The work that happens before anyone presses send.

The brief sets the boundaries; everything downstream inherits them. Where a rule rejects a row, the reason travels with the rejection. What cannot be evidenced is left out and listed.

Gap reporting

What is missing from a universe, named rather than rounded away.

Criteria translation

Finding the nearest countable equivalent when a requirement has no direct expression in the available fields.

Count reconciliation

Producing the figure by the same route the final selection takes, so the two cannot disagree.

If it turns out your existing data is fine, that is a perfectly good outcome.