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How to Flag a Wrong Figure in a Peer's Client Email
How do I flag a wrong figure in a peer's client email before the client replies?
Send your peer the right figure, where it lives, and a one-line correction they can paste. If the client is about to read the thread and your peer is away, send the fix yourself and tell your peer the exact words you used.
What may actually be happening
A wrong number in a client email is usually a stale paste, not a plot. Someone copied last quarter's slide, rounded a figure and dropped the caveat, or missed a change that landed after the draft was approved. Your peer's name is on the message, so a loud correction can feel like a public trial even when you meant it as backup. The client, meanwhile, may be about to forward that figure inside their own company. What you are in is a short race between embarrassment and accuracy. Accuracy wins faster when you hand over the replacement and its source instead of a mood.
Look at it from both sides
You are guarding the account, and your own name if you are copied. Your peer is guarding the minute they pressed send, and the story a manager will tell if the client replies "which number is real?" Those are ordinary fears, not rival agendas. The client does not need a narrator for the mistake. They need the replacement figure, the date it applies to, and a sentence they can forward. A note that debates who should have checked teaches them your team argues in public. A note that swaps the number teaches them you verify.
What you can do
Open the source before you type: the cell, the contract line, the forecast date. Sort the error by consequence. A misspelled product nickname can be a quiet aside. A price, a go-live date, a headcount, or a percentage that changes a decision cannot. Message your peer where they will see it in the next few minutes, not in a channel they check after lunch. Offer one paste-ready sentence. If they are in a meeting and the client is active on the thread, send the correction yourself, leave blame out of the reply-all, and immediately show your peer the exact words so they are not reading their own inbox cold.
What you can say
"Leila, the 18 percent in your note to Northwind is last quarter. The signed figure is 12.5 percent, Forecast sheet, cell E14, dated 2 March. You could send: 'Correction: the agreed figure is 12.5 percent, not 18. Sorry for the mix-up.'" "You may be away from your desk. The client has this thread open, so I am replying with the corrected go-live of 14 April and copying you. We can add context after if you want it."
What not to do
Do not reply-all with "this is wrong" and no replacement. Do not save the screenshot for a later review while the client still has the bad figure. Do not joke about the typo in a team channel before the fix is out. Do not copy their manager to prove you were alert. Do not wait for Thursday's stand-up if the inbox is live. And do not bury the correction under three paragraphs about how the process ought to change. The process conversation can start after the number is right.
Try this today
Open the thread, write the correct figure and the file it came from in a single line, and send that to your peer with a sentence they can paste. Name a short window, such as fifteen minutes. If they do not answer inside it, send the correction yourself and message them what you sent, including the time.