Case studies
Failure patterns from real engagements.
Client confidentiality is absolute: no names, no suppliers, no figures. What we publish is the mechanism — the pattern that caused the problem, how it was detected, and the engineering control that prevents it. The patterns generalise; that is why they are worth reading.
Construction accounts
Duplicate expenses across intake channels
Receipts photographed on site were restating invoices already filed as PDFs. The pairs shared no file characteristics, so no review of the folder could surface them.
Engineering takeaway
Match documents on the facts they contain — supplier, amount, date, line structure — never on file identity.
Document processing
Independent OCR engines in disagreement
One engine read a figure an order of magnitude away from another, from the identical image, with no indication of uncertainty from either.
Engineering takeaway
Verification requires independence. Two engines disagreeing converts a silent error into a reviewable exception.
Accounts payable
Non-invoice documents in cost totals
A folder assembled over months contained payment confirmations, quotes and a closing statement — each individually legitimate, each carrying figures that entered the totals.
Engineering takeaway
Classify document type before any arithmetic. Filing is not classification; classification reads the document.
These patterns may already be in your data.
A process assessment checks a representative sample of your documents and systems for each of them, and reports what it finds.