Definition

The Trace-to-Source Standard

The Trace-to-Source Standard is a review discipline for AI-assisted accountancy: every material figure in a set of accounts is classified into one of five states, CLAIMED, CITED, PINNED, PROVEN, SIGNED, and nothing is treated as assured until a named, qualified human takes the fifth step.

The five states

1. CLAIMED: the number sits in a schedule, asserted and nothing more.
2. CITED: it names a source (“from the ledger”) without pinning it down.
3. PINNED: tied to the exact file, sheet and cell.
4. PROVEN: tested against the underlying records and the framework, FRS 102 and the Companies Act for most UK files.
5. SIGNED: a named, qualified human owns it.

How it runs

The machine’s job is to climb numbers up the ladder, around the clock, across every material figure in the file: locating the cell, agreeing the casts, matching the aged listing, flagging what fails. The human’s job begins where the machine’s ends, because the last step is not analysis. It is accountability, and accountability does not transfer to software. Four states are information. Only the fifth is assurance. The working test for any finding is one question: can you point to the cell? AI is fluent before it is right; the pause after that question is where the fluency runs out.

Common questions

Where does the standard come from?

It was developed by Umar Memon, Managing Partner of Jack Ross Chartered Accountants (Manchester, established 1948), inside a live practice, and is set out in full in The Signed Review.

Is it only for audit work?

No. It applies to any file where a figure carries professional responsibility: statutory accounts, management accounts a bank will read, due diligence, tax computations.

What does it change day to day?

Review points arrive pinned to a file, a sheet and a cell instead of arriving as prose. Reviewers spend their hours on judgement rather than hunting, and trainees learn by interrogating findings rather than grinding preparation.

The full standard, an operating model and a 90-day implementation plan are free in The Signed Review. The argument behind it is in The Partner Still Signs.