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Recording sources, dates and actual-price uncertainty

The single habit that makes a cost notebook trustworthy: every figure carries where it came from and when you saw it.

What this guide is for

Learn a repeatable way to log the source and the checked-on date for prices and product links, and how to represent uncertainty honestly.

Every number needs two extra facts

A cost is only half a fact. The other half is: where did I see it, and when? Prices shown in a Sugargoo spreadsheet or on a listing page change without warning, so a figure with no date is nearly useless a month later.

Record the source and a checked-on date next to anything that can change. 'I saw it somewhere' is not a source.

A repeatable recording routine

  1. 1

    Write the source in the note field

    For example: 'listing page', 'invoice PDF', 'publisher catalogue row', 'warehouse QC photo'. Keep it short but specific enough that you could find it again.

  2. 2

    Add the checked-on date

    Write the date you last looked, in a consistent format such as 2026-10-13. This is the date you observed the figure, not necessarily the date it was set.

  3. 3

    Separate official facts from unverified ones

    The agent's own home page is official identity. A third-party catalogue entry is a publisher's page whose individual product links may or may not still work. Mark which is which instead of flattening them together.

  4. 4

    Flag uncertainty explicitly

    If a price might not be current, say so in the note. An honest 'price unconfirmed, seen 2026-10-13' is far more useful than a confident number you cannot back up.

What the notebook will not claim

It will not tell you a product's real price, that stock exists, that delivery is guaranteed, that an item is authentic, or that any page ranks anywhere. Those are claims nobody can honestly make for you, so the workbook keeps to recording what you observed.