When you edit something inside a Report, that change stays in the Report — it never changes the underlying data it came from, and it doesn't appear in your other Reports.
Think of each Report as a snapshot. Each page pulls in information from somewhere else — your client's contact cards, balance sheet, estate data, or documents Ester has analyzed — and saves its own copy inside the Report.
Editing inside a Report only changes that Report. Your edits are never written back to the client's contact cards, documents, or other source data.
Edits don't travel between Reports. The same page added to two different Reports holds two independent copies.
Source updates aren't automatic. When the underlying data changes, the Report flags the change and lets you decide whether to pull it in.
Editing inside a Report never changes your source data
Everything you type, move, rename, or hide on a Report page is saved to that Report only. For example:
Rewording an Executive Summary on a Report page does not change the summary in Ester.
Rearranging or renaming people in a Family Tree on a Report page does not change relationships stored to your client's contact cards.
How updates to the data source reach a Report
When the underlying data changes after you've added a page, the Report shows a "View Changes" badge on that page. Nothing updates until you choose to apply it.
Click "Apply Latest" or "Reset to Baseline Slide" to pull in the newest data — this replaces the page with a fresh version, so any manual edits you made to that page are overwritten.
Leave it as-is to keep your snapshot exactly as it was.
How to change the underlying information
Some pages include an Edit Source button (for contacts, documents, and estate details). This opens the original record so you can edit the real data at its source. After you save, the Report reflects the change through the same "Apply Latest" or "Reset to Baseline Slide" flow. To update the truth, edit the source; the Report follows — never the other way around.
Where each Report page gets its information from
Report page | Where its information comes from | Which way it syncs |
Report Cover, Family Tree, Decision Makers, Entity Structure Chart | Your client's contact cards | Source → Report only (pull in with "Apply Latest" or "Reset to Baseline Slide") |
Estate Overview, Estate Summary, Distribution Summary, Estate Flow, Balance Sheet | Your client's balance sheet and estate data | Source → Report only (pull in with "Apply Latest" or "Reset to Baseline Slide") |
Insights & Observations, Disposition Flowchart | The documents Ester has analyzed | Source → Report only (pull in with "Apply Latest" or "Reset to Baseline Slide") |
Family Tree | Generated by Ester when you add the page | Generated once within the Report; no ongoing sync |
Scenario Comparison, Scenario Strategy | Your planning scenarios | Source → Report only (stays current on its own) |
Vault Summary | Your client's Vault documents | Source → Report only (pull in with"Apply Latest" or "Reset to Baseline Slide") |
Calculators, Custom Slides | You — no outside source; the Report is the only place this lives | None — the Report is the source |
Table of Contents | The Report itself — rebuilds as you add, remove, or reorder pages | From the Report (updates on its own) |
Estate pages share a data model within a Report. Adjusting figures in the estate data editor updates the Estate Overview, Estate Summary, and Distribution Summary pages together — still within that one Report.
A few pages always show live data. The Cover, Table of Contents, Scenario Comparison, and preset Content pages rebuild from their source each time, so they stay current on their own.
"AI Generated" Family Tree is different. The standard Family Tree is built from contact cards; the AI-generated version is created by Ester and never reads from contact cards.
Frequently asked questions
If I fix a typo on a page in the Report, does it fix it everywhere? No — changes made to a page only apply in that Report. To fix it everywhere, edit the source record.
I updated a contact card — why doesn't my Report show it? The Report holds the content until you prompt to apply the latest changes to the page from the change made to the data source.
If I apply the latest data, will I lose my edits? Yes — applying rebuilds the page from current data. Apply it before heavy editing, not after.
Do edits I make to a page in one Report show up when I use that slide in another Report? No. Every Report keeps its own independent copy.