Work

Three examples, done in public

Each of these is the job I would do on your numbers — written up here with the sources left in, so you can judge the method before paying for it.

A supplier and a quotation

The question. You have a Chinese company name and a factory quotation, and need to know what actually holds.

What I checked. The national credit registry for the registered name, the 18-character credit code, registration status and business scope; digits 3–8 of the code against the address on the quotation; subscribed capital against paid-in capital and the date it is due; the abnormal-operations and serious-violations lists; then the enforcement list, the customs credit directories, and the certificate registry behind an ISO claim.

What came out. Which fields answer which question, why an empty list cannot distinguish “never listed” from “listed and repaired”, and why the payment sequence does more work than any single check.

Read the public version — five registries, the field most buyers skip, and what a clean record does not prove.

A lane, and what it costs this month

The question. What does one route or one product actually cost now, and is the rate you were quoted anywhere near it?

What I checked. Two public container indices, their as-of dates and what each one measures; the lanes where they disagree by several hundred dollars under the same name; the lanes with no public index at all; and where a forwarder's quote sits against the reading.

What came out. An index is not a quote, two indices are not two prices, and for some lanes the honest answer is that no public number exists. The page is re-read monthly and every figure carries its date.

Read the public version — the readings, what each index measures, and why they disagree.

A number that has to survive being checked

The question. Someone's deck says China's rail network is such-and-such. Does the number hold, and what is it actually measuring?

What I checked. One pull of the World Bank's World Development Indicators through the API, the response's last-updated date, whether route-kilometres mean the same thing in both countries, and the same series for freight and for India.

What came out. 44.29 times the passenger traffic on 69% of the track — with the caveats that make those two numbers comparable, and the freight series that behaves differently. The CSV and the script are published alongside it.

Read the public version — the table, the measurement problem, and the data behind the chart.

What you get

• A written memo, table or chart set — whichever the question actually needs.
• Every figure dated and sourced, with the link to re-run it where a public source exists.
• A plain statement of what could not be checked, rather than a number with the gap hidden.

The three jobs

Supplier and quotation checks

$250 · five working days

Registration and paid-in capital, what the quotation includes and what it quietly leaves out, and how the numbers sit against the public record. Written memo with every figure dated and sourced.

Sourcing and freight numbers

$200 · three working days

What a route, a product or a category costs this month, which index actually covers that lane, and where the rate you were quoted sits against it. A table you can forward, with the links to re-run every figure.

Data checks and charts

$400 · one week

A number in a deck, a report or a draft that has to survive being checked. I reproduce it from the source, say plainly where it does not hold, and draw the charts for publication. A short note and the chart files, with the data and the script behind them.

What it costs

Three fixed prices, agreed in writing before anything starts. No hourly billing, no retainer, no invoice after the fact.

• Rush, under 48 hours: +50%.
• Extra charts beyond the agreed set: $60 each.
• One round of revisions is included; further rounds are quoted separately.
• Jobs up to $400 are paid in full before work starts; above that, half up front and half on delivery. Payment by PayPal invoice, in USD.

How it works

Email the question, the deadline and what the answer is for. A one-paragraph scope and a fixed price come back, usually within two working days. Nothing starts before that is agreed in writing, and nothing is added to the bill afterwards.

Not a fit

Anything under an NDA, anything about a named employer's internals, legal or tax opinions, and work that needs an answer before it can be measured. If a job is outside what I can source myself, I say so before quoting.

To start: hi@notebookfield.com