Capture Milestone Dates

Every date a report needs has a stated capture rule and a backfill that cannot make things worse.

See the situation

Start with the situation below. Next, we will work through an example together before you try the activity.

Elena · Reporting lead

The case

Two reps, identical in the number

A date should identify a business event and its capture rule. Event time and logged time may differ.

Rep A: Made no contact
Rep B: Made contact, logged it from a personal mailbox
Date stamped for A: None
Date stamped for B: None
What the metric reports: Two reps who did not contact anyone

Your task

Match each milestone to the event it records. Compare when the event happened with when it was logged.

Need a little guidance?

You’re done when: A later reader can tell what actually happened and when it was recorded.

Timestamps are only meaningful when the event definition is stable.

Need a reminder? Reopen the worked example

Watch one example first

A call happened Monday and was logged Wednesday. If first-contact time means the earliest verified eligible call, the milestone is Monday; Wednesday remains its recorded time.

Why this follows from the evidence

Event time measures the business event. Logged time measures capture. A backfill needs an explicit source and conflict policy before it changes either.

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Case evidence

Two reps, identical in the number

Rep A: Made no contact
Rep B: Made contact, logged it from a personal mailbox
Date stamped for A: None
Date stamped for B: None
What the metric reports: Two reps who did not contact anyone

The two reps above are identical inside the metric. One of them did the work. Write the rule that explains why, then decide how to recover it.

Map the business event to each capture path

A milestone date can have three clocks: when the business event happened, when someone recorded it, and when an automated process observed it. The values below are prepared example data.

Qualification decision

Event time:: 09:14
Log time:: 09:30
Automation observed:: 09:32

A person changed the status manually; the automation that watches decision runs did not fire.

First contact attempt

Event time:: 10:05
Log time:: 10:21
Automation observed:: Not observed

The attempt was logged from a personal mailbox without a link to the CRM record.

Confirmed booking

Event time:: 11:15
Log time:: 11:27
Automation observed:: 11:28

The calendar confirmation arrived in reporting after the booking happened.

For Qualified at, which time should the field represent?Which qualification path must also be captured?For First contact at, which event should count?What evidence path can supply it?Which direction may this example's verified backfill move the date?What source supports the backfill?Should the first-contact queue publish its blind spot?

Restoring your saved work…

Your place saves as you go.

Chapter 3 of 80 complete