Presentations

Records of what was shown

A deck is live, so its figures move on. A record keeps what was actually shown: each time the deck is published, exported or presented to a meeting, DataSquares writes down the values that person was shown, exactly as they were computed, and nothing can change that record afterwards. When someone asks what did the board see on 5 October?, the record answers.

What writes a record

When	What the record covers
Publishing	The whole deck at the version publishing makes, with the publisher’s figures
Exporting a PDF or a PNG	What the file shows, with the figures the file was drawn from
Presenting to a named meeting	Each slide the first time it is shown in that meeting, with the presenter’s figures
A scheduled send	Each person’s copy, with the figures it holds, read with that person’s access. See Schedule a deck

A rehearsal is never recorded. The publish dialog says Publishing makes version 4 and records the values shown, and the presenter window says whether each slide is recorded yet.

What a record holds

When it was written, what wrote it (a publish, an export or a presentation), by whom, the version and, for a presentation, the meeting and its presenter.
Each value, unrounded, as it was served: with the definition it was computed with (the metric’s version and a fingerprint of its definition), its period, how complete its data was (data through), its source and the access scope it was read under (EMEA only).
An access signature: a fingerprint of the access the figures were read with — row security, masking and the sources they read — never the person’s identity, so two people with the same access have the same signature.

Records are write-once: the database refuses to change one or to delete one while its deck exists, and computes its own fingerprint of the values whatever a writer sends.

Who can read a record

Everyone who can open the deck can see that a record was written: the event, when, by whom, the version and the meeting. Its values are for the deck’s owner, its editors and the presenter of that meeting — and only while their own access to every figure in it is the access that produced it. If your access has changed since, the values are withheld and you are told why. Nobody, admins included, reads a recorded figure beyond their own access.

Shown and sent

What changed (below) ends with Shown and sent: every record of the deck, newest first, 20, 50 or 100 a page: Presented to Leadership review, Exported, Published, with when, by whom, the version and how many figures were recorded. A record of a slide explored while presenting also says what the meeting explored, Explored: Region = EMEA, to whoever may read its values. Each record whose values you may read can be chosen as the one compared; one you may not read says why (Recorded under other access than yours) and is never compared.

The same list is in the REST API: GET /api/presentations/{id}/records. Each item says whether its values were withheld and why (role: your role doesn’t read values; access: they were recorded under other access than yours), and, for a record of an explored slide, the filters chosen (explored), withheld with the values.

What changed since a meeting

Live figures keep moving after a meeting. What changed compares each figure of the deck with what a record shows, and says why it changed as far as the platform knows. Open it from What changed in the editor’s status chip, from See what changed on an underlined figure, or from the differs from what was last shown finding in the Checks panel.

By default it compares with the last record whose values you may read; for a deck frozen for a meeting, with the values it was frozen with, when your access is the access that froze them (otherwise with the last record you may read). Choose another record, or The values it was frozen with, under Shown and sent. The header says what is compared: Presented to Leadership review on 5 Oct 2026 · version 6, or Frozen 5 Oct 2026, 18:00 · Board meeting.

Show: as presented, live now, or both

As presented draws the slides as they were shown, with the values the record holds. Nothing is read again.
Live now draws them with their values read now, for you, with your own access.
Both draws the live values and underlines each figure that changed.

A summary says it in a sentence: 2 of the 3 figures differ from what was presented on 5 Oct: late data and a correction. None is a definition change. The record stays as it was. Live values follow your own access.

The table

Column	What it says
Slide	Where the figure is now; a dash for a figure no longer in the deck
Figure	Its source and period: Revenue · Q3 2026
Shown on 5 Oct	The value as it was shown then
Live now	The value read for you now
Change	The class of the change (below)
What the platform knows	The reason the class was told from, and the author’s note if there is one

Values are compared unrounded: 61.6% against 61.6% is no change only when both were 61.62%, and a figure whose rounded display did not move can still have changed. Charts, tables and dashboard visuals are listed as Not compared: the comparison is of single values. A figure in only one of the two is New or Removed; one you are not served now is Not available, with the reason.

How a change is classed

Each change is classed from what the record and the figure carry, never from rows you cannot see:

Class	What it means
Moved on	A relative period (last complete quarter) or a point-in-time value has rolled on to a later period or date
Definition change	The metric’s version, or the figure’s binding, is not the one it was computed with then
Late data	Rows were loaded after the record, for a period that was not complete when it was recorded. Told only where the source records its load times
Correction	A period that was complete when it was recorded has another value now, under the same definition
Reason not recorded	The value differs and nothing the platform holds says why

A figure read under other access than yours is never compared, whatever its value: the record and the live value would not be the same figure.

Authors’ notes

The platform knows only what it records. When you know more (3 duplicate accounts merged on 12 Oct), an editor or the owner can add a note to a change: plain text, up to 500 characters. The note is shown beside the platform’s reason as Author’s note: …, with who wrote it and when; it is never shown as the reason, and it never changes the class. One note per figure and record; writing and removing one is in the audit log.

The then-and-now underline

In the editor, each live number and KPI value that changed since the deck was last shown is underlined. Click it, or reach it with the keyboard, and it says Shown 5 Oct: $1,612,300 · now $1,641,900 · late data, with See what changed. Hovering alone shows nothing. The underline is never drawn in present mode or in an export.

Who sees what

What changed shows a record’s values only to the deck’s owner, its editors and the presenter of that meeting, and only while their access is the access that read them. Anyone else is told why and still sees Shown and sent.
A frozen deck’s values are compared, and take authors’ notes, only for readers whose access is the access that froze them; anyone else is told This presentation was frozen with access different from yours, so its frozen values are not shown to you.
Live now is always read with your own access: two editors with different access see different live values, and neither sees a value beyond their access.
Authors’ notes are read by everyone who can see the comparison, and written by editors and the owner.
The Checks panel compares the deck with the same record publishing does, so a figure that changed since a meeting is found while you edit, not first at publish.

Nothing here changes a record: it stays exactly as it was written.

Before a meeting

Set the deck’s next meeting, and on the morning of it the deck’s owner is told what changed or went stale since it was last shown, before anyone sees it on the screen.

Next meeting… in Present…’s arrow (More presenting actions; editors and the owner; contributors read it in the status chip) opens Next meeting: a name if you like (Board meeting, up to 200 characters), a Date and a Time. Times are in the deck’s time zone, and the dialog says which. The meeting must be in the future; a time the clocks skip in that zone (when they go forward) is refused with the reason. Once set, the status chip says it: Board meeting · 3 Nov, 10:00. Set it again to change it, or Clear meeting. Once the meeting has started it is no longer the next one: the status chip stops saying it, and editors set the next meeting the same way.

The morning notice

At 07:00 in the deck’s time zone on the day of the meeting (or when the meeting is set, if that is later) the deck’s owner is told once, in the app and by email as their notification settings say (Settings → Notifications → Presentation work). A meeting before 07:00 is told at the start of its day. Nothing is told for a meeting that was cleared, or has started.

The notice is read with the owner’s own access, as the checks read the draft, and says:

the figures that changed since the last record they may read, by class: 3 figures changed since it was presented on 5 Oct (2 late data, 1 correction): slides 2, 3 and 4.;
figures whose source is older than its refresh schedule, or failing;
periods still provisional;
claim words that no longer match their figures;
the other findings that must be fixed.

It gives counts and slide numbers only, never a value: Open what changed opens What changed, where the figures are read with your own access. With nothing to say, it says so: Ready for Board meeting at 10:00: nothing changed since it was presented on 5 Oct, and every source is up to date.

How long records are kept

A record stays as long as its deck. It is removed only with the deck: when a deleted deck is purged from the Recovery Center, or the workspace is deleted.