Slip, accounting cells and nil returns

A Work line running late is one kind of lost time; a declared stoppage is another. The work plan — the Plan tab of the Work home (W) — is where the two meet: turn on the variance lens and every line gains an accounting cell answering one question — when this line slipped, did anybody say why? The cell never apportions hours, never blames, and never issues a verdict; it reconciles two records the site already keeps, and shows its working.

The cells render to the chase band — coordinators and lost-time readers. A firm sees its own side of the story mirrored in its own panel.

The three cells

Cell	Means	What to do
ACCOUNTED	A loss record stands against this line — either the firm attached the line's work to a record (declared), or a record of the same firm, place, level and time matched it (matched). Each account names which of the two found it.	Nothing — the slip has a stated cause on the record.
UNACCOUNTED	The line slipped and no loss record accounts for it.	Chase: the firm files a record, or gives a nil return (below).
CAN'T TELL	Nothing was declared, and the place check could not run — the line has no place. Held out of the unaccounted count, because an unrunnable check is not a "no".	Place the line, then the check runs.

Accounted, deliberately, not explained — the cell says a record exists, not that causation is settled. And a line the firm declared against reads ACCOUNTED whatever its own housekeeping: a human attachment is the stronger evidence and is never overruled by a failed geometry check.

To chase an unaccounted line:

1. Open the Work home (W) on its Plan tab and switch the variance lens on — the accounting cell appears on each late line.
2. Expand the cell to read its disclosure — the search bounds, the records found, and the riders — before concluding anything.
3. Put the question to the firm: they file a loss record, or give a nil return — which you can also record from the cell, on the firm's word, in the room.

The disclosure behind every cell

A cell is never a bare word — expand it and it shows its working:

• The search bounds, dated, and which check produced the answer ("place check searched 3 – 14 Aug"; a place-less line says plainly that the place check could not run).
• The records found, dated, each marked declared or matched.
• "Nothing since ⟨date⟩" on a line whose newest accounting record has gone quiet — suppressed while a record is still open, because an open record is a firm still working, not a firm gone silent.
• Riders, each a count with its own meaning: records of this firm and window that carry no place (so the check couldn't place them); records that would have accounted this line but were rejected (dated by the rejection, never quoting the reason); and the nil return, below.

The copy is strictly about the line — no cell ever prints "this firm reported nothing", because a cell is a reconciliation, not a scorecard.

The nil return — an empty week as a stated answer

Sometimes the honest answer is we lost nothing against this line. The nil return records exactly that: a dated, signed annotation on the line, one live per line and firm. Two people can author it — the firm itself, from the flag mirror on its own panel, or a coordinator/lost-time reader from the cell in the room, recording the answer given at the meeting. A nil return taken on the firm's behalf says so on its face ("…on the firm's word"), and the firm's own return supersedes it at any time. It is never refused, never blocks a later raise, and the moment the firm files a real loss record against the line, the record replaces it.

It changes no figure and no cell value — a CAN'T TELL line with a nil return still reads CAN'T TELL. What it changes is what silence means: an unanswered flag is a chase; a nil return is an answer on the record.

The absorbed marker

The reverse case: a loss was declared, and the line still finished on time. The QS's own lost-time rows then carry the absorbed marker — "Absorbed — ⟨line⟩" with the two dated windows ("loss 10 – 12 Aug · line completed 14 Aug (planned 15 Aug)"). It states a coincidence of dates and stops there: no day count, no money, no "recovered" verdict — whether the crew genuinely made the time up is a conversation, not a derivation. Its absence means nothing and is never rendered.

The headline sentence

The weekly report's programme-health section rolls the cells up in one firm-anonymous sentence — "Of the N late lines: X accounted · Y unaccounted · Z can't tell (unplaced — held out of the unaccounted count)" — on both printed variants. It names no firm, which is exactly why it rides the distributable as well as the full principal-contractor copy — and it is absent, never zeroed, on a week with nothing late. Neither variant carries a per-firm slip-accounting breakdown; the two are structurally identical here. Firms are named elsewhere in the same section on both copies (Top Movers, and Late Work by Contractor × Place), so read the anonymity as a property of this sentence, not of the distributed report.

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Next: Standing cost · Reading the ledger · Lost time, scene by scene

Blockers & lost time guide: Overview · Reviewing & triaging · Raising · How lost time is counted · The ledger · Your firm's panel · Slip & nil returns · Standing cost · The register · Scene by scene · Reference