Career / Work · Advice & Questions · Oct 16

I found an error in a report we’ve been sending for months. How do I raise it?

Career / Work

The total looked too high, so I opened the hidden rows. Our monthly workshop report had been counting cancelled bookings as attended places.

I took over the spreadsheet three weeks ago. The formula was already there, and last month I sent the report after checking that the totals matched the summary tab. Now I’ve checked two earlier months and found the same issue. I haven’t checked the rest yet.

This is an internal planning report, not a bill. It helps the team choose which workshops to repeat. My predecessor built it and still works beside me. She’s helpful, and I don’t want the first substantial thing I say about her work to sound like an accusation.

My manager needs this month’s report tomorrow. I can correct it, but the lower number will look like a sudden fall in attendance unless I explain why.

Would you speak to my predecessor before the manager, or bring them both the finding? How much of the old reporting should I check before I say anything?

Discussion

3 community replies

@MaxOnMain

The changed number needs an explanation when you send it. You don’t have to establish the entire history first. Show the formula, explain which bookings it included and state that you’ve confirmed the issue in three months so far. That keeps the finding accurate without turning an unfinished check into a claim that every earlier report was wrong.

@MorganSays

Your predecessor may know something the file doesn’t show. Perhaps the measure was originally meant to count bookings rather than attendance, or the label changed later. Ask how the total was intended to work, with the specific rows open. That gives her a chance to explain the history while preserving the question about whether the present report matches its label.

@TheoInTransit

I’d avoid introducing this as “her mistake.” You inherited a calculation and also sent one report yourself. The useful question is what the team has been counting and what decisions used that number. You can acknowledge your own check missed it without taking responsibility for every past version or guessing why the formula was written that way.

I found an error in a report we’ve been sending for months. How do I raise it?

Discussion

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