[Intro]

Sheet one: Summary.
Sheet two: Summary Revised.
Sheet three: Summary Revised Final.
Sheet four: Summary Revised Final Two.

[Verse]

Seventy-two tabs across the lower frame,
Each coloured brightly, each almost the same.
Blue for the regions, green for the teams,
Grey for the costs no director has seen.

Nadine starts left with the approved annual plan,
Then follows one formula as far as she can.
It jumps to a workbook stored in Procurement,
Then links to a drive called "Old Transformation."

The reference is broken, the value remains.
A number survives though the source has changed.
She opens the hidden columns from Q through Z,
And finds three contracts charged repeatedly.

[Pre-Chorus]

Trace the cell. Follow the line.
Open the filter. Check the sign.
One sheet lies. One sheet omits.
One sheet contains what the summary forgets.

[Chorus]

Seventy-two sheets of Excel,
Every tab becomes a tunnel.
Every formula pulls another
Quiet cost beneath the colour.

Follow one and find the others.
Every total has a mother.

[Verse]

Sheet nineteen lists every software seat,
Purchased in bulk at a volume-rate fee.
Four thousand eight hundred assigned by design,
Thirteen active users at reporting time.

Sheet forty-six is password protected.
The listed owner says he never created it.
Nadine calls IT, waits under a tune,
Then gains reed access at ten after noon.

Inside is a map of intercompany spend,
Where one cost enters and appears again.
The same old license under two legal names,
Two invoices feeding the very same claim.

[Chorus]

Seventy-two sheets of Excel,
Every tab becomes a tunnel.
Every filter clears the window.
Every link reveals another.

The summary calls them minor movements.
The detail calls them obligations.

[Keyboard Solo]

[Verse]

At sheet fifty-eight the pattern turns,
From careless spending to automatic returns.
Auto-renew, auto-extend, auto-pay,
No named owner required to stay.

Sheet sixty-three marks "strategic hold."
Sheet sixty-four says "do not close."
Sheet sixty-five has no explanation,
Only a note from Executive Transformation.

Nadine prints the page and circles the phrase,
Then compares the date to the spending freeze date.
The contracts were protected an hour before
The budget freeze reached the working floors.

[Bridge]

The workbook was not designed to deceive—
But complexity shelters a comfortable lie:
No single person can explain why.

The larger the workbook, the smaller the blame.

[Build-up]

Sixty-eight: duplicated license.
Sixty-nine: unused days.
Seventy: ownerless cloud cost.
Seventy-one: executive waiver.

Seventy-two:

Actuals.

[Final Chorus]

Seventy-two sheets of Excel,
Now the tunnels reach the centre.
The smallest cuts were never saving
What the largest contracts swallowed.

Three calculator clicks assemble,
And the whole forecast starts to tremble.

[Outro]

She saves a copy outside the shared drive.
She names it "Quarterly Actuals Verified."
No "final." No "revised." No colour.

Just the numbers.