Audit readiness fails less often from missing genius and more often from missing ownership. A lineage map is a one-page answer to “where did this number start, who can change it, and what proves it arrived intact?”
Keep the map ugly and useful. Boxes for source systems, arrows for transformations, footnotes for manual bridges. If a step depends on a person pasting into a shared drive, write that person’s role on the page — euphemisms age poorly under review.
What to include
- System of record for each material flow
- Known timing lags (batch jobs, overnight FX)
- Controls that detect — not just prevent — broken loads
- Where evidence lives (ticket IDs, export folders, report IDs)
Korean close calendars with compressed windows benefit especially: the map becomes a briefing tool for new joiners mid-close. We expand this pattern in Module 3 of the flagship course and in the Integrity Guide.