Building an evidence register that survives fieldwork week
Fieldwork stalls when the request list lives in someone's inbox. A durable register needs four fields that never go blank: request ID, area (revenue, inventory, payroll), named owner, and the folder path or binder reference where the file sits.
Agree the ID scheme with the external team on day one. Changing IDs mid-week breaks every chase list. Prefer short codes such as REV-014 over free-text subjects.
Mark status only as open, received, queried, or closed. Extra states invite debate. When a document is queried, write the missing piece in the same row so the owner does not hunt through email threads.
At close of each fieldwork day, export the register and send it to both finance and the auditors. Shared visibility reduces duplicate asks and makes late Friday surprises rarer.