Keeping payroll diversion notes usable for counsel

Payroll files tempt everyone into a narrative about a person. The extract usually contains an IBAN, a staff number, and a change date. It rarely contains intent. A findings letter can name the window and the repeated destination account. It cannot name guilt. That sentence belongs in the letter so nobody photocopies page one as if it were a dismissal note.

When we know counsel will receive the file, we keep source pointers from the first draft: file name, sheet, row range. That is slower. It is why an evidence pack is a separate commission, not a free annex to every letter. If you are unsure, say in the brief that an advocate in Tbilisi or Kutaisi may be instructed. We will not automatically bind a pack, but we will avoid captions that cannot later be tied to rows.

Do not send us HR notes about performance. They contaminate the records window with a different story. If dual-control forms exist on paper, photograph them in order and tell us they exist; if they do not exist, say that too. Missing forms are a finding about the control, not a decoration.

After the letter, freeze the extract. A new payroll run pulled “the same way” next month is a different file. Periodic review exists for that calendar. Mixing it into a closed letter is how row references rot.