How numbers are checked
Every number, traced to where it came from.
AI writing tools are known to invent figures. Claravo does two things about it: it writes from your sources and cites them, and then it lets you check each number on every slide against those sources, and shows you what it found. Open any deck and choose Check quality, then Numbers and their sources.
- 01A number on a slideEvery figure in the slides’ text, tables, diagrams and chart titles.
- 02The passage it citesLooked for first in what its line, or its slide, cites.
- 03The deck’s other sourcesThen in every other file and web page the deck uses.
- 04A mark you can readShown in the Quality panel, with where it was found.
What each number is marked
| Mark | What it means |
|---|---|
| In the cited source | The same number is in a passage the line (or its slide) cites. |
| Worked out from a file | Not quoted but worked out by Claravo from a table in an attached file (a total, a weighted rate, a share), and worked out again by the check to the same value. |
| In a source the line does not cite | Not in what the line cites, but in another of the deck’s sources. Worth a look: the citation may be wrong. |
| In a source (no source named on the slide) | Neither the line nor its slide names a source, and the number is in one of the files attached to the deck. This is how a deck made in another tool is checked: its slides name no sources, so every file is searched. |
| From past work, not checked as current | Found only in past work you chose from your reference library (an earlier proposal or document), never in a current source. Shown with that work’s date, and never counted as found; one more than 12 months old asks you to check it is still true. |
| Same number in a source, with a different or no currency | The same value is in a source with another currency, or none ("$3.5M" on the slide, "3.5M" in the source). |
| In a source only inside a longer number or row (check it) | The digits appear only inside a longer number or a table row ("200" in "1 200"). |
| Not quoted: arithmetic on numbers in a source (check it) | Not written in any source, but equal to simple arithmetic on two numbers on the same slide that are in a source (a difference, a sum, a change in per cent, a share, basis points). The report shows the sum; check that it is the right one. |
| Simple average of a file’s rows; the weighted figure differs | A rate given as the simple average of a file’s rows, where the rows should weight it: the weighted figure is different. |
| Quotes the chart from before its data changed (edited, or updated from a new version of its file) | Quotes a chart’s figure from before its data was changed by hand: the chart no longer shows it. |
| Not in any source | In none of the deck’s sources, and every source was read in full. |
| Not in the sources read here (some could not be read) | Not in the sources that could be read, but some could not be read in full here. |
| Worked out by Claravo from the fee table’s rows | An amount in a proposal’s fee table (a line, the subtotal, a discount, tax or the total), worked out by Claravo from the quantities and rates in its rows. Never typed, and never written by the AI. |
| Price typed in the fee table | A rate, discount or tax rate you typed into a fee table: your price, with no source to check it against. |
Charts
A chart is marked by where its data came from. Charts made from a spreadsheet are computed from your data, never invented.
| Mark | What it means |
|---|---|
| Chart computed from a file | Every value was computed from an attached spreadsheet, and the speaker notes state the arithmetic. |
| Chart changed by hand after computing | Computed from a file, then changed by hand. Shown as edited, never as computed. |
| Chart marked as an estimate | Marked as an estimate or forecast. |
| Chart typed in by hand | Entered by hand, so there is nothing to check it against. |
| Chart from your PowerPoint file (numbers as saved in it) | From a PowerPoint file you opened in Claravo: its numbers are as saved in that file, with no source to check them against. |
| Chart from a library slide (computed in another deck; not checked here) | From a slide inserted from your slide library: its numbers were computed from a file in another deck, which this deck does not have, so they are not checked here. The report says which file and when. |
What “found” means, and what is not checked
- Found means the same value, of the same kind (a percentage, a multiple, an amount in the same currency, or a plain number) and with the same sign, appears in the source; a source may give more decimals than the slide (34.2% backs 34%). The report shows where. It does not mean the source says what the slide says: that is for you to read.
- Nothing is guessed or scored by an AI model. The check is a lookup you can repeat.
- Not checked, and the report says so: speaker notes, source lines, the Sources slide, years, whole numbers from 0 to 10 (“3 steps”). A number written in words (“doubled”, “a third of”) is listed only when the cited source has it or the slide’s own numbers work it out.
- Numbers are read in the deck’s own language convention: 1,200.5 in English, 1.200,5 or 1 200,5 in the others.