Scale Phase 4 Source Attribution Guide

Attribution contract

What this proof must protect before it reaches a client.

Use this guide before connecting Search Console, QuickBooks, Thumbtack, Angi, call tracking, CRM, campaign spend, booked jobs, invoices, or payment records.

Owner

One owner signs off the proof

Data ops owns the source match, reconciliation state, portal boundary, and client-safe summary.

Risk

Make attribution uncertainty visible

The main risk is hiding attribution uncertainty and making ROI look more precise than the data supports.

Privacy

Summarize accounting data

Raw invoices, payment rows, customer details, and provider payloads stay internal unless a summary is explicitly approved.

Scale

Use rollups before raw tables

Large client volume should read period rollups, attribution summaries, confidence scores, and approved proof notes first.

Baseline controls

Checks that apply to every attribution workflow.

Confirm source label, client, service, market, campaign, period, and owner before linking revenue.
Separate lead volume, qualified opportunities, booked jobs, invoiced revenue, and collected revenue.
Use QuickBooks or payment data only after customer matching, invoice matching, and duplicate checks pass.
Store confidence score, reconciliation status, source freshness, and known caveats with every proof item.
Keep raw accounting payloads, CRM payloads, and provider rows out of the client portal.
Compare current results with the baseline period before writing a since-joining improvement note.
Pause publication when source, invoice, payment, or booked-job attribution is disputed.
Use prepared MySQL reads for runtime reports and summarized fields for portal proof.
Attach each ROI claim to an internal audit trail, report period, and approval state.
Retest admin, portal, mobile, and generated report pages after attribution changes.

Topic checks

Specific checks for this reporting topic.

Reconcile QuickBooks, CRM, call tracking, marketplace, and admin states before portal proof.
Keep raw accounting payloads and payment details out of client-facing cards.
Attach every metric to a baseline period, current period, owner, and approval state.
Pause proof when a source, invoice, payment, or attribution link is disputed.
Use traffic rollups and report metrics for portal reads, not raw event tables.
Document caveats in a client-safe note when attribution confidence is partial.
Tie each ROI claim to an internal audit trail and reconciliation record.
Retest admin, portal, mobile, and public pages after report changes.
Match lead source, client, service, market, campaign, and report period before calculating revenue.

Checkpoints

Turn the topic into an admin review checklist.

Each checkpoint can become a QA step, reconciliation task, report approval rule, or portal proof gate.

Check 1

Attribution checkpoint

Reconcile QuickBooks, CRM, call tracking, marketplace, and admin states before portal proof.

Check 2

Attribution checkpoint

Keep raw accounting payloads and payment details out of client-facing cards.

Check 3

Attribution checkpoint

Attach every metric to a baseline period, current period, owner, and approval state.

Check 4

Attribution checkpoint

Pause proof when a source, invoice, payment, or attribution link is disputed.

Check 5

Attribution checkpoint

Use traffic rollups and report metrics for portal reads, not raw event tables.

Check 6

Attribution checkpoint

Document caveats in a client-safe note when attribution confidence is partial.

Check 7

Attribution checkpoint

Tie each ROI claim to an internal audit trail and reconciliation record.

Check 8

Attribution checkpoint

Retest admin, portal, mobile, and public pages after report changes.

Check 9

Attribution checkpoint

Match lead source, client, service, market, campaign, and report period before calculating revenue.

Data hooks

Tables and runtime sources to connect later.

Public pages remain static; admin and portal runtime should use prepared reads, rollups, and approved summaries.

Runtime 1