What was sold and paid is a fact; nobody's memory outranks it

Alex, 20 Sep 2026: "the invoices and deposits are the truth. whatever I say, if we sold that and the client paid then that's a fact."

So, in order of authority for anything about a client's services and prices:

1. A Stripe invoice line matched to a bank deposit. Fact. What was sold, at what price, to whom, when paid. The catalog's default prices are the median paid price per unit, recomputed from these lines, never typed.
2. An issued, unpaid invoice line. What was offered; counts for what tasks exist, not for revenue.
3. The catalog default. A starting point for the next quote, derived from 1.
4. What anyone remembers, Alex included. Used to explain a fact or to find a missing invoice, never to overrule one. Clearminds "is just ads" and the paid April starter pack are both true; the record shows both, and the label follows the record.

Where the record is missing, the answer is to issue or find the invoice, not to write the memory into the database. docs/knowledge/finance-deposit-means-paid.md is the same rule one level down.