My boss mentioned a $12,000 mistake in a quarterly report was caught because someone printed it out to review.

Has anyone else found that physically reviewing a document helps you spot errors you'd miss on a screen?

3 comments

3 Comments

But a 12k mistake on a report? That sounds like a way bigger deal than just a typo. What kind of error actually costs that much money?

the_emery28d ago

Printing a whole report for one typo seems like a huge waste of paper and time. Most software has review modes that mimic a printed page anyway. Maybe the real issue is that the digital review process at that company is broken. A 12k error sounds bad, but was it actually a loss or just a formatting thing? Context matters a lot here.

jenkins.wade27d ago

You're totally right about the waste. My own printer has basically become a very expensive paperweight for catching my own dumb mistakes (like that time I spelled "client" as "clinet" on a cover sheet, real professional). A good review mode should catch most things, but some brains are just wired to see errors on physical paper. Still, a 12k mistake sounds like a process problem, not a paper problem. Gotta wonder what actually went wrong there.