Predicted beside landed: the record a buyer pays for

The short answer

Before each quarter, write down in euros what each move is expected to deliver. After the quarter, write down what it did deliver, and sign it. Keep both, forever, including the misses. After eight quarters the company holds something no adviser can produce for it in the last six months before a sale: a dated record of how well it predicts its own results.

Why it matters now

A buyer's diligence discounts what it cannot check. A growth story told in a management presentation is testimony. The same story told as eight quarters of predictions made before the outcome was known, each one beside its result, is evidence.

How to do it

1. Freeze the prediction before the quarter starts. A prediction written after the result is known is a description.
2. Predict in euros, per move. "Pipeline improving" cannot be checked. "€180k of margin from the pricing reset by 31 March" can.
3. Record the result with its source. The invoice run, the payroll, the bank statement.
4. Sign it. The person who owns the move signs what landed. An unsigned figure proves nothing.
5. Keep the misses, in red. A record with no misses reads as a record with the misses removed.
6. Report the hit rate. Two figures, predicted and landed, over the whole record. That number is what the buyer remembers.

What good looks like

SIMULATION, an invented company, cumulative value landed in euros millions.

Where it goes wrong

• The record starts a year before the sale. It reads exactly as old as it is.
• Predictions are revised after the fact. One revised quarter costs the credibility of all the others.
• Only the wins are reported. The misses are what make the hits believable.

The instrument

The quarterly close in a MakersOS room freezes each prediction, records each result with its source, and signs both. The certificate carries the hit rate as two euro figures, so an owner reads it across a whole book without seeing a single line.