Imagine finding a useful transaction figure while reviewing a payment market. You may want to quote it in a presentation, compare it with another country or explain why it differs from a provider’s headline number. The next question is usually the same: where did this come from? A source link makes that question answerable without starting the research again.

Aurato’s Sources are the references used across the payment records in Atlas and the data available through Graph. A source might be a central bank report, a scheme’s statistics, a bank’s product terms or a provider’s documentation. Its role depends on the statement it supports: a fee schedule can establish a product’s price, while a statistical release can establish a payment total. Both are evidence, but for different questions.

Open the market, payment method, bank, card product or other record that raised your question. Its Graph section provides a direct route into the supporting evidence. Choose “Show all sources for” followed by the record name. Aurato opens the Sources page with that record selected, rather than asking you to search the entire registry for its name.

The filtered URL carries the record’s Aurato ID. For example, the Netherlands source list uses /sources?entity=mkt_nl. That makes it a useful link to keep with a research note or send to someone checking the same subject. The record page may also show a short list of recent sources; the full list is the better place to investigate the wider evidence.

1. Open a record

   Start with the specific subject, rather than a broad search for a payment brand.

2. Find its Graph section

   Choose “Show all sources for” and the record’s name.

3. Inspect the filtered list

   Open the original publications and follow their linked records when you need more context.

Sometimes you remember a report, publisher or subject before you know which Aurato record it belongs to. Open Sources from the Graph navigation and use “Search Sources...” to narrow the registry. The record selector alongside search lets you focus the results on one subject; combining the two controls is useful when a well-covered record has many references.

A filtered result is still a list of source entries, not the full text of every original document. A search that returns nothing does not establish that a report contains no relevant material. Try a shorter title or search within the original publication once you have opened it. Use the controls below the list to reveal more entries when the first results are not enough.

Each entry presents a title and its destination URL, with a date that helps place the registry entry in time. Open the title or arrow to visit the original material in a new tab. Where available, Publisher links identify the organisation behind the publication, while Records links show the Aurato subjects connected to it. Those two sets of links answer different questions: who published this, and where is it used?

The date shown in the source list comes from when the entry was created or retrieved in Aurato. It should not automatically be quoted as the publisher’s release date. A report added this week can describe last year’s activity. Open the original document to establish its publication date and the period covered by the figures.

Finding an official source is only the first part of verification. Read the specific table, paragraph or terms that support the statement you want to use. A report’s title can be broad while the relevant figure is narrow: domestic transactions, resident-issued cards, a particular product tier or a survey of one customer population. The footnote often supplies the distinction that explains an apparent discrepancy.

For measurements, check the unit, geography and period alongside the value. For availability, check whether the source describes an announcement, a launch or actual support in the market. For card benefits, check conditions such as eligibility, limits and required payment with the card. These checks turn a reference into an explanation of what the evidence actually establishes.

Suppose an Atlas market page shows a card transaction total and you need to include it in a country review. Open that market’s Sources, locate the relevant statistics publication and follow its original URL. Find the table for the same period, then read how the publisher defines card transactions. In particular, establish whether the total follows the residence of an issuer, the location of a transaction or another reporting boundary.

Return to the Aurato measurement and compare those definitions. A different total elsewhere may be legitimate if it uses a different boundary. Your research note should retain the figure, unit, period, scope and original source URL. If you still see a mismatch after aligning them, you now have a precise question to investigate or report, with the relevant evidence already identified.

The same source can appear under a market, several payment methods and a related institution. That is useful: the Records links let you move from a publication to the parts of Atlas that draw on it. It also prevents a common research mistake. Five record pages citing one report are five uses of the same evidence, rather than five independent confirmations.

Source count and completeness answer different questions. A long source list can contain overlapping publications, while one authoritative document may support a very specific fact well. The completeness percentage beside a record’s Sources link concerns how much applicable record information is filled. It is not a probability that every statement is correct, nor a substitute for reading the material relevant to your decision.

Sources explains the evidence available for a subject. Changes explains meaningful additions and revisions to Aurato’s published data. If a new report leads to revised measurements, the related change entry can explain the update, while Sources provides a route to the original publication. A routine source review or URL correction may improve the evidence without becoming a new public change.

When something matters to your research, keep both links: the filtered Sources list for the record and the relevant Changes history. For an error report, include the record, the source URL and the specific definition or passage that needs attention. That is far more actionable than a general message saying that a number looks wrong.