Why a Number Is What It Is

Description

When a figure looks wrong, the first questions are where it came from and what changed. Weave answers both from your project’s own records, without calling an AI model and without changing anything.

Why This Number

Right-click a figure and choose Why this number:

In Table Explorer, right-click a cell. The answer opens beside the cell.
In a dashboard, right-click a point on a chart or a cell in a table chart. PlaidCloud opens in a new tab, and the Weave dock answers there.

The answer says:

which step writes the figure, and in which workflow;
what it comes from, such as It comes from Freight Costs, split by Headcount. For an allocation, the drivers are named;
when that step last ran;
when the figure’s table last tied out, if an approved reconciliation reads it. See When It Last Tied Out.

Then, as Weave works them out, it shows how the figure changed:

Since the run before — such as Up 120,100 (+10.0%) on the run that ended and when.
Since last period, when the table has a period column.
Input and share, for a total written by an allocation: how much of the change came from the amount being split, and how much from the figure’s share of it.

Each part says Weave is still working on this… until it’s ready. Open links take you to the step and the table, and How Weave knows says where each line came from.

A chart point is answered in full when the chart reads one published table and totals, averages, counts or takes the smallest or largest value of a column. A chart built on a query Weave can’t trace to one figure gets the tables it reads instead.
The comparison with the run before covers the step’s last two runs in the last 35 days, as long as an earlier version of the table is still kept.
If row access limits what you can read, Weave doesn’t split the change. A table under row-level security has no comparison with earlier versions.
Why this number needs a role that can read the project’s tables.

A Table at an Earlier Run

In Table Explorer, the As of list in the toolbar lists the table’s earlier versions, newest first, by what wrote them: after Month-End Close ran and when, with the step, or changed outside a workflow run and when. Choose one to see the table as it was then, read-only. Current (live data) returns to the live table. See Table Snapshots.

Compare With Now

While you look at an earlier version, click Compare with now. Weave says:

how many rows there were then and now;
how many rows changed, were added or were removed, and which columns changed, such as Since then: 312 rows changed, 4 added, none removed. Amount changed in 312 rows; Headcount in none.;
which rows differ, marked in the grid, from a sample of up to 500 rows.

Click Column shift ▸ to compare the spread of each numeric column then and now.

To match rows, Weave needs the table’s key columns. If they aren’t set, Weave says so and a project Architect can click Set key columns. New steps, join suggestions and data checks use them as well.

In the project’s Weave activity history, an entry about a table or step has See the data then, which opens the table at the version just after that entry.
On a table, workflow or step, the Weave section of the right-click menu has What changed and See it at an earlier run.

How far back you can go depends on how long the table’s earlier versions are kept. Tables under row-level security don’t show earlier versions.

Ask a What-If

Open an allocation’s output table, and ask Weave a what-if in the dock, such as what if freight rises 8%. Weave gives an instant estimate of how the result would change, labeled Estimate: uses today’s shares; nothing was re-run. You can also ask about changes to the drivers, such as setting one to a value. If your words could mean more than one thing, Weave asks which.

To keep the estimate, choose Keep ▾ → As a scenario. See Keep an Estimate as a Scenario.

Weave estimates for a table written by an allocation step you can open.
If row access hides part of the table, Weave doesn’t estimate, because totals would be incomplete.
Weave estimates a change you name, not the undoing of an earlier one.

When It Last Tied Out

When a project Architect runs an approved reconciliation, PlaidCloud keeps the result, and shows it as one sentence:

Tied out to Cost Pool at 06:02.
Doesn’t tie to Cost Pool, as last checked at 06:02.
Not checked since the table was written at a later time, once either side has changed.

The sentence is in the Last result column of the Reconciliations window, in the answer to Why this number, and on the readiness checklist. To check again, choose Run the check from the Weave section of the table’s right-click menu. It runs every approved reconciliation that reads the table, as you.

You see a kept result only if you can open every table the reconciliation reads, and row access doesn’t limit what you can read.