How current a number is

Two timestamps travel with every figure Beacon publishes, on every door. They answer different questions, and on most figures they are not the same moment.

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Definition

as_of is a property of your data. computed_at is a property of Beacon’s activity. A figure recalculated at six this morning, from a billing source that last synced on Friday evening, carries this morning’s computed_at and Friday’s as_of. Six hours old as a calculation, three days old as a fact — and the second is usually what you were asking.

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How it behaves

A figure read straight from one system. The two sit close together. The gap is the time Beacon took to process what it read. A figure composed from several sources. as_of is the oldest of them. A figure is only as current as its oldest ingredient, and taking the newest would let it claim a currency it does not have. A figure with an anchor source. Some composites are governed by one input rather than by their oldest. Where that is true, the figure names its anchor on its own definition page. An override you cannot see is not an override. Recalculation. computed_at moves whenever Beacon recalculates, on the cadence stated on each figure’s own page. as_of moves when your data moves. The distance between the two is the honest answer to “how current is this?”

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Constraints

• Neither timestamp is the time of your request.
• Neither tells you whether a figure is settled. That is Sealed and live figures.
• In your CRM the field is beacon_computed_at, not beacon_updated_at. Your CRM has its own updated_at, and a Beacon field of that name would read as the tool’s own.
• When a source falls behind, a figure built on it keeps its true as_of and goes stale in the open. Beacon does not recompute it as though the source were current.
• Both are published on every figure on every door. There is no compact form that drops them.

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