Reading a report

A signed-in report is a frozen evidence pack for one search. Read it as question, lead finding, supporting evidence, then the detailed visual, its limit, and what to check next. Not every available fact is shown with equal weight. Crime and news stay collapsed; on property reports they sit after the map so place context is nearby.

What you see first

The snapshot states what you searched, one lead observed finding, and at most two supporting facts. It does not issue a success, viability, demand or Buy/Avoid verdict. The evidence coverage matrix sits under Data coverage and limitations so it does not compete with the conclusion.

Business idea

The question is what the available evidence says about this type of business in this location. After the snapshot you see same-industry count and share, published change, openings versus closures when they share period, geography and industry, then your upload if you supplied one. Wider population and all-business counts, the map and macro series follow. High same-industry share is not described as saturation or weak demand.

Place

The question is the structure of the local business economy and how it is changing. Registered enterprises, population and density lead. The largest SIC sections use a horizontal bar (top eight, plus Other only when a same-year official total exists). A slope chart appears only when every row shares the same start and end years. Least represented is a count, not an undersupplied opportunity. The map stays below the business structure.

Company

The question is what is publicly known and what can be compared responsibly. Identity, filing calendar and mapped financial facts come first. Facts stay in a table unless two genuinely comparable filed periods exist, a revenue trend is not invented. Filing history is a chronological timeline. Comparable companies are a searchable table with SIC, status, incorporation year and geography. An age dot plot appears only when incorporation dates are sufficiently complete. Growth potential remains observed facts and research prompts. Companies House evidence alone cannot support a growth forecast. The registered-office map is not necessarily a trading location.

Property

The brief is framed on the postcode, neighbourhood or local authority you searched, with a focus type (Residential, Commercial, Student, Land & planning, or All types). The top of the report is a single Decised bento preview of focus-native principal figures, for example Price Paid median, transactions and year-on-year change when complete (residential); VOA hereditaments, rateable value and stock mix (commercial); PBSA gap plus Article 4 (student); named applications with equal received / decided / granted counts (land); Observed / Missing family triage with dig-in-first (all types). Observed pack trends only when complete; incomplete periods withhold change rather than inventing a midpoint. All-types shows no trend series in the preview. Those principal figures are not repeated in a second executive block. Charts and dig-in history follow below. Pack figures for sold prices, rating stock and planning remain local-authority aggregates until finer freezes exist, the report says so. Coverage chips in the preview emphasise the focus family first (and constraint overlays for land / student). The map follows property evidence and can show listing-research pins and site-overlay pins (listed buildings, named applications and other point entities from planning.data.gov.uk). For Land & planning and Student focuses, site constraints sit as a primary section after primary evidence. The section opens with one-line purpose and an Observed / Missing triage strip (counts of register hits, not a score; Observed means inspect, not cleared, it is not coloured as success/all-clear). Four groups follow: Flood & site risk, Heritage, Designation & controls, and Planning activity, Observed rows first; Missing keeps a short reason. Long listed-building lists collapse behind Show more, with a planning.data.gov.uk exit. When overlay coordinates exist, the section points to site-overlay pins on the place map rather than inventing a second map. EPC, business rates and planning.data.gov.uk sit in a separate Secondary research rail. Absence on planning.data.gov.uk is not an all-clear. Recorded crime and local news sit next, still collapsed, descriptive only, never scored. Then a research dig-in (listing cards with a focus-aware asking scan versus pack evidence, optional Companies House proxy, pack limits and next-research prompts in Carbon accordions). Area trading context and industry mix follow for Nomis framing, then economic series. Your next moves close the brief. Land next moves open planning.data.gov.uk before the LPA portal; Student next moves start with Article 4 / HMO licensing geography. All types triages sold prices, rating stock and planning as separate families (Observed / Missing): not a median-led residential underwrite. History and secondary families sit behind look-closer disclosures. Student focus keeps PBSA and student HMO gaps visible and only shows flats share as residential context. Families stay separate. The pack does not infer valuation, rent, occupancy, yield or Buy/Avoid advice.

How charts are shown

• Time series offer Line, Columns and Table on the chart itself. The default is chosen for the metric. Columns are hidden when there are too many periods to read. Area is not offered. Category charts keep Chart and Data table.
• Observed values are the default. An illustrative linear trend stays hidden until you reveal it, and is labelled as a model estimate, not an official forecast.
• Currency is £880,000. Rates name their denominator. Differences between rates are percentage points.
• Missing or partial evidence is explained. Empty axes and zero substitution are not used.

Place map

• Focus radius is in miles (default 2 mi). Apply updates crime and OpenStreetMap (OSM) layers only.
• On property reports, listing-research pins can show for every loaded card with coordinates (including local-authority searches). Site-overlay pins from planning.data.gov.uk (listed buildings, named applications and other point entities) can toggle on when captured at report create. OSM venues, industry sample pins, and crime points stay optional.
• Changing the radius updates those layers. It does not run a survival or success model.

ONS business activity

Office for National Statistics (ONS) openings and closures appear as two labelled rates and, when they match, two horizontal bars. The difference is stated in percentage points, not as net growth. If period, geography or industry do not match, the rates are shown separately and no gap is calculated.

Exports and PDF

Share a meeting pack with PDF, CSV, or JSON from the report page, these download from the server. PDF is the primary share path for advisers; CSV and JSON are tabular extracts of the same saved snapshot. Workspaces (Beta) is optional live collaboration and is not required to share a brief. Individual features stay free. Saved reports store the inputs used on the day they were created; they do not silently rehydrate from later data.