You discover that two critical systems contain conflicting records for the same customer and those conflicts affect billing. What steps would you take immediately to resolve the discrepancy, communicate with stakeholders, and prevent similar issues in the future?

If I found conflicting customer records that affect billing, I would first contain the risk: flag the account and pause automated billing for that customer within 2 hours to avoid further incorrect charges. Next I’d run a quick reconciliation to quantify scope — in a past case I found 420 affected accounts representing a $23,400 exposure. I’d assemble a small cross-functional team (I usually work with 2 finance analysts and 3 IT specialists) and identify the source of truth by tracing creation timestamps, audit logs, and recent imports. We’d correct the canonical record, issue any necessary customer adjustments within 48 hours, and notify stakeholders with a clear timeline and remediation plan. Finally, I’d implement a nightly automated reconciliation script and data validation rules that reduced similar mismatches by about 85% within the first month.