{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp09_archetype_breadth150_20260804","research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp09_light_prior_art_20260804","cell_id":"versioning_and_quality_discrimination__accounting_auditing","search_lanes":{"direct_problem_and_intervention":{"queries":["pre-audit readiness services pricing packages fixed fee","\"pre-audit\" readiness package accounting services"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2"],"no_result_note":"No retained source showed the exact proposed three-tier human accounting-advisory menu for one financial-statement close cycle."},"synonyms_and_historical_terms":{"queries":["accounting firm client advisory services tiered packages good better best pricing","CAS value pricing service tiers accounting firms"],"source_ids":["SRC3"],"no_result_note":null},"products_practices_and_standards":{"queries":["audit readiness service priority expedited support package","AICPA audit readiness nonattest services independence client responsibilities"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null},"component_combination":{"queries":["accounting advisory fixed fee scope creep tiered package primary survey","accounting advisory tiered packages priority support fixed price entity limits"],"source_ids":["SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null}},"sources":[{"source_id":"SRC1","title":"Audit Readiness Services | Preparation & Support","publisher":"BPM","url":"https://www.bpm.com/services/assurance/audit/audit-readiness-and-support/","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","claims_supported":["Financial-statement audit-readiness is an offered advisory service involving workpaper and reconciliation preparation, PBC-list support, timelines, technical consultation, and varying levels of testing or support.","Audit-readiness needs can span multiple stages and forms of assistance, supporting the existence of heterogeneous service intensity."]},{"source_id":"SRC2","title":"AuditRelay — Turn your auditor's PBC list into an evidence package","publisher":"AuditRelay","url":"https://www.getauditrelay.com/","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","claims_supported":["An audit-readiness product already uses published tiers with bounded audit-package and user limits.","Its higher tier adds reusable evidence capability and priority support, closely paralleling scope limits and premium support in the proposal."]},{"source_id":"SRC3","title":"Value-based pricing for accounting firms: Step-by-step guide","publisher":"Ignition","url":"https://www.ignitionapp.com/blog/value-based-pricing-for-accounting-firms","source_type":"TRADE_PROFESSIONAL","claims_supported":["Accounting firms are advised to identify differing client value drivers, package services into tiers, let clients self-select support levels, set fixed prices, and define scope to control unbilled work.","The source specifically identifies audit readiness as a possible client priority and warns that fixed-fee margins can shrink when scope or complexity is underestimated.","It recommends testing pricing with a small client group and tracking package performance."]},{"source_id":"SRC4","title":"Plain English Guide to Independence","publisher":"AICPA","url":"https://pub.aicpa.org/codeofconduct/ethicsresources/Plain_English_Guide_to_Independence.pdf","source_type":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","claims_supported":["Reconciliations, financial-statement preparation, and advisory work outside an attest engagement are nonattest services.","When nonattest services are provided to an attest client, management must oversee and accept responsibility, the provider must not assume management responsibilities, and objectives, responsibilities, services, and limitations must be documented.","SEC, PCAOB, and other applicable independence rules can impose stricter restrictions, including self-review and audit-committee preapproval constraints."]}],"problem_evidence":{"status":"PARTLY_SUPPORTED","finding":"The service category and the pricing tension are publicly visible: audit-readiness offerings encompass materially different amounts of preparation and support, while accounting-pricing guidance identifies heterogeneous client value drivers, fixed-fee scope creep, underestimated complexity, and the use of bounded tiers. However, the proposal's specific empirical predicate—simultaneous price-related declines, unpriced urgent workload, and poor predictability from permitted quotation attributes—was not established for this provider or for pre-audit close-readiness engagements generally.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC3"]},"closest_prior_art":[{"name":"Ignition tiered value-pricing guidance for accounting firms","source_ids":["SRC3"],"overlap":"Uses fixed-price service tiers, differing support levels, explicit scope, client self-selection, small-group testing, and performance feedback; it also names audit readiness as a client value driver.","remaining_difference":"It does not specify a one-close-cycle audit-readiness menu that holds technical checking and accuracy constant while varying start time, entity capacity, customized PBC crosswalks, meetings, reporting cadence, and escalation."},{"name":"AuditRelay Starter and Pro audit-readiness tiers","source_ids":["SRC2"],"overlap":"Applies transparent tiering directly to audit readiness, with package and user limits plus priority support in the premium tier.","remaining_difference":"It is a software/evidence-management subscription rather than a human accounting-advisory engagement, and it does not demonstrate constant technical-review quality or valuation sorting through speed, meetings, reserved professional capacity, and escalation."},{"name":"BPM tailored financial-statement audit-readiness and support service","source_ids":["SRC1"],"overlap":"Provides the underlying human advisory service, including reconciliations, PBC support, technical consultation, timelines, and selectable light or heavy testing.","remaining_difference":"The retained page does not publish fixed prices or a Good-Better-Best self-selection menu with enforceable entity, timing, meeting, and escalation limits."}],"prior_art_disposition":"ADJACENT_PRIOR_ART","contrastive_claim_remaining":"For a human financial-statement close-readiness engagement, a transparent fixed-price ladder that preserves one technical-quality floor while varying only nonessential timing, capacity, customization, and human-support attributes will cause clients to self-select by their valuation of those attributes and will contain premium workload more effectively than one uniform package. The exact configuration was not found, although both its pricing mechanism and audit-readiness tiering are established adjacencies.","contrastive_claim_falsifier":"The claim would be falsified by finding an established human close-readiness offering with the same constant-quality, fixed-price self-selection structure, or if the bounded shadow test shows that choices do not track speed, capacity, customization, or support preferences; base-tier files require premium exceptions; or observable complexity already predicts workload sufficiently for ordinary scope-based quoting.","gates":{"adequate_source_search":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The screen covered direct terminology, older and adjacent pricing terminology, active products and practices, professional guidance, and component combinations. Four opened sources from four publishers include direct service pages, a tiered product, trade guidance, and official professional guidance.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"]},"supported_problem":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The problem is partly supported: sources show heterogeneous audit-readiness work and recognized fixed-fee scope, complexity, and margin problems, although the provider-specific decline and workload pattern still requires record-level verification.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC3"]},"distinct_testable_claim":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"No retained source combines a human one-cycle close-readiness engagement, client-selected fixed tiers, constant technical quality, and explicit timing, entity, meeting, and escalation boundaries. Sorting and workload containment are measurable and falsifiable.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"]},"bounded_next_test":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The proposed nonbinding review is limited to at most 24 de-identified engagements, 8–12 consenting former decision-makers, three representative files, predefined failure conditions, and one review cycle with no launch authority.","source_ids":["SRC3","SRC4"]},"no_obvious_safety_or_authority_stop":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"A shadow evaluation can proceed without changing prices, service, or accounting procedures. Independence and management-responsibility constraints are real but manageable because the stated provider is not the external auditor and the proposal preserves quality; the test must halt if assurance-status confusion, self-review, confidentiality, or applicable regulator restrictions arise.","source_ids":["SRC4"]}},"screen_survival":true,"world_novelty_boundary":"This bounded public-source screen establishes only that the proposal is researchable and has adjacent rather than identical retained prior art. It cannot establish world novelty, patentability, market size, expert acceptance, prevalence, effectiveness, or realized value."}