Data neutrality

Good accountancy is neutral. A good accountant does look for an answer to support a hypothesis, but rather merely presents the data so that the answer is clear. The nearest an accountant gets to an opinion is to decide what data might be important.

TVM Value Accountancy has to be neutral ... and the data have to be neutral. The data are merely facts about a transaction ... usually an economic transaction or a situation, a movement in time, of something that results from an economic transaction.. The data are a representation of a fact, and not an opinion or any form of judgment. Six feet is the depth of the water at a specific place at a specific time ... it is a fact, and this datapoint does not tell anything about whether six feet is a good situation or a bad situation.

Data are a record of reality

Data need to be neutral ... but data also need to be a record of reality. This is not always easy. Accountancy has always operated with simple data that are easy to understand and clearly reflect the facts of the transaction. In most accountancy the reality of a transaction can be recorded by describing what it is, when, where, how many, unit value (cost of price) and total value of the transaction.

But data about facts that do not have the properties of economic transaction may be recorded in a similar manner ... weather is a good example. Rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction are a set of facts that are interesting ... data can be collected and put in the community record. These data need to be identified with time, place and the person responsible for making the record. These data may help explain some of the successes and failures of the community.

Maybe these weather data will show something about health in the community ... is malaria increased when there is more rainfall ... or not. Does the direction of the wind make a difference? But in order to do this analysis there has to be neutral data about the health situation. Maybe data about cases reported at the community health clinic is a starting pint for data about the health situation.

Performance proxies

Data are efficient when they provide the foundation for understanding and when the cost is low. Techniques should always be adopted that facilitate understanding and keep costs low. The specific approach will depend on the metric ... for example, the prevalence of the malaria parasite may be monitored using just a few sentinal sites ... and the work done may be further reduced by monitoring weather and only doing testing when temperature and rainfall indicate that potential conditions for malaria parasite transmission are present.

On time ... in time ... but not real time

Time is very important.

Good organizations organize their data collection so that the data are in time and on time.

In contrast the typical inefficient organization rarely have data in time and on time ... rather they engage with data about performance as late as possible when it is going to have the least impact on the prevailing modus operandi.

Low cost ... reliable ... clear

Good data should not cost a lot ... they should be reliable, that is they should reflect the underlying facts ... and they should be clear. Simple data often tell a lot more than complex data because of the clarity, something that accountancy has been concerned about since the advent of financial reporting.

///////////////////////// Data reliability

The data associated with accountancy are boring ... but the system does what it can to ensure that the data are reliable and may be trusted. The techniques used for this include organization so that there is both internal control and internal check. The quality of accountancy data are enhanced by the professionalism of accountants who address the details that is so essential to data reliability. The data reliability of accountancy is very much greater than what may be achieved using statistical method on top of small surveys. While there is a case for the statistical approach in some limited circumstances, it is not a useful alternative for financial control and for most accountancy reporting purposes.

Data independence ... accounting independence

There is a need to have data ... and accounting ... independent. This helps to ensure that the data and the accounting reports reflect reality and are not merely some fiction desired by operating management. There are many different approaches that can be taken to have this independence ... it is, however, usually not enough to have an independent audit to provide this independent view when the structure itself is deeply flawed.

Inadequate independence

Most accounting data originate in an operating environment. In the relief and development industry most activities are funded by donors who want feedback, and frequently donors fund Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) to get this feedback ... but is this good enough. In some cases it is not, and in other cases the feedback is appropriate ... but there is no systemic internal control or internal check that ensures that the data are reliable and neutral.

Modularity

Modularity helps make something manageable ... and makes it useful more rapidly. This is applied in TVM Value Accountancy to make little things useful while waiting for other detail. In the TVM Value Accountancy framework the community data can be worked on section by section ... bits of the economic activity analysis can be done. Modularity helps make something manageable ... and makes it useful more rapidly. This can be applied in TVM Value Accountancy to make little things useful while waiting for everything to be deployed.

Efficiency

Efficiency comes more from engineering than from accountancy ... but the idea is very relevant. Productivity is something similar to efficiency, as is cost effectiveness. In each case the amount of output is being related to the amount of input that went into the activity and its result.

Cost of TVM Value Accountancy

The cost of TVM value accountancy must be small relative to the economic activities that are going on. Because TVM value accountancy aims to be useful in low income communities, the cost of the system is designed to be very very low ... and using only ultra low cost technology and systems. A good accounting system does not come free, but it should not be excessively expensive. Good design especially of analytical codes helps to reduce cost without sacrificing analytical power. A TVM Value Accountancy system can be deployed with very low costs making use of existing available infrastructure. Good design, together with effective use of the Internet and relational database systems makes TVM Value Accountancy much lower in cost than its value. Reality check

There is however an important caveat. Powerful technology and analytical capability should not be used as a substitute for good data. There is no more place for sloppy concepts in a powerful analytical environment than in the much more power constrained situation of earlier times.

Dr. John Gulland, FRS was a pioneer in mathematical modeling for fish population dynamics at FAO. The value of his work was diminished because the quality of the data being studied declined over time. The lesson is that there should be effort to have good data.