The Trigger Matrix: how to give us your rules

The Trigger Matrix is Catalyst's own list of the checks Catalyst Platform should run on every client each month. This page explains what a check is, what we need for each one, and how it reaches the dashboard.

What a check is

A check is a standard test that Catalyst Platform runs on every client's books once a month. When the test is met, it becomes a finding for the accountant to review, with a suggested action. The accountant approves, changes or dismisses each finding before anything reaches the client.

Part of a check	What it means	Example: "Customers paying more slowly"
Name	Plain words the accountant and the client will read	Customers paying more slowly
What it looks for	One sentence describing the problem	Customers are taking noticeably longer to pay than last month
Condition	The exact test, with numbers and units	Debtor days rose by at least 5 days and at least 15% on last month
Severity bands	How serious a finding is: Urgent, Important or Keep an eye on	Urgent at 75 debtor days or more, Important at 45 or more, otherwise Keep an eye on
Data reliability needed	How far the month's books must be trusted before the check may raise a finding. Below it, the finding is held back and only counted for the accountant.	60%
Recommended actions	What the client could do about it, who would do it and how soon	Tighten debtor collection (finance manager, 0–30 days)

Catalyst Platform has 15 standard checks. They are ProteaByte's working defaults, shown in the dashboard as "Catalyst Platform standard checks", and they are used until the Trigger Matrix replaces or confirms each one. Four of them need information beyond the Xero books (payroll, VAT returns filed, and sales by customer), so they find nothing until that information is available.

The template, column by column

Please send the Trigger Matrix as a spreadsheet with one row per check and these columns. Plain words are best: we turn them into the exact rule, and you approve the result before it goes live.

Column	What to write	Example
Row	Your own reference for the row. We record it against the check, so every finding can be traced back to your Matrix.	e.g. TM-04
Check name	A short name in plain words, as the client should read it. Avoid abbreviations.	Customers paying more slowly
What it looks for	One or two sentences: the problem, and why it matters to a business owner.	Customers are taking longer to pay, which ties up cash.
Condition and threshold	The exact test, with units (days, %, percentage points, months, rand) and the period it looks at (this month, last 3 months, compared with last month or last year). Say whether parts are "and" or "or".	Debtor days (last 3 months) up at least 5 days and at least 15% on last month
How often	Checks run once a month on each client's month-end figures. If a rule needs a different rhythm, say so here.	Monthly
Severity bands	When a finding is Urgent, Important or Keep an eye on. Give the number for each band.	Urgent ≥ 75 days; Important ≥ 45 days; otherwise Keep an eye on
Recommended action and owner	What the client should do, who in the client's business owns it (owner, finance manager, operations manager, bookkeeper, with or without the accountant) and in what timeframe.	Tighten debtor collection: finance manager, 0–30 days
Linked service line, service provider	Any Catalyst service, service provider this check relates to. This is for our information: each service provider's rules are set separately, in its own specification, and never change a check or a finding.	Draft criteria for Aurora use it
Notes	Anything else: exclusions (for example businesses without stock), how reliable the data must be, the wording you want in the report, sources.	Not for businesses with no credit sales

Checks can use these figures from the books: revenue, gross margin, EBITDA margin, net profit margin, overheads as a share of revenue, payroll as a share of revenue, current ratio, months of cash cover, debtor days, creditor days, stock days, the cash cycle, revenue growth on last year, working capital and operating cash flow, and the month's data reliability score. A check that needs something else is still worth writing down: tell us what it needs in the Notes column.

Checks and signals are different things. The platform also works out signals for service providers' rules, such as insurance as a share of revenue or dividends declared in the last year. Checks cannot read signals. Signals are never scored, never raise a finding and never appear in the report; the accountant sees them in a separate panel on the client file. A check that needs a figure like this is a new kind of test, which ProteaByte adds to the platform first.

Blank template

Copy these columns into your spreadsheet. Scroll sideways on a small screen.

Row	Check name	What it looks for	Condition and threshold (with units)	How often	Severity bands	Recommended action and owner	Linked service line, service provider	Notes

Worked examples, from the standard checks

Three of the standard checks, written the way we'd like the Trigger Matrix rows. The numbers are ProteaByte's working defaults, not benchmarks: please replace or confirm them.

Column	Example 1	Example 2	Example 3
Row	e.g. TM-01	e.g. TM-02	e.g. TM-03
Check name	Customers paying more slowly	Cash running low	Risk to the business continuing
What it looks for	Customers are taking longer to pay than last month, which ties up cash.	Cash covers less than 3 months of running costs.	Several warning signs that the business may struggle to keep going.
Condition and threshold (with units)	Debtor days (debtors ÷ revenue × days, over the last 3 months) rose by at least 5 days and at least 15% on last month.	Months of cash cover (cash ÷ average monthly cash costs over the last 3 months) is below 3.	At least 2 of these 4: current ratio below 1; less than 1 month of cash cover; a net loss over the last 3 months; operations using cash in each of the last 3 months.
How often	Monthly	Monthly	Monthly
Severity bands	Urgent at 75 debtor days or more; Important at 45 or more; otherwise Keep an eye on.	Urgent below 1 month; Important below 2 months; otherwise Keep an eye on.	Urgent with 3 or more signs; otherwise Important.
Recommended action and owner	Tighten debtor collection: finance manager, 0–30 days. Tighten terms for new and slow-paying customers: owner with the finance manager, 0–60 days.	Establish a 13-week cash forecast: finance manager, 0–14 days. Cut discretionary overheads: owner or operations manager, 0–60 days. Put a working-capital buffer in place: owner with the accountant, 30–90 days.	Agree a recovery plan with your accountant: owner with the accountant, 0–14 days. Establish a 13-week cash forecast: finance manager, 0–14 days.
Linked service line, service provider	Draft criteria for Aurora one of two checks, either of which a client needs	Draft criteria for Aurora use the same figure directly: at least 1 month of cash cover	Draft criteria for Aurora exclude clients with this finding
Notes	Needs data reliability of at least 60%.	Needs data reliability of at least 60%. A bank balance that is out of date, zero or materially unreconciled is not used, so the check is not tested that month.	Needs data reliability of at least 50%. A partner must approve it in a report. Practices cannot hide it.

The other standard checks are: Cash tied up in working capital; Suppliers being paid later; Stock building up; Keeping less of each sale; Overheads growing faster than revenue; Uneven revenue; Growth running ahead of cash; Unexplained amounts in suspense; Reliance on a few customers; Revenue per employee; Overtime costs; VAT and tax not agreeing with returns. Partners can see each one, with its numbers, under Settings → Checks and scoring.

How we load it

Each row of the Trigger Matrix becomes a new version of a check in the rule library, where Catalyst staff manage checks. Nothing published is ever edited or deleted: a change is always a new version, and every version keeps who made it, who approved it and why.

Match. We match each row to a standard check, or mark it as new. New numbers for an existing check are a change in the rule library. A new kind of test is added to the platform by ProteaByte first, then set up the same way.
Draft. Catalyst staff draft the new version: every threshold as a labelled number with its unit, the data reliability needed, the Matrix row it comes from, and why.
Preview. Before anything goes live, the rule library shows how many clients' results would change in each practice (counts only, no client named), which practices hide the check, and which service providers' specifications rely on the version in force.
Approve. A second staff member approves it. The person who drafted a change can't approve it. For now prod allows one exception: by the product owner's decision of 10 November 2026, one person may approve their own change, and the record shows the approval was the author's alone.
Publish. The new version replaces the old one and applies from each client's next sync. Findings an accountant has already reviewed stay as reviewed.
Tell partners. Each practice with at least one affected client gets a notice for its partners: the check, what it looks for now, each number before and after, and how many of their clients it affects. A practice that hides the check isn't told.

Service providers keep the version they named. A service provider's criteria and opportunity rules name the exact version of each check they rely on. When a check changes, they keep using the earlier version, for that service provider only, until its specification is moved to the new one. So loading the Trigger Matrix never quietly changes which clients a service provider sees as a fit.

Good to know

Practices can hide a check from their own findings and reports, but cannot change its numbers. A practice that wants different numbers asks Catalyst for a new version. "Risk to the business continuing" can never be hidden.
A hidden check still runs and still counts for service providers' rules.
A check never reads anything about service providers or offers. Their rules can use checks, but never change them or add a finding.
Each practice can set its own health-score weights. That changes how the score adds up, never a check or its numbers.
Every finding records which version of the check raised it, so a past report can always be explained with the rule in force at the time.
A check can be withdrawn without a replacement, with a note. "Risk to the business continuing" can never be withdrawn.
Thresholds are best set from experience with real clients. The preview step shows the effect before anything goes live, so it is safe to start with your best estimate.