One answer per question
When the FAQ and the section disagree, partners pick the answer that pays them. Here's how the two drift apart, and how to keep them together.
Here is a pattern we find in about half the guides we audit. The MDF section says claims are due 45 days after the activity ends. The FAQ at the back says 30.
Nobody wrote a contradiction on purpose. The FAQ was written at launch, when the deadline was 30 days. A year later the program team extended it, updated the MDF section, and forgot the FAQ.
Partners pick the answer that pays
When two parts of your guide disagree, a partner doesn’t flip a coin. They pick the reading that keeps their claim alive, and they’re right to: you published both. Your partner team then has to decide whether to honor the longer deadline or explain that the FAQ was wrong. Either way, the partner learns that the guide can’t be trusted on its own.
Software reading the guide for a partner has the same problem, without the judgment. It may quote the section to one partner and the FAQ to another.
How to keep them together
- Give every rule one home. State the deadline once, in its section. Let the FAQ point to that section instead of repeating the number.
- When a rule changes, search for it. Before you publish a change, search the whole guide, the portal and your partner emails for the old value.
- Put a version and an effective date on the guide. Partners can then tell which copy they have, and so can you when a dispute comes in.
- Name an owner. One person signs off every change to the guide, and checks the FAQ as part of it.
The test
Pick any number in your FAQ. Can you find the same number, worded the same way, in the section it belongs to? If you can’t, partners can’t either.