Restatements shouldn't rewrite history
Most financial APIs overwrite earlier filings when amendments arrive. Arche preserves each disclosure as it originally existed, then stores amendments as new versions.
That means you can reconstruct exactly what a model could have known at any point in time.
Let's examine the model impact when data systems overwrite history instead.
Axon Enterprise's 2025 Amendment
Axon's 2025 amendment shows the failure mode clearly: the same company and the same reporting period can produce different model inputs depending on whether your system preserves what was known at the time.
Original state of record
The market view immediately after the original 10-K was filed on February 28, 2025.
Principal amount
$690.0M
Carrying value
$680.289M
Debt classification
Long-term convertible notes: $680.289M
Balance-sheet carrying value tied to the $690.0M principal amount.
Current liabilities
$997.586M
Working capital
$1.300B
Current ratio
2.30x
In February 2025, Axon Enterprise filed its annual report showing roughly $690 million of convertible notes classified as long-term debt.
- Liquidity ratios looked strong.
- Working capital appeared comfortable.
Two months later, the company filed an amendment. The same $690 million was reclassified as current liabilities. Nothing about the company changed, only the accounting classification.
But that single change materially altered the balance sheet.
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What your model knew on that date
Step through the historical dates below and compare the output from a "latest-only" data source to Arche's point-in-time record. Scroll down after each step for a recap of what changes and why.
Step 1 of 4
Original 10-K filed
The company files its annual report. This is the original balance-sheet state before any amendment exists.
Latest-only vendor
Debt classification
Long-term convertible notes: $680.289M
Current liabilities
$997.586M
Working capital
$1.300B
Current ratio
2.30x
Model output
Comfortable near-term liquidity position
Returns the latest available filing state.
Arche point-in-time
Debt classification
Long-term convertible notes: $680.289M
Current liabilities
$997.586M
Working capital
$1.300B
Current ratio
2.30x
Model output
Comfortable near-term liquidity position
Uses only information available on the selected date.
What changed in the data
The same company. The same date. Different model inputs.
If the original filing is overwritten, a model rerun against March 2025 will silently use information that was not public until the May 2025 amendment. That is look-ahead bias.
Original
Restated / latest
Model impact
| Metric | Original | Restated / latest | Model impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debt classification | Long-term convertible notes: $680.289M | Current portion of convertible notes: $680.289M | Near-term leverage and rollover risk jump immediately. |
| Current liabilities | $997.586M | $1.678B | Short-term obligations increase by about $680M. |
| Working capital | $1.300B | $619.606M | Liquidity cushion is cut by more than half. |
| Current ratio | 2.30x | 1.37x | A healthy ratio drops materially. |
Original 2024 10-K filed Feb 28, 2025. Amended 2024 10-K/A filed May 7, 2025. The model impact column represents a common historical-query failure mode where later amendments overwrite earlier states.
WHAT LATEST-ONLY SYSTEMS GET WRONG
Latest-only systems leak amended data backward
If the original filing is overwritten, a model rerun against March 2025 will silently use information that was not public until the May 2025 amendment. That is look-ahead bias.
- Backtests drift
- Run the same model months apart and the results change, not because the model changed, but because the historical inputs did.
- Risk models cannot be reproduced
- You cannot reconstruct what your system concluded on a specific date.
- Audit trails disappear
- When the underlying data changes, the reasoning behind decisions becomes impossible to explain.
Arche treats every financial statement as a versioned assertion
When a filing arrives, its facts are stored exactly as disclosed. When an amendment appears, the updated version is stored alongside it, not instead of it. This allows financial data to be queried exactly as it existed at any point in time, while still making change explicit.
- Deterministic as-of snapshots.
- Rebuild a historical view from the versions that were actually available at that moment, even after later amendments arrive.
- Explicit restatement deltas.
- Compare original and amended statements directly to see which line items changed, by how much, and what that does to the model.
- Traceable provenance.
- Carry the lineage from filing to extracted fact to versioned assertion so analytical outputs remain explainable and reviewable.