finding only | No |
| Client approved / sent | Client approval and vendor submission | No |
| Accepted | Vendor accepts claim or remedy | No |
| Credit issued | Credit memo or vendor confirmation | No — leakage remains possible |
| Credit applied | Posted invoice, statement or account ledger tied to claim | Yes, subject to agreed definition |
| Reversed | Later debit, reversal, expiry or clawback | Subtract from applied benefit |