What the documents look like
Producer export tax offset and refund combines domestic sales tax offset with export refund in one calculation. That combination is why citation tracing in this category reaches across four materials at once: the offset-and-refund declaration detail sheet, the export contract, the sales detail ledger, and the customs export declaration. These materials come from different roles. Documentation staff maintain customs declarations and contracts. Tax accountants collect self-produced export items and compute the offset and refund. The financial ledger carries sales detail. Monthly updates mean that at a handover point, material versions can be out of step with one another.
The operational question at handover is narrow: what authorization state does a given material, operation, or request occupy. A search result does not constitute authorization. A completed form does not constitute approval. The citation tracing step must keep retrieval, authorization, and business verification separate, because the downstream consequences of merging them include tax amount errors, reduced refunds, and corrected tax filings.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that share the same vector model. Its output is an array of citations, and the length may be zero. When no content is retrieved, that output path still completes. Citation content must be passed to the answering step and checked line by line against the source text. Retrieval fetches material; permission determination and business verification require downstream implementation.
Hypothetical paper exercise sample. A handover ledger for an export producer contains the following source excerpts. Sales detail ledger excerpt: "For March 2025, the total free-on-board value of self-produced export goods was ××× ten-thousand yuan, and the corresponding customs declaration numbers have been registered." Export contract excerpt: "The contract is valid until December 31, 2025, and the subject matter is the A-type motor." Offset-and-refund declaration detail sheet excerpt: "The offset-and-refund amount for the current period is filled according to the prior month's declaration basis." The draft sentence under review reads: "The A-type motor export contract has taken effect, the March customs declaration has completed refund declaration, and after handover the prior month's basis can be used directly for continued declaration." The sample has a defined entity, object, and period, but the source text states nothing about whether the contract has taken effect, whether the customs declaration completed its declaration, or whether the prior month's basis applies to the current period.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration or check item | Hypothetical starting point for this exercise | Reason for the choice and comparison method |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select registered knowledge bases whose vector model identifiers match | Only knowledge bases with the same vector model can be associated together; check identifiers base by base and exclude those that do not match |
| Citation limit | Set the starting point to cover one summary segment from each of the four material types | This value is a starting point for this exercise, not an official default; compare against the summary length of a single material and adjust |
| Minimum relevance | Set the starting point to a medium-low value | A starting point for this exercise; compare against the share of irrelevant fragments among retrieval results |
| Citation output handoff | Connect the citation array to the answering step | Check whether each answer sentence corresponds to cited source text |
| Material timeliness check | Retrieve with the current version and a historical version of the material | Compare the value of the same field in both versions and determine which version applies |
| Handover status labels | Mark pending review, signed, and effective in the handover ledger | Record the three states separately; they do not substitute for one another |
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as permission confirmation. The input is a contract excerpt returned by retrieval. The comparison object is the authorization status field in the handover ledger. If the ledger marks the item as pending review while the draft sentence states it can be used directly, the sentence overstates authority.
- Treating a quotation validity period as a supply term. The input is the validity clause in the contract excerpt. The comparison object is the supply timing commitment in the draft sentence. These are different fields and cannot be inferred from each other.
- Treating a pending-review status as absence of operational permission. The input is the review status of the handover request. The comparison object is the role permission list. Pending review means the process is incomplete; it does not show that permission is absent.
How to verify the setup
- Input the sales detail ledger excerpt and the draft sentence above. Compare whether "self-produced export" and "registered customs declaration numbers" refer to the same period and the same field. If the draft sentence adds a declaration-completion conclusion not present in the source text, the condition is not met.
- Input the contract excerpt and the draft sentence. Compare the contract validity period against the "has taken effect" wording. When the source text states no effectiveness clause, the draft sentence should be changed to pending verification; the condition passes when that change is made.
- Input the offset-and-refund declaration detail sheet excerpt and the request to use the prior month's basis. Compare the declaration basis fields of the two periods. If the current period's basis is not stated, record the evidence gap and do not conclude that the prior basis can be used directly.
A paper input of an empty citation array can be used to check downstream design, without claiming that any specific query returns an empty array. Cross-model knowledge bases cannot be associated together; check identifiers and exclude those that do not match, rather than running cross-model retrieval to compare missed recalls. The optional paths in the overall document flow diagram do not mean every request executes all of them. Image retrieval requires a corresponding image input and model capability, and reranking requires a model that is enabled according to settings. A pending request is not approval, an offered option is not execution, and an unsigned termination is not a completed termination.