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Services for reporting you can defend
Most organisations do not have a data shortage. They have partner reports, submissions, interviews, registers and scanned files collected for one purpose that now have to answer a different question, often for a funder, an auditor or a board.
We build the structure that takes that material from source to report and keeps every claim linked to the document, page or record it came from. Then we hand it over, or we run it for you.
What we are usually asked to fix
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Partner and M&E reporting that will not add up. Twenty organisations report in twenty formats and someone senior turns it into one report every cycle.
See the workRead the guide -
Interviews and case material that need to become findings. Coding drifts between analysts, the report is due, and nobody can find the quote behind a finding.
See the workRead the guide -
Public submissions and consultation comments. Hundreds of responses in different formats, and every theme in the final document has to trace back to who said it.
See the workRead the guide -
Large bodies of legislation, policy or regulation. Long documents that have to be broken into records a reviewer can check one at a time.
See the work -
A report that is late. The evidence is scattered, the deadline has not moved, and analysis and drafting are waiting on each other.
See the work -
Data cleansing and reconciliation. The same person, site or account sits in three systems with three different values, and nobody can say which is right.
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Reported performance information that cannot be substantiated. An auditor asks how a figure was derived and the answer has to be rebuilt by hand, or cannot be rebuilt at all.
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Paper and scanned records. The records exist but cannot be searched, and retrieval takes days.
See the work -
The same programme reported four ways. A donor, a board, a department and a dashboard each get a separately assembled version, and they do not agree.
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A system nobody uses. Something was built and paid for, and everyone went back to spreadsheets.
Data System Audit
A straight answer about what is wrong with your information, what it would take to fix and what that would cost.
Before anyone builds anything, you need a clear picture of what you have, where it breaks and what fixing it is worth. We look at where your information comes from, what happens to it between arrival and reporting, where that process fails, and what a working system would need to do.
The audit stands on its own. If you take it to another supplier, or do the work in-house, it still tells you what you needed to know.
What you get
- An audit report (PDF): how your information is collected and reported today, the problems ranked by what they cost you, a recommended design, a phased plan and an indicative budget
- A briefing meeting to walk through the findings
- A summary email with the recommended next step and the decision you need to make
- Duration
- 4 to 6 weeks
The audit can be scoped to the question you are asking. The price and deliverables stay the same.
- Database Audit. When the problem sits in databases, registers or spreadsheets.
- Reporting Workflow Audit. When the reporting cycle is the problem.
- AI Readiness Audit. When you want to use AI on your own material, or your risk function has stopped you.
- Archive Readiness Assessment. For paper, scanned or historical archives. Archive work cannot be priced honestly without it, so it is never skipped.
A free assessment is a sales exercise with a predetermined answer. This one takes real time and gives you something you can use whether or not you work with us again.
Data System Build
The working system, built and handed over, with the trail back to source intact.
This is the route from your source material, through structuring and checking, to the reports, dashboards or searches your team uses. What it contains depends on the problem: consolidation of partner reports, reconciliation across systems that do not agree, an evidence database with a source link on every record, one reporting structure in place of four, or a searchable archive of material that used to sit in boxes.
Every build keeps the link back to the original source, records what any AI step did, and records who checked it.
Handover is part of the build
Documentation is written for the person who inherits the system. Training happens during delivery, not after it. The work is finished when your team can run it, and we fix defects at no charge for 30 days after handover.
You own your sources, your data and the final deliverables. Our methods and reusable components stay ours and are licensed into the work.
- Duration
- 3 months minimum
Archives: a pilot before anything else
For paper, scanned or historical archives, we start with a pilot on a defined portion of the holdings, chosen to be representative rather than easy. It shows what your actual material does under our method, what checking it needs and what each source costs to process. We price the rest only after the pilot. If the material will not support what you need, we tell you and the work stops there. Our own TRC Evidence Archive shows the method on a public archive.
- Archive pilot
- about 3 months
Digitising public records does not by itself allow the originals to be destroyed. That needs a disposal authority from the National Archivist.
Managed Data Service
A named person answerable for the claims, every cycle.
Once the system is running, somebody has to keep it right. We process new material against the agreed structure, run the checks, produce the reporting cycle, maintain the system as your requirements change, and put our name against the output.
What you get
- A named reviewer
- A documented checking cycle and an audit trail
- The reporting cycle produced on schedule
- Somebody contractually answerable when a claim is wrong
- Term
- 6 months minimum, 12 preferred
The usual alternative is a senior hire. We are one accountable service with a contract behind it, and cover when a post falls vacant.
Other ways we work
Faster delivery. An audit or build can be delivered on a shorter agreed schedule, priced as a named option on the quote. We offer it only when we can staff it without cutting a review step.
Working inside your project. Research firms, consultancies and lead consultants bring us in for the evidence work on their own contracts. Most of our case studies started that way.
How a piece of work runs
- Conversation. You tell us what you are working with and what question it has to answer.
- Scope. We agree what is included, what is not, and what the price rests on, in writing.
- Delivery. You get a named contact, agreed review points and a midpoint deliverable.
- Handover or ongoing service. Your team takes it over, or we keep running it.
Questions
Do we have to start with an audit?
No. It is the usual first step because it prices the build honestly. If your problem is already well defined, we can scope a build directly.
Who owns what you build?
You own your sources, your data and the final deliverables. Our methods and reusable components stay ours and are licensed into the work.
Do you use AI?
Where it has a defined job, such as first-pass extraction or retrieval on approved source material. A person reviews its output, and every claim keeps its link to the source. AI does not make findings or decisions.
Where is our data stored?
Where it is stored and processed, and whether AI may be used on it, is agreed with you before any source material is shared, and written into the scope.
Can you work on a contract we have already won?
Yes. We regularly work as the evidence team inside another firm's project.
Do you work outside South Africa?
We are based in Cape Town and work from South Africa. We take on work for international clients and partners from here.
Are prices inclusive of VAT?
Evidence Systems is not registered for VAT.
Have records that need to answer a question?
Tell us what you are working with. We will tell you plainly whether we are the right fit.