As-reported vs restated data — which one should you use?

As-reported data is the figure a company published at the time. Restated data is that figure as it stands after later amendments — corrections, reclassifications, changes in accounting standards, or a restructuring that redefined segments. Both are legitimate; they answer different questions.

Restated figures are the better choice for understanding a business over time. They apply consistent definitions across periods, which is what makes a five-year revenue trend comparable rather than an artifact of changing disclosure. Analysts building a fundamental view of a company almost always want them.

As-reported figures are the only correct choice for evaluating anything that happened. The market priced the original number; a strategy, a manager or a model that acted on that date acted on that version. Using a restatement published two years later to judge a decision made before it existed is not conservatism, it is time travel — and it systematically flatters the decision.

The practical failure is storage rather than analysis. A database that keeps a single value per period has already chosen for you, usually the restated one, and it has thrown away the information needed to recover the alternative. Once the original print is gone it cannot be reconstructed from the current view, which is why the choice has to be made at query time and not at ingestion.