The assumptions strip that keeps a map honest

An allocation map without assumptions ages like milk. Three months later someone asks whether the HKD reserve line included a particular subsidiary, or which USDT venue was counted as float. Without a strip at the foot of the page, the diagram becomes folklore.

What we always date

1. FX rates used to translate sleeves into the reporting currency
2. Legal entities included and deliberately omitted
3. Cut-off time for balances
4. Treatments that were contested in the room but settled for the map

That list is short on purpose. We are not writing an audit file. We are preventing next quarter’s argument about what the picture claimed to show.

A habit for Monday reviews

When clients reuse our maps in weekly reviews, we ask them to initial the strip if nothing changed — or to commission a light refresh if entities or venues shifted. A crossed-out rate with a new date is healthier than a pristine diagram nobody trusts.

For sessions that produce the first strip, start with desktop allocation planning. For translating an existing map into committee language, see the board allocation brief.