Which Record Counts?: Choose the Source of Record, Control Changes, and Keep Copies From Drifting Apart

If the CRM, signed contract, invoice, working spreadsheet, and AI summary disagree, which one counts? A business can have complete records and still make the wrong decision because each record describes a different fact, purpose, or point in time. The signed agreement may preserve what was accepted. The CRM may hold the current service address. The settled payment record may prove what was paid. An AI summary may be only a derived copy. Treating one application as the answer to every question can spread an error farther. Which Record Counts? gives small operators a practical way to assign authority one fact at a time. It shows how to name the exact fact and use, choose its source of record, limit who or what can change it, require evidence, preserve correction history, trace downstream copies, and test whether stale values still control work. The book includes: A 30-minute record conflict inspection A fact authority sheet A change and correction record A disagreement packet A copy and drift register Reconciliation rules and stop conditions Checks for AI summaries and automated writeback A migration and exit rehearsal A bounded paid pilot for record-repair work The method begins with local inspection and manual testing. It does not assume that a new platform, central database, or AI tool can declare the truth for you. It makes evidence, permissions, change paths, review, correction, export, and recovery visible. Use it to repair one important record conflict, define the smallest useful result, and decide whether software is needed at all.