Why source and time belong together
A record without source and timing can look precise while being operationally useless.
A value becomes intelligence only when a reader can answer three questions: who asserted it, when it was observed, and what entity or system it describes. Remove any one of those and an apparently clean record becomes difficult to use responsibly.
Provenance is often treated as a compliance field added after analysis. It is more fundamental than that. It is what allows an analyst, model, or operating team to weigh a regulatory filing differently from a satellite observation or a commercial disclosure.
Time is equally important. A current value and a previously true value can both be correct, but they answer different questions. An intelligence system should preserve that distinction instead of overwriting history with the latest available record.
The practical result is accountability. When an answer changes, a user should be able to see whether the source changed, the entity was resolved differently, or the surrounding conditions moved. That is how a system earns trust under review.
Further reading