Before it publishes, we check it.
A six-question pass over anything built from data and claims: the arithmetic, the dates, the sourcing. It finds the hole before a reader does.
Nobody's job is to re-add the numbers after the writing is done.
The person writing a report is thinking about the message, not re-deriving the arithmetic underneath it. That is true of almost any organization putting out a release, a report or a statement built from numbers, and it is exactly where a five-minute check pays for itself.
A total that doesn't equal its own parts.
A date for a quarter that hasn't happened yet.
A number quoted twice, meaning two different things.
Send a report. Get back what we find.
Nothing to install. You send a file, and a short report comes back.
You send us a report.
A PDF or an Excel file.
We check it against itself.
The program redoes every sum and date. A person reads and signs off every finding before you see it. Nothing is checked against the outside world, only the document's own numbers.
You get a short report.
Each finding is shown on your own page, with the sum, so you can check it in a minute.
Six plain questions, asked of anything built from data.
You get the finding, not the formula: just an answer you can verify yourself.
Checkable in ten seconds against a calendar. No outside research required.
Last year, a comparable period, a stated total. A number alone proves nothing.
The headline number must show its own addition.
Not left as “officials say” or “sources familiar with the matter.”
No burying the point under a pile of numbers first.
If the piece comes from a source document, nothing important is missing from it.
What a finding looks like.
These three are made up, for illustration. Every real finding is shown the same way: the words on the page, the sum, and where to look.
Operating expenses rose 9.8%, not the 9.9% printed. The 2025 figure is $4,210,000 and the 2024 figure is $3,834,000, a rise of 9.8%.
The three lines on page 9 add up to 10,455, but the total shows 10,545.
The report says membership grew but gives no figure for last year to compare it with.
A Mistake is something wrong that should be fixed. A Suggestion is something that could be better, and is up to you.
Used to check, then deleted.
We delete your draft when the check is signed off. We keep only the scorecard, and we never share your findings without your written permission. The scorecard also records a fingerprint of the file, the date and who sent it.
Priced by the pages. Nothing else to pay.
A check is priced by the number of pages in the document. You see the price before you send anything.
Prices are in Canadian dollars.
Data Says is run by Mark Boucher.
Mark's career is in enterprise architecture and in strategy and planning, and he knows publishing from the inside. A person reads and signs off every finding. You deal with a person, not a ticket queue.
Send us your report before it goes out.
A person reads and signs off every finding. You get a short report back, with each finding shown on your own page.