How to read a ninety-day campaign ledger without drowning in columns

When a quarter’s marketing file lands on the desk, the temptation is to draw a chart before the columns have been named. That is how a closed week becomes a mysterious dip, and how a dollar invoice sits beside a lari till as if they were the same coin.

Start with the calendar. Mark public holidays, the days the shop was shut, and any stretch when the campaign simply did not run. In Tbilisi that often includes the New Year fortnight and a handful of feast days; on the coast it may include a week of empty rooms after a storm. Until those days are labelled, every line chart lies a little.

Then name the currency of each source. Mixed files are ordinary in Georgia. Convert on a stated rate for the period, and write the rate on the page. Do not average quietly.

Only then ask which responses can be tied to a channel. A booking diary with “how did you hear” is gold. A till total with no note is still a fact, but it belongs in a separate column. The meeting will want to claim the unidentified money for a favourite burst. Keep it unmarked.

If two invoices cover overlapping weeks, do not add them until you know they are not the same insertion billed twice — once by the station, once by the agency. That single check has saved more embarrassment than any clever drawing.

When the columns are named, a ninety-day file becomes readable: spend, tied responses, untied totals, closed days. The charts can follow. They will be fewer, and they will survive a photocopier.