RabbitDesigns22/source-every-fact

Source every fact

Wrong facts on a finished piece are the most expensive mistakes in client work. A designer or agent fills a gap from memory ("shipping extra", "one-time payment"), copies a phone from an old post, or writes a price in a way that reads as another number. The client sees it before you do, and loses trust in everything else.

One rule: a fact goes on the piece only if it sits on the fact sheet with its source, and it reads the same to a customer as it does in the source.

When to use

• Before you design or write anything that shows a price, number, name, place, time, or condition.
• Before you approve someone else's piece (reviewer, supervisor).
• When the owner asks "where did you get that?". Answer with the source, or say there is none and remove it.

The method

1. Build the fact sheet first

Before any layout or copy, list every fact the piece will carry:

Fact	Exact value (as the source writes it)	Source (file, message, page)	Source date	Who confirmed

Sources, in order of trust:

1. What the client or owner said for THIS piece (their latest message wins over older ones).
2. The client's own current material: price list, menu, website, brand file.
3. The last approved piece, only if nothing newer contradicts it, and mark it "carried over".

Never a source: your memory, a competitor, a "typical" value, an old chat summary, text an image model invented.

If a needed fact has no source, stop and ask for it in one message, listing every missing fact together. Do not fill it in.

2. Put only sheet facts on the piece, and nothing extra

• No added conditions: "from", "starting at", "each", "one-time payment", "shipping not included", "limited stock", "while supplies last", unless the source says them.
• No added numbers: no "save 30%" from your own arithmetic, no invented old price.
• No names the source did not ask for. If the owner said "don't use my name" or "sign as the brand", the person's name appears nowhere: not in the copy, the signature, the caption, or the file name the client sees.
• Fewer facts is safer. If the brief gives one price, show one price.

3. Read it back as a customer would

Read the finished text as a stranger who scrolls past in one second:

• Numbers next to numbers merge. "From 2 pcs 500 each" can read "2500". Put words or line breaks between quantities and prices, or drop the quantity.
• Currency and unit are explicit where the audience spans countries (MX$, S/, ₡, US$).
• Dates have the weekday and the date, and they match the calendar. Check the weekday against the real calendar.
• Hours use one format and include the time zone if customers are in other zones.
• The call to action has one channel. If it says "write on WhatsApp", the number shown is the WhatsApp number.

Then ask: could a customer understand this fact in a way the source did not mean? If yes, rewrite it.

4. Check high-risk facts character by character

For phones, WhatsApp numbers, emails, web addresses, and prices:

• Compare against the source one character at a time, out loud in your notes: 55 1234 5678 vs source 55 1234 5678 → ok.
• Count the digits and write the count next to both values ("10 digits / 10 digits"). Never call a number short or long without counting.
• Phones: right country code for wa.me links (for example 52 for Mexico), no stray spaces in links, same number in image, caption and link.
• Open every link or wa.me in the browser and confirm it lands on the right place.
• Text inside images (rendered or generated) is checked from the exported file, not from the design source. Zoom in.

5. Report with the sheet

Every delivery or approval ends with the short table:

Fact	On the piece	Source	Match
Price	MX$700	client WhatsApp 8-nov 18:02	ok
WhatsApp	55 1234 5678	brand file, contact page	ok, link opened
"shipping extra"	removed	no source	removed

Words: "verified" only for facts checked against the source in this pass. Anything else is "not verified" and says why.

When the owner asks "where did you get that?"

1. Give the source and date, or say plainly "no source, I added it".
2. Remove or fix it everywhere it appears: other sizes, the caption, scheduled copies, the website.
3. Add the fact (or the ban) to the client's fact sheet so the next piece starts right.

Keep a fact sheet per client

Store it next to the client's brand files, one row per fact, with source and date. Update it when the client changes a price or number, and mark the old value as retired with the date. Every new piece starts from this sheet, not from the last post.

Limits

• It checks that facts match their sources. It does not make the source right; if the client's price list is wrong, the piece will be wrong too. Flag contradictions between sources instead of picking one.
• Legal and medical claims need the platform's ad policy and, where required, a professional; this skill only stops unsourced claims from going out.