{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_light_screen_20260805","cell_id":"modular_decomposition__accounting_auditing","search_lanes":{"direct_problem_and_intervention":{"queries":["revenue recognition spreadsheet workpaper errors dependencies manual overrides audit controls","revenue recognition modular architecture contract modification transaction price allocation performance obligations schedules journal entries"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC3"],"no_result_note":null},"synonyms_and_historical_terms":{"queries":["spreadsheet modularity separation input calculation output auditability change management","site:arxiv.org modular spreadsheet design interfaces input output modules spreadsheet"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2"],"no_result_note":null},"products_practices_and_standards":{"queries":["site:help.sap.com revenue accounting contract management performance obligations allocation revenue posting interface","site:docs.stripe.com/revenue-recognition audit trail journal entries contracts modifications allocation","site:ifrs.org IFRS 15 five step model contract modifications performance obligations transaction price allocation","site:pcaobus.org auditor independence management functions internal control design"],"source_ids":["SRC3","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null},"component_combination":{"queries":["revenue recognition modular architecture contract modification transaction price allocation performance obligations schedules journal entries","spreadsheet modularity separation input calculation output auditability change management","site:pcaobus.org auditor independence management functions internal control design"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"],"no_result_note":null}},"sources":[{"source_id":"SRC1","title":"Spreadsheet Safety","publisher":"Journal of Accountancy (AICPA & CIMA)","url":"https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/1998/nov/kreie/","source_type":"TRADE_PROFESSIONAL","claims_supported":["Complex, repeated-use spreadsheets involving multiple users are susceptible to labor-intensive, error-prone design changes and errors that become magnified and difficult to locate.","The article expressly recommends modular spreadsheet design, logically related sections, separated input/calculation/result areas, protected formulas, documentation, independent testing, and tracing values across worksheets."]},{"source_id":"SRC2","title":"Excelsior: Bringing the Benefits of Modularisation to Excel","publisher":"arXiv","url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.2027","source_type":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","claims_supported":["Spreadsheet modularisation was already an explicit research and tool-development subject by 2008.","The paper identifies expected benefits including saved effort, fewer mistakes, easier code control, and organizational standardization, and presents a system intended to bring modular design to Excel."]},{"source_id":"SRC3","title":"Revenue Posting (Classic)","publisher":"SAP Help Portal","url":"https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE/f63dd39a28bb4b90adbf9e608aff58ea/9a5b10961150495181526642ca6006cc.html","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","claims_supported":["SAP Revenue Accounting separates revenue contracts and performance obligations, fulfillment events, time-based revenue and contract-asset/liability calculations, and transfer of resulting documents to the general ledger.","The product documentation describes contract-level reconciliation keys, navigation from general-ledger documents to originating revenue contracts and performance obligations, status-controlled processing, and simulation before posting."]},{"source_id":"SRC4","title":"ET Section 101—Independence","publisher":"Public Company Accounting Oversight Board","url":"https://pcaobus.org/oversight/standards/ethics-independence-rules/details/ET101","source_type":"OFFICIAL_STANDARD","claims_supported":["An external auditor must not perform management functions or make management decisions; management must oversee services, evaluate results, accept responsibility, and maintain internal control.","Separate evaluation of control effectiveness can be compatible with independence, while operating controls, authorizing transactions, preparing source documents, or deciding which recommendations to implement can impair independence."]}],"problem_evidence":{"status":"PARTLY_SUPPORTED","finding":"The general problem is visible: professional guidance reports that complex repeated-use spreadsheets can make changes labor-intensive and error-prone and can magnify errors that are difficult to locate, while revenue-accounting products expose a multi-stage flow requiring source-to-contract, performance-obligation, calculation, posting, and reconciliation traceability. The retained sources do not establish that the specified team actually uses one entangled workpaper or quantify how often local revenue-rule changes force unrelated edits, so the proposal's exact bottleneck remains locally testable rather than publicly demonstrated.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"]},"closest_prior_art":[{"name":"Modular spreadsheet design and separated input/calculation/output areas","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2"],"overlap":"Directly overlaps the core mechanism of breaking a complex spreadsheet into logical modules, isolating inputs and calculations, protecting implementation logic, documenting structure, testing independently, and obtaining maintenance, error-reduction, and code-control benefits.","remaining_difference":"The sources do not prescribe the proposal's exact six revenue-accounting responsibilities, versioned table schema, module stewards, prohibition on downstream references to upstream internal cells, or change-localization acceptance test."},{"name":"SAP Revenue Accounting and Revenue Posting architecture","source_ids":["SRC3"],"overlap":"Implements a domain-specific separation among revenue contracts, performance obligations, fulfillment and time-based calculations, contract assets and liabilities, general-ledger posting, status handling, source navigation, simulation, and reconciliation.","remaining_difference":"The documentation describes an enterprise product rather than a six-module Excel shadow workpaper and does not establish the proposed stable handoff fields, one-steward-per-module governance, or the claimed limit on internal edits after a local perturbation."},{"name":"Management-owned controls with auditor evaluation separated from management functions","source_ids":["SRC4"],"overlap":"Closely matches the proposal's governance boundary: management owns decisions and controls, while the external auditor may evaluate evidence but must not operate the process or make management decisions.","remaining_difference":"The independence standard constrains roles but does not supply the proposed accounting modules or interface architecture."}],"prior_art_disposition":"SUBSTANTIAL_COLLISION","contrastive_claim_remaining":"For a revenue calculation still implemented as an end-user workpaper, the specific six responsibility boundaries, versioned handoff tables, direct-cell-reference prohibition, and named management stewards will allow a source-mapping change and a classification-rule change to require internal edits only in their owning modules, while all legitimate effects propagate through declared outputs and the recombined journal and disclosure totals still reconcile. This is narrower than a claim to modular spreadsheet design or staged revenue processing generally.","contrastive_claim_falsifier":"Falsify the remaining claim if either controlled perturbation requires internal edits in unrelated modules, if correct downstream accounting routinely requires access to upstream internal cells rather than declared fields, if interfaces drop or duplicate records or lose policy and lineage links, if approved journal/disclosure outputs cannot be reproduced within documented tolerances, or if an independent internal reviewer cannot attribute each exception to an owning module.","gates":{"adequate_source_search":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The bounded search covered the proposal directly, older modular-spreadsheet terminology, professional spreadsheet practice, revenue-accounting products and standards, auditor-independence constraints, and combinations of the component mechanisms. Four opened sources span four publishers and include primary research, first-party product documentation, and an official standard.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"]},"supported_problem":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The exact local condition is unverified, but the retained evidence makes the underlying risk sufficiently visible for a coarse screen: complex recurring spreadsheets can be difficult and risky to change, and revenue processing has multiple linked stages and reconciliation requirements. This supports a PARTLY_SUPPORTED problem finding.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"]},"distinct_testable_claim":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"Although modular spreadsheet design and staged revenue systems substantially collide with the intervention, a narrower contrast remains testable: the specified six boundaries and interfaces must localize internal edits under controlled changes while preserving reconciled downstream results.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"]},"bounded_next_test":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"The proposed closed-period, read-only slice of at most 20 de-identified contracts, two perturbations, and explicit reconciliation and attribution outcomes is bounded and reversible. Independent spreadsheet testing and tracing are recognized practices, and SAP documentation confirms that simulated revenue-posting evaluation is technically plausible without posting.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC3"]},"no_obvious_safety_or_authority_stop":{"status":"PASS","rationale":"No obvious stop applies if the pilot remains read-only, de-identified, management-authorized, and non-posting. The stated exclusion of auditor design, operation, authorization, and management decisions is consistent with the retained independence standard; any departure from those boundaries is a halt condition.","source_ids":["SRC3","SRC4"]}},"screen_survival":false,"world_novelty_boundary":"This bounded public-source screen found substantial collision with established modular-spreadsheet methods and domain-specific revenue-accounting architecture. It cannot establish world novelty, patentability, market size, expert acceptance, prevalence of the exact local bottleneck, or realized value."}