Data Sources for Financial Models
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AOfficial dataStrong baseline for defined populations, periods, and geographies.
BFilings and rulesPrimary evidence for a specific company, law, program, or regulator.
CMarket evidenceCurrent prices and terms, with commercial and location caveats.
DOperator contextPractical workflow and failure modes—not a universal benchmark alone.
Data sources
Know what a source can prove—and what it cannot.
Our proposed framework assigns official statistics, filings, independent research, current market evidence, and operator context to different jobs. This representative register explains the role and limits of each source type.
Important: this page is a source framework and representative register. The sources cited on an individual article are the ones that support that article’s claims.
Priority
Use the closest primary source
A regulator for the rule, a filing for the company, and an official dataset for the measured population.
Fit
Match the source to the claim
National wage data does not prove local owner profit; a vendor price does not prove a typical total startup cost.
Time
Record period and access date
A live web price can change; a statistical release may describe a prior reference year.
Rights
Link and summarize responsibly
Source metadata and derived analysis do not grant a right to republish a protected dataset.
Source framework
The best source depends on the question.
We generally prefer primary public evidence, but “primary” is not synonymous with “sufficient.” A government wage series may be rigorous and still exclude self-employed owner income. A public-company filing may be authoritative for that company and still be a poor benchmark for a new independent business.
Sources inform two different decisions: how the model should work and what numerical input or range belongs in it. Evidence that supports a revenue driver, KPI, or schedule does not automatically supply the value for its assumption.
Best for measured facts
- Official statistical agencies
- Regulators and published law
- Audited or filed company reports
- Original survey or dataset methodology
- Direct current price or contract terms
Best for context, not proof alone
- Trade and market reports
- Industry cost guides
- Vendor explainers and case studies
- Interviews and operator communities
- Editorial comparisons and summaries
Representative source register
Filter the sources or export the metadata as CSV.
This is a reference map, not a usage log or evidence that any particular article or model used a listed source. It shows named public sources and generic evidence categories the methodology can evaluate; page-level and product-level research records remain decisive.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Wages, employment, inflation, producer prices, benefits, productivity, and related labor-market baselines.
Limit: employee or establishment data may not represent self-employed owner income.
Open BLS data →U.S. Census Bureau business programs
Business counts, owner characteristics, employer and nonemployer activity, firm dynamics, births, deaths, and survival.
Limit: publication lag, survey scope, and employer/nonemployer definitions can materially change interpretation.
Open Census business surveys →U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Industry output, value added, compensation, gross operating surplus, and input-output relationships.
Limit: broad industry accounts are not direct benchmarks for a specific small business.
Open BEA industry accounts →SEC EDGAR filings
Financial statements, risk factors, segment disclosures, operating metrics, and management discussion for SEC filers.
Limit: a large public company may be a poor operating benchmark for a new private business.
Search EDGAR →Eurostat European Business Statistics
Structural business statistics, business demography, enterprise populations, employment, size classes, and sector context.
Limit: classification, coverage, revision, and reference-year differences require careful comparison.
Open Eurostat business statistics →World Bank Open Data
Country-level economic, demographic, financial, infrastructure, inflation, and private-sector indicators.
Limit: the original provider, definition, reference period, revisions, and comparability must be checked per indicator.
Open World Bank Data →OECD Data Explorer
SMEs, entrepreneurship, structural business data, productivity, prices, national accounts, and cross-country indicators.
Limit: coverage, frequency, adjustment, and comparability vary by dataset and reporting country.
Open OECD Data Explorer →USDA Economic Research Service
Food, agriculture, commodities, farms, food prices, and rural-economy context.
Limit: farm, commodity, wholesale, retail, and food-service measures describe different levels of the value chain.
Open USDA ERS →U.S. Energy Information Administration
Electricity, fuel, energy prices, consumption, production, and industry energy context.
Limit: rates depend on customer class, location, tariffs, demand charges, taxes, and time period.
Open EIA →Current vendor pricing and quotations
Observable prices for software, equipment, supplies, insurance, services, and subscriptions.
Limit: first-party pricing proves the offer observed—not a universal or fully loaded cost.
Industry and trade reports
Industry structure, surveys, demand signals, operating practices, and benchmarks not available in public data.
Limit: methodology, sample, membership, sponsorship, and commercial incentives must be assessed report by report.
Operator interviews and practitioner accounts
Daily workflow, hidden costs, implementation problems, failure modes, practical terminology, and edge cases.
Limit: selection, survivorship, recall, incentive, and verification bias make one account unsuitable as a universal benchmark.
Nine named public-source links checked August 2, 2026. The three URL-free entries are evidence categories, not verified usage records. Downloading CSV exports the same metadata shown here.
How sources are used
Sources inform both model architecture and numerical inputs.
Three copied articles do not outweigh one well-defined primary dataset. We compare independence, method, definition, scope, geography, period, sample, and relevance—not merely the number of links—and then translate the evidence into a documented model role.
Establish how the business operates
Map the customer, offer, transaction, fulfillment, capacity, cost behavior, and cash cycle before selecting drivers or searching for averages.
Use primary evidence for the baseline
Establish the population, regulatory rule, public-company fact, or official measure closest to the claim.
Add industry evidence for detail
Fill gaps that official sources aggregate too broadly, while checking sampling and commercial incentives.
Add market evidence for current cost
Observe real offers and quotations, then state package, tax, shipping, location, and date boundaries.
Use operator evidence to challenge the model
Surface missing work, hidden costs, failure modes, and practical constraints; do not convert one story into a universal result.
Relevant evidence is then translated into an assumption register with a defined unit, geography, period, source date, uncertainty or range, formula role, and linked model driver.
What we do not use alone
Convenient evidence can still be weak evidence.
Search snippets or AI-generated answers
They can help locate a source, but they can be incomplete, stale, decontextualized, or fabricated. The underlying page or dataset must be opened and checked.
Uncited “average profit” claims
Without definition, sample, geography, period, and cost treatment, “average” can combine incompatible measures or repeat marketing copy.
One successful operator
A case study can demonstrate possibility and process; it cannot establish a typical outcome or probability by itself.
Our own model output
A Financial Models Lab scenario can explain mechanics. It is not independent evidence of what an industry or future business will achieve.
Citation records
A source note should let another reviewer find and interpret the evidence.
For a material claim, the research record should capture enough metadata to reconstruct the citation and understand its scope.
Identity
- Publisher and title
- Dataset, table, filing, or report
- Direct URL or durable identifier
- Publication and access date
Meaning
- Metric definition
- Unit and currency
- Geography and population
- Reference period
Limits
- Sample and exclusions
- Revisions or provisional status
- Commercial or sponsorship interest
- License or redistribution limits
Rights and reuse
Publicly accessible does not always mean freely republishable.
We link to sources, quote sparingly, summarize in our own words, and use derived analysis where permitted. Dataset terms, API rules, database rights, copyright, attribution requirements, rate limits, and restrictions can vary by publisher and country.
The downloadable CSV on this page contains source metadata and our descriptions—not a republication of the underlying datasets. Anyone reusing source data must check the original publisher’s current terms.
Currentness and limits
A source can be authoritative and still become stale.
Statistical agencies revise series. Regulators change rules. Vendors change prices. Reports use older reference periods. Pages and APIs move. We record access or review dates and prefer direct links, but you should verify any number or rule before a material decision.
See How We Research Businesses for normalization, ranges, and confidence, and read the Disclaimer for the limits of educational content.
Responsible publisher: Financial Models Lab · Source framework draft version 1.0 · Prepared August 2, 2026 · Effective only after internal approval.
Sources are one part of the method
See how evidence becomes a planning range.
Definitions, normalization, calculations, triangulation, confidence, review, and corrections are explained in the full methodology.