An audience is described, agreed, and only then assembled. Records are aged as well as counted, because staleness varies by field. What arrives is a file whose every column has a written definition.
Validation
Checking structure and reachability before a file is used, not after.
Whitespace discipline
Removing the invisible differences that make two identical values compare as different.
Size banding
Grouping organisations into ranges that the underlying evidence can actually support.
Bring the awkward requirement rather than the easy one; it is more informative.