A number without a receipt is a claim. A number with one is something you can check: how your question was read, the definition it came from, the person who signed it, and the table it was computed from, all in one place.

What were net sales for FY2026 P09?
1Resolved to Net sales · Daily sales · certified · pin 90aa7e94 2
3Read as: net sales · FY2026 P09
44,564,960.60 SARcomputed now, through your agent

5FY2026 P09 = 23 Aug 2026 to 26 Sep 2026 · fiscal period 9 of fiscal year 2026

6source · core.sales_daily7certified by · Priya Sharma (Data Steward), 15 Oct 20268as of · 2026-10-16 Asia/Riyadh9SQL ▾
10Check this answer
11Was this right? Right · Wrong reading · Ask the owner
12▸ Show the evidence
Redrawn from the demo. The receipt for “What were net sales for FY2026 P09?”, with its parts numbered. The list below explains each one.

The twelve parts

  1. Resolved to. What your question was answered from: here, the certified Measure “Net sales” on the Daily sales meaning. If it matched something you didn’t mean, you see it before you use the number.
  2. The pin. A short fingerprint of the exact version that was certified. Change the definition in a way that changes what it means, and that version is no longer certified.
  3. Read as. How the question was read: the Measure, any breakdown, and the period. A language model reads the question and the engine checks that reading against what’s certified before anything runs. Click a piece to see the other readings Terazu knows, and ask it that way instead.
  4. The number, computed now. Terazu doesn’t store answers. The agent next to your database runs the query when you ask. If the agent isn’t running, you get no number rather than an old one.
  5. The period. What the words resolved to, through the certified calendar: the fiscal labels and the first and last day.
  6. Source. The table the number was computed from.
  7. Certified by. The person who certified this definition, and when.
  8. As of. The day the question was answered, in the workspace’s time zone. Until a workspace sets one, it is UTC’s day, and an answer whose period counts from today says so. It isn’t a promise about how fresh the underlying table is.
  9. SQL. The query, as Terazu wrote it. The agent runs its own equivalent in your database’s dialect, so treat this as the logic, not a transcript.
  10. Check this answer. Measures the same number, for the same period, where else your estate computes it: the BI model’s measure, a report, another table. Each place reads agrees, differs or couldn’t check. Agreement corroborates the number; it never proves it.
  11. Was this right? The asker says Right, marks a Wrong reading, or asks the owner. A wrong reading and a question go to whoever answers for the number, never back to the asker.
  12. Show the evidence. Everything the answer stood on: what it was grounded in, how each word of the question was matched, the definition, approved knowledge, and any disclosures, contradictions or rulings still needed.

Where your workspace asks a second person to confirm definitions, the receipt also names who confirmed it. Under the receipt, the next questions people tend to ask are one click away: by district, or against the same period last year.

The receipt is built from what the answer actually used, never from the assistant’s wording. If the assistant narrates the number badly, the receipt still shows what was computed.

What isn’t on it

There is no confidence score. A number is certified or it isn’t, and a percentage would only blur that line. And every answer has a receipt, whichever of the three kinds it is.

The other two receipts

When no certified Measure covers a number but the certified pieces are enough to work it out, Terazu works it out through the same governed path and labels it Not certified: on the card, in Read as and in the sentence. The receipt says which definition it used and where it came from, and Certify is on the receipt for a person with the right role.

A receipt on the demo: Resolved to Refunds on returns, not certified. Read as refunds on returns (not certified), FY2026 P09, 23 Aug 2026 to 26 Sep 2026. Not certified: the total of refund_amount on Sales return, kept from this question, with a Certify button. 25,307.45, computed now, through your agent. Check this answer; Was this right? Right, Wrong reading, Ask the owner; Next: By fiscal calendar, By product, Against FY2025 P09.
On the demo, the chat. Asked how much was refunded on returns in fiscal period 9, Terazu works it out from the certified Sales return: 25,307.45, marked not certified, with the definition it used and Certify beside it.

When Terazu can’t pin a number down, it says so and names what’s missing: “Not yet”, the reason, and a line that matters as much as any number: nothing was estimated. The reply offers the certified Measures the question could be asked as, and a person with the right role can define the missing one.

A chat on the demo. The question “How much gross margin did we make in FY2026 P09?” and its card: Not yet. 'gross margin' isn't a certified Measure; the nearest certified: gross sales. Said how it is worked out from a certified thing's columns (a total, a count or a share), it is answered, marked not certified. Nothing was estimated. Ask it as: Gross sales, Net sales.
On the demo, the chat. Asked for gross margin in fiscal period 9, Terazu refuses: nothing certified defines it, and the question doesn’t say how to work it out from certified columns. Nothing was estimated. The card offers gross sales or net sales instead, and says that once someone says how it’s worked out from certified columns, it’s answered, marked not certified.

When the definition changes

  • A change that alters the meaning, such as a Measure’s aggregation or its definition sentence, sends it back to draft. The change is recorded, and nothing re-certifies it automatically.
  • Until someone re-certifies it, questions that relied on it are declined, and the receipt says it was revoked and is waiting for review.
  • A change that doesn’t alter the meaning, such as adding another word people use for it, leaves the certification standing.
Keep reading The refusal is the feature When two numbers disagree Define a number by its shape