Register Comparator

What a spreadsheet diff misses

A cell-by-cell comparison says that a cell changed from “Open” to “Closed”, that a row is missing, and that a new row appeared. It does not say that the missing row was a risk still open last month, deleted rather than closed, or that the new row is the same risk under a new ID. This tool matches items by ID and reads each change as the register would mean it.

What it reports

Items closed and reopened. Scores raised or lowered, from the score column, or likelihood times impact, or the priority when there is no score. Owners changed, named or removed, where “Shah, Priya” and “Priya Shah” are the same person rather than a reassignment. Due or review dates moved later or earlier, by how many days. Other columns edited. New items, and items that left the register, split between those closed first and those that were still open when they went.

Renumbered items

When an item leaves and another arrives with nearly the same wording, the tool pairs them as the same item under a new ID. That matters because actions, decisions and reports that refer to the old ID now point at nothing. Each pairing is shown for you to confirm, because two genuinely different risks can be worded alike.

Any register

It works on anything kept one row per item with an ID: risk registers, issue and action logs, RAID logs, change logs, decision logs. The two versions can name their columns differently; each is mapped on its own. Schedules have their own tool, the Schedule Version Comparator, which follows the logic and dates as well.

What this does not do

It compares two versions, not a whole history; for a run of monthly forecasts, the Milestone Trend Analyzer does that for dates. It cannot see who made a change or why. And a pairing of renumbered items is a suggestion from the wording, not proof.