Answers now cite the exact table cell

On 16 October we changed the order in which the Associate works. Before it searches documents for a company figure, it now looks in our own data, where each value has already been read from the filing and checked. When a checked value answers the question, the Associate uses it and cites the exact table cell it came from.

Searching documents works well for what a company said. It’s less reliable for what a company reported: a 10-Q can show the same revenue line for several periods, in two tables, under slightly different names, and picking the wrong column gives an answer that looks right and isn’t.

We test this with a fixed set of questions about company KPIs, each with a known right value and a known table cell. Before the change, the Associate often found the right number but cited it from the company’s financial statements, without the table cell our data holds for it.

The lookup runs before the Associate starts on its answer. It reads the company, the figure and the period from your question and checks our data for a matching value. The figure in the answer then carries a footnote that opens the filing at that cell.

When our data holds no checked value for the period you ask about, the Associate searches the documents as before. Questions about what a company said, such as its outlook, still go to its filings and releases.

The Grid answers from the same data: a cell with exactly one matching checked value is filled from it, with its table cell and filing. As our KPI data grows to more companies, more answers will come from it.