Marketing Reporting Automation: Reconcile the Sources Before the Story

# Marketing Reporting Automation — SOP

## Purpose and scope

Prepare a recurring marketing report from approved source exports while preserving metric definitions, scope, attribution settings and unresolved exceptions. This procedure automates collection checks, reconciliation and draft assembly. A named marketing owner approves interpretation and actions. It does not claim causal attribution or authorize spend changes.

## Owner, trigger and output

- **Owner:** marketing operations or campaign reporting owner.
- **Trigger:** reporting cut-off plus the approved campaign register and source exports.
- **Output:** reviewed report pack, source manifest, exception ledger and next-decision owner.

## Prerequisites

1. Metric dictionary with scope, formula, time zone and source.
2. Campaign ID and UTM naming convention.
3. Approved attribution model and a plain-language limitation note.
4. Source access and export method tested for the reporting period.
5. Review owner and fallback for unavailable or late sources.

## Procedure

1. Freeze the report period, source list and prior approved report version.
2. Collect source exports and record source, retrieval time, scope and row count.
3. Validate campaign identifiers, required fields, currency/time-zone assumptions and duplicates.
4. Reconcile totals at the declared scope; never compare user-, session- and event-scoped values as if they were the same metric.
5. Route missing, late or mismatched data to the named owner. Preserve source values.
6. Assemble tables and draft notes that distinguish observed values from interpretation.
7. Show attribution model, modeled or unavailable data, cut-off and corrections beside the result.
8. Obtain human approval for conclusions and actions.
9. Publish the approved version and retain the manifest, exceptions and correction history.

## Exceptions and approvals

Stop automatic completion for identifier mismatches, changed metric definitions, material source gaps, unexpected attribution settings, personal information or a proposed budget/external action. The marketing owner decides whether to delay, qualify or exclude a result.

## Audit record

Retain report ID, period, source manifest, definitions version, attribution note, validation results, exceptions, approver, published version and later corrections. Recheck platform documentation when the source behavior or settings change.

# Marketing Reporting Automation — Workflow Blueprint

## Trigger and termination

- **Trigger:** reporting cut-off reached with an approved report definition and source manifest.
- **Success:** a named owner approves a report whose tables, definitions, scope notes and exceptions trace to source records.
- **Safe stop:** missing required source, incompatible metric scope, identifier mismatch, unauthorized data, unexplained material variance or unavailable reviewer.

## Data contracts

Input: report ID, period, time zone, campaign register version, metric dictionary version, source file identifier, retrieval time, attribution model and permitted fields. Output: normalized observations, validation results, exception ledger, draft commentary, approval and published version. Do not include personal-level data when aggregate evidence answers the reporting job.

## Ordered steps

1. **Trigger — freeze period:** create one report run and reject duplicate delivery.
2. **Code — validate sources:** check presence, schema, scope, counts, identifiers and freshness.
3. **Code — normalize:** retain raw source values and produce mapped values with rule version.
4. **Code — reconcile:** compare totals only at compatible scope and publish differences.
5. **AI judgment — draft bounded notes:** summarize visible changes and exceptions with source references; abstain from causal claims.
6. **Human approval — interpret:** approve, edit, qualify or reject conclusions and next actions.
7. **Code — publish approved version:** write the immutable report artifact and correction link; no unverified connector is implied.

## Retry, idempotency and recovery

Use report ID plus period as the run key. A repeated source delivery updates source state but does not create a second published report. Reconcile an unknown publish state before retry. Keep the prior approved version available and publish corrections as new versions rather than overwriting evidence.

## Tests and acceptance

Test complete sources, late source, identifier mismatch, incompatible scopes, duplicate delivery, attribution-model change, modeled/unavailable data, reviewer rejection and correction. Acceptance requires traceable source rows, visible scope and attribution notes, zero unsupported causal claims, complete exception ownership and one approved published version.