MA.Preface:2 - How the methods connect

Start from the account or decision that must become possible, then work back to its missing inputs. A funding question needs receipts and payments at their dates. Obtaining those dates may require the workload, its resource demand and the actual supply or settlement arrangement. Keep an adequate supplied result; use its owning method when the result is missing or its assumptions no longer fit. This backward reading selects the necessary work, while the resulting inputs are then combined into the receiving account.

MA.1 constructs the resource-consumption and cost model when it is missing. It begins with work outputs and consequential resource dependencies, then relates quantities to supply, money and payment time. It also chooses detail: an interval can suffice when its variation cannot change the relevant threshold or comparison.

MA.2 and MA.3 are independent entries when capacity or shared assignment is the unresolved problem. Their results can improve MA.1’s model, but neither is a mandatory stage in every model construction. MA.4 reconciles operating, reporting and cash accounts by carrying their opening balances through the relevant events to closing balances under each view’s rules.

MA.5 constructs compatible demand inputs and carries them through resource relationships and balance movements to forecast the relevant outlook. MA.6 preserves its distinction from targets and resource decisions. MA.7 constructs intermediate accounts to explain a difference, including changed product mix, without treating arithmetic decomposition as causal evidence. MA.8 constructs cohort and product accounts across calendar periods and separates the whole history from a future choice, and MA.9 examines what an account’s actual use encourages people to do.

Before joining results, align their population, period, quantities and account meanings. Units ordered, units produced and units delivered can differ. A cohort’s second month is an age, not necessarily the calendar month used by another cohort. A resource-consumption value, a shared assignment and a payment can all describe the same work without being interchangeable amounts.

For a shared resource, add the demands that compete in the same calendar window before applying its usable-capacity, reserve or supply-block condition. Use the resulting supply arrangement to obtain payment once in the whole account. Two separately feasible demands can exceed shared capacity together; two allocated costs can also represent one unchanged payment. Preserve separate setups unless the operating model supports a replacement by shared work.

Carry the connected result into the receiving use. A population forecast supplies work quantities; those quantities supply resource demand; an obtainable supply action supplies its payment terms. A shortage returns to the operating decision about scope, schedule or provision. It does not create another resource block by calculation. MA.4 connects the resulting events and balances across valid account views. For an alternative comparison, isolate the changing future flows; for liquidity, restore all relevant flows and unchanged obligations in the whole cash position.

These methods can be used in different combinations. An established model can feed a forecast directly. A surprising variance can lead to a revised dependency or reveal a changed allocation. A harmful unit-cost target can require changing its use while keeping the report needed for another purpose. Enter the unresolved question and stop when the receiving use has an adequate result.

The accountant also performs work at several scopes at once. While calculating rig occupation, they can be deriving the order’s resource demand and thereby constructing its resource account. The account’s purpose determines what the calculation must include. Use B.1.5.EW — Recover How Constituent Actions Enact Encompassing Work when you cannot yet explain such a connection or locate the capability needed to perform it. MA.1:5.3 shows how an error between those scopes survives correct arithmetic. Reuse a connection you already understand.

The same relation appears in a joint customer account. Deriving one cohort’s hours is already part of constructing the whole operating account, whose calendar window and shared-capacity condition constrain that derivation. The horizontal dependencies between results and this vertical contribution to the whole both matter: correct cohort calculations can still feed an incorrect combined account. The MA-E4 application follows both and reopens only the consequences of a changed effort bound.