Create issues & marks from Compare

Don’t retype what a comparison already found. When Material Change Intelligence explains why an output moved, you can promote any ranked driver straight into a review issue or an audit mark — pre-filled with the change narrative — so the finding lands in your trackers with one click. Separately, a comparison that disturbs a signed block leaves a record in the Proof ledger.

The scenario

You ran Compare to Previous Version and opened Material Change Intelligence to see why EBITDA moved. It ranks the edits that drove the move. One of them is a hardcoded override you want to follow up on, and another is a number you’ve now checked and want to mark verified. Rather than copy the cell address and retype the story into your trackers, you promote the driver directly.

Two buttons on the MCI explanation

In the Material Change Intelligence window, select a ranked driver, then use:

  • Create Review Issue — logs a review issue at the driver’s cell. The description is seeded from the change narrative, the severity is High when the change is material (Medium otherwise), and it’s tagged Output Intelligence. The issue also back-links to the explanation it came from.
  • Mark For Audit — records an audit mark at the driver’s cell with status Needs Attention when the change is material (Questionable otherwise), the same narrative and Output Intelligence tag, and the explanation back-link.

Both write to the active workbook’s sidecars (.mxreview / .mxaudit) through the same services the Audit group uses — so the new finding appears in your Review Issues / Audit Trail trackers immediately, and is treated exactly like one you logged by hand. Each button no-ops quietly if no driver is selected.

Comparison does not create issues on its own

Nothing is logged automatically by running a comparison. The only way a comparison turns into a review issue or an audit mark is you clicking one of these two buttons on an MCI explanation. A plain Compare run with no MCI promotion writes nothing to your trackers.

The Proof ledger side effect (different mechanism)

There is one thing a comparison does record without you promoting anything — but it goes to the Proof & Trust ledger, not to your review or audit trackers. If a comparison changes a cell that sits inside a signed block, the add-in appends a block-broken event to that workbook’s proof ledger, so the signature coverage reflects that a signed area moved. This is a ledger record, not a review issue or an audit mark — it creates nothing in .mxreview or .mxaudit — and it’s a no-op if the workbook has no signatures.

What writes where — at a glance

ActionCreatesWhere
MCI → Create Review IssueA review issue (tag “Output Intelligence”).mxreview sidecar
MCI → Mark For AuditAn audit mark (Needs Attention / Questionable).mxaudit sidecar
Any comparison touching a signed blockA block-broken provenance recordProof ledger (workbook custom XML + .mxproof)
A plain comparison (no promotion, no signatures)Nothing—

Two look-alikes that are not this

  • Risk Heatmap “Audit View” is a heatmap view mode that classifies cells by structural consistency — it is not an audit-status overlay and does not read your audit marks. The audit overlay is Highlight Audit.
  • TrustLens and CalcScope do not create or jump to review issues. (CalcScope has a “review” cockpit by name, but it is a formula-tracing pane, unrelated to review issues.)

Caveats & limitations

  • You must select a driver first. The buttons act on the selected ranked change; with nothing selected they do nothing.
  • The seeded text is a starting point. Severity and description are derived from the change’s materiality — edit them in the tracker if your judgment differs.
  • It targets the driver’s cell in the active workbook; promote from the version you intend to annotate.

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