Glossary

Pre-decision control refers to the set of mechanisms applied before an irreversible financial or operational decision is executed. Unlike traditional post-decision checks, which identify issues after payments, postings, or closures have already occurred, pre-decision control intervenes at the exact moment when risk materializes: just before money moves, data is locked, or commitments become final.

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In finance operations, this approach fundamentally changes how organizations manage risk and scale. Instead of relying on sampling, audits, or corrective actions, teams validate every transaction and document upstream. Decisions are made on verified, reconciled, and explainable data, reducing cash leakage, operational friction, and loss of confidence in financial reporting.

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Pre-decision control acts as a decision validation layer between raw inputs and execution systems such as ERPs or payment platforms. Data is aligned across sources, checked against business rules or contracts, and reconciled before it becomes actionable. This logic is increasingly implemented through AI agents that continuously assess data quality and block or escalate only the exceptions that require human judgment.

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By placing control before automation rather than after, organizations can scale finance processes without increasing headcount while remaining audit-ready and risk-aware. This principle is embedded directly into Phacet’s product architecture, where control is treated as a prerequisite to execution, not a downstream safeguard.