![]() Date: 2024-08-17 Page is: DBtxt003.php bk009090300 | |||||||||
TrueValueMetrics
ACTION INFORMATION FOR ALL OF SOCIETY Metrics about the State, Progress and Performance of the Economy and Society Metrics about Impact on People, Place, Planet and Profit Chapter 9 - ABOUT DATAFLOWS 9-3 DATA ACQUISITION | |||||||||
Using existing data There is a huge amount of data that has been collected over the years ... but almost all is dramatically underutilized. In fact, in the relief and development industry, a very large proportion of the funds have been used for surveys and data collection, with rather little spent on doing what was most needed ... helping to fund practical activities. Data collection and surveys are popular with donors because they are also popular with international consultants and NGOs. But sadly, these expenditures add to cost without doing very much for results. There is a huge amount of old data ... and there is the potential to use these data as a starting point for better data about development. Mobilizing these data is a challenge ... and potentially very valuable. New data might well cost $20,000, yet similar existing data may well already exist, and could be retrieved for a small fraction of the cost of getting new data. But while the cost argument appears strong, there is little effort evident indicating a movement to use of existing data. The reasons for this appear to be governmental concerns about sharing official data, and corporate and academic concerns about sharing intellectual property that might possible have the potential to be monetized for profit. Data collection In a corporate setting, data collection is done throughout the organization, and recorded in a systematic way. For TVM Value Accountancy data collection has to be done throughout society, and also recorded in a systematic way. Data collection can be done by anyone and everyone. If you know something, TVM Value Accountancy provides a way for this information to be used as a part of the body of data that are needed. This is addressed in the section on functional structure.
Journals and Day Books There is a reason why “journals” and “day books” are the basic books of original entry in old fashioned accountancy. Every transaction is written down every day. Regular precomputer accounting used day books and journals to record financial transactions and to start the process of accumulating the information. After compiling information in a daily record, the information was then “posted” to accounts where the data starts to have analytical meaning. In a computerized world, storage is now electronic, but the concepts of organization do not change. Making data accurate The accuracy of data is critical. If the data are valid and respected, the data have power. Data may be seen to be valid when the same view of facts appears using data from different sources. The functional structure described in this paper addresses the question of how different dataflows will provide confirming validation. Data validation takes place in many different ways. In a good system, it is almost impossible to fool the oversight team because the data are being looked at and validated from many different independent perspectives. Getting control over the data Accounting has value because the data flowing through an accounting system are generally reliable. The data are reliable because they are organized and under control from very early on. Because of this they can be checked, and errors identified. In an accounting system all the data that are needed are recorded ... and registered. In the design of an accounting system there are processes that ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data. These include the ideas of:
There are also checks that are associated with expectations of what the data should be like. It will be very rare for the crooks to know all of the validations that are going on. Some of the validations include:
And cost accounting can be expensive ... with it being much less costly simply to have management and supervision that have some appreciation of cost control and their role in optimizing costs.
Low cost data acquisition and accessible data Specialized PDAs (personal digital assistants) have been used for a number of years (since around 1995) to reduce the burden of paper based data in mobile situations. Organizations like Federal Express and UPS were early adopters of this specialized technology, and it has been adopted for many applications where accuracy and speed are important (for example inventory control). The use of a PDA is cost effective when labor costs are high and the use of data has a high value. PDAs are rarely low enough in cost to be of advantage in low wage settings ... but they have been deployed by AID agencies using grant funding even though the sustainability of their use is near zero. | |||||||||
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