{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp09_archetype_breadth150_20260804","research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp09_light_prior_art_20260804","cell_id":"search_space_pruning__accounting_auditing","search_lanes":{"direct_problem_and_intervention":{"queries":["intercompany reconciliation elimination difference investigation audit trail false negative exclusions","site:docs.oracle.com intercompany reconciliation matching report intercompany accounts differences"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"],"no_result_note":null},"synonyms_and_historical_terms":{"queries":["intercompany out of balance reconciliation differences transaction matching tolerance exceptions","intercompany account reconciliation discrepancy investigation elimination entries"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"],"no_result_note":null},"products_practices_and_standards":{"queries":["site:help.sap.com intercompany matching reconciliation matching methods reason codes workflow","site:blackline.com intercompany financial management matching exceptions audit trail","site:pcaobus.org standards AS 2315 audit sampling selection representative sample official"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null},"component_combination":{"queries":["intercompany reconciliation constraint filtering candidate explanations false negative sample exclusions reentry","intercompany mismatch investigation branch pruning dominance diversity holdout"],"source_ids":["SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"],"no_result_note":"No retained source described dominance-based removal of causal explanation branches combined with preservation of uncertain cause families, sampled false-negative review of exclusions, and premise-triggered reentry."}},"sources":[{"source_id":"SRC1","title":"Overview of Intercompany Reconciliation","publisher":"Oracle","url":"https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/financials/26b/faiac/overview-of-intercompany-reconciliation.html","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","claims_supported":["Oracle provides reports for reconciling intercompany receivable and payable accounts and identifying differences.","The reports expose provider and receiver transaction lines, supporting entity-side narrowing of intercompany discrepancies."]},{"source_id":"SRC2","title":"Group Reporting (FIN-CS)","publisher":"SAP","url":"https://help.sap.com/doc/848b97bd423a4903a66426e25928098e/2020.001/en-US/loioe9509cd7a8bc44df84d9b1448e550178.pdf","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","claims_supported":["SAP Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation uses ordered matching rules, filters, data slices, matching expressions, currencies, periods, organizational units, reason codes, workflows, and adjustments.","Matched items are excluded from subsequent matching rules; matching documents preserve detailed source and status information for tracking or auditing.","Deleting a matching document can return source-table items to New status for processing in a later matching run, providing close prior art for reversible rule-based narrowing."]},{"source_id":"SRC3","title":"BlackLine Solutions: Intercompany Hub","publisher":"BlackLine","url":"https://pages.blackline.com/rs/815-GQP-915/images/blackLine_intercompany_hub_datasheet.pdf","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","claims_supported":["BlackLine describes intercompany imbalances involving multiple systems, currencies, timing differences, high transaction volumes, and substantial research effort.","Its product centralizes records, statuses, supporting documents, journals, rules, approvals, and matching across entities.","The material states that accounting staff may need to sort through tens of thousands of transactions to determine why accounts are out of balance."]},{"source_id":"SRC4","title":"AS 2315: Audit Sampling","publisher":"Public Company Accounting Oversight Board","url":"https://pcaobus.org/oversight/standards/auditing-standards/details/AS2315","source_type":"OFFICIAL_STANDARD","claims_supported":["AS 2315 recognizes the cost and time tradeoff between examining all data and accepting controlled sampling uncertainty.","It addresses incorrect-acceptance risk, representative selection, stratifying populations, evaluating deviations, and revising planned procedures when sample results contradict assumptions.","It is adjacent authority for designing a sample-based check of excluded branches, not prior art for causal-branch pruning itself."]}],"problem_evidence":{"status":"PARTLY_SUPPORTED","finding":"The problem is visible: Oracle and SAP provide dedicated reconciliation and discrepancy-processing facilities, while BlackLine explicitly describes frequent imbalances, multiple systems, currencies, timing issues, large transaction populations, and substantial research effort. The retained sources do not establish the stronger assertions that investigators routinely construct a combinatorial causal-path space or that undocumented narrowing frequently removes the true cause.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"]},"closest_prior_art":[{"name":"SAP Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation ordered matching rules","source_ids":["SRC2"],"overlap":"Filters narrow data, sequential rules assign matching items and exclude them from later rules, reason codes control follow-up, detailed matching records support auditing, and deleted matching documents can return items for later processing.","remaining_difference":"SAP's documented unit is a transaction item or assignment, not an explicit competing causal path from an observed elimination difference through documents, periods, currencies, transformations, and consolidation adjustments. The manual does not show dominance comparisons among explanations, uncertain-family holdouts, or sampled false-negative review of rule-excluded causal branches."},{"name":"BlackLine Intercompany Hub","source_ids":["SRC3"],"overlap":"Centralizes intercompany data and evidence, applies matching and qualification rules across currency and timing attributes, and supplies multi-actor workflow and approvals.","remaining_difference":"The retained material does not describe auditable pruning of competing causal explanations, dominance removal, diversity preservation among unresolved explanations, exclusion sampling, or evidence-triggered reentry."},{"name":"Oracle intercompany reconciliation reports","source_ids":["SRC1"],"overlap":"Identifies intercompany differences and exposes provider and receiver transaction lines for investigation.","remaining_difference":"Reporting and entity-side identification do not provide the proposal's governed exclusion logic or false-negative safeguards."},{"name":"PCAOB AS 2315 audit sampling","source_ids":["SRC4"],"overlap":"Establishes representative sampling, sampling-risk evaluation, population stratification, and reconsideration when deviations contradict assumptions.","remaining_difference":"It governs audit samples and does not structure or prune explanations for a specific intercompany elimination difference."}],"prior_art_disposition":"ADJACENT_PRIOR_ART","contrastive_claim_remaining":"For a known intercompany elimination difference, representing alternatives as ledger-to-consolidation causal paths and applying only fact-backed impossibility and dominance exclusions—while retaining uncertain cause families, recording each exclusion, sampling excluded paths for false negatives, and reopening paths when their exclusion premises change—will reduce substantive investigation without making the documented cause unreachable. Existing sources establish transaction filtering, sequential matching, audit records, reversible reprocessing, workflow, and sampling separately, but not this causal-path-level combination.","contrastive_claim_falsifier":"The claim is falsified if existing documentation shows a reconciliation system already applying the same causal-path representation, impossibility and dominance tests, uncertain-family preservation, sampled exclusion review, and premise-triggered reentry; or if a retrospective replay excludes the documented cause, produces unsupported exclusions, fails to reduce branches requiring substantive review, or costs more than reviewing the full candidate set.","gates":{"adequate_source_search":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The bounded search covered direct phrasing, reconciliation and out-of-balance terminology, first-party Oracle, SAP, and BlackLine practices, an official sampling standard, and combinations involving filtering, exclusion review, and reentry. Exactly four opened sources from four publishers were retained.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"]},"supported_problem":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"Dedicated vendor workflows and BlackLine's explicit description of large, complex, time-consuming intercompany imbalance investigations partly support the proposed problem, although undocumented causal pruning and its frequency remain unverified.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"]},"distinct_testable_claim":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"A contrast remains at the causal-explanation level and is testable by measuring whether the documented cause remains reachable, whether exclusions are fact-supported, and whether substantive review volume falls relative to transaction-matching practice.","source_ids":["SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"]},"bounded_next_test":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The proposed read-only replay on one resolved difference, with no more than five controller-approved constraints and review of every retained branch plus up to 20 stratified exclusions, is bounded and measures reachability, false exclusions, and review-set reduction. AS 2315 supports deliberate sampling design and reconsideration when deviations undermine assumptions, without making this replay an audit procedure or assurance conclusion.","source_ids":["SRC2","SRC4"]},"no_obvious_safety_or_authority_stop":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The first test uses frozen extracts and does not post, reverse, certify, suppress, or change accounting data. Controller approval, restoration after a false exclusion, and separation from required audit procedures address the obvious authority risks. Operational use would still require local control-owner, accounting-policy, access, retention, and auditor review.","source_ids":["SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"]}},"screen_survival":true,"world_novelty_boundary":"This bounded public-web screen found adjacent prior art and supports only a narrow testable contrast. It cannot establish world novelty, patentability, freedom to operate, market size, expert acceptance, completeness of nonpublic product functionality, or realized value."}