Reading a point: title, evidence, and the accountability card
A point is one item Scout raises, with the proof behind it. Click any row in the Inbox and the detail pane opens on the right. This article walks the pane from top to bottom so you know what every part of it is telling you.
Screenshot: an open recommendation for Camp Canine.
The heading: type, client, and when it is due
The first line is the point's kind in small capitals — RECOMMENDATION (something to do), OBSERVATION (something to know) or NOTICE (housekeeping, such as a source that needs attention) — followed by the client or account it belongs to and the due date in everyday language ("cutoff tmrw 5 PM", "1 day past due", "no due date").
Under that is the title, and under the title the paragraph that matters most: Scout's reasoning in full sentences. It says what is happening, what the deadline is, and why now is the moment. It is written to be read once and understood.
The accountability card
Next comes the ACCOUNTABLE card. It shows the team the work sits with (for example PRODUCTION) and the person who holds it, or UNCLAIMED if nobody has taken it yet. The buttons on the right are the ones you are allowed to use: Claim, Return to team, and Assign or Reassign — each is covered in Working an item.
Below the card, Scout explains in one sentence how the work got to that destination — "No Finance team exists yet, so money items fall to Everyone. Scout suggests Sales / Ray Alvarez", or "You are the source owner — the original thread stays in your mailbox, and assignment never moved it." That sentence is there so routing is never mysterious.
The last line of the card is FOLLOWERS, showing who has asked to be told when this item changes, with a Follow or Unfollow button for you.
The work — where this came from
This is the evidence, and it is the part that makes a point trustworthy. Every point has at least one evidence row, written at the same moment the point was raised. Each row carries a source label so you can see what kind of fact it is:
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| GMAIL / OUTLOOK | A message or thread from a connected mailbox — who wrote what, and when. |
| QBO | A record read from QuickBooks Online: an invoice, a payment, a credit memo, a supplier bill. |
| PS | An answer from a supplier's PromoStandards feed, such as order status or inventory. |
| CALC | Arithmetic Scout did itself — business-day math, an amount, a margin. |
| FACT | A pattern Scout has learned and had confirmed, with how many threads it came from and who confirmed it. |
| MATCH | Two records Scout believes describe the same customer or contact. |
Under the rows, Scout states its own rule: dates come from calendar math, never from a model's guess. Names of clients, contacts, work, vendors and records appear as small coloured chips throughout the pane, and a legend under the evidence says which colour is which.
Opening the original, and the prepared draft
Where Scout can prove that a link points at the exact record in the exact account it read, it offers a link out — Open in Gmail, Open in email, or a deep link into QuickBooks Online. When it cannot prove that, there is no link, because a link that might open the wrong record is worse than none.
Some points also carry a DRAFT — PREPARED BY SCOUT block: wording you can use, with a Copy draft button and the standing reminder underneath — Scout prepares — you send. Scout never sends anything to your customers or suppliers, and never edits a record in your mailbox, your accounting system or a supplier's portal.
Rating the point
At the bottom are three verdict buttons — Useful, Not useful and Wrong. They are how you tell Scout whether raising this was the right call; the answers feed the precision score on Found.
Good to know
- Not everyone sees the same evidence. Scout keeps three tiers: a private summary for a review, the minimum fact you need to act, and the original message or record — and being able to see a point never automatically grants you the original.
- If a point came out of someone's personal mailbox, it stays with that person until an Owner or Admin approves widening it. That is the visibility review.
- The evidence list is append-only. When something changes, Scout adds a row rather than rewriting history.
- Nothing in the pane is generated fresh each time you open it. What you read is what was recorded when the point was raised or last changed.