fosterlynn
commented
8 years ago From @bhaugen : One interesting angle here is that accountants never change journal entries. They just post correcting entries.
Our economic events are like the first part of a journal entry (without the corresponding debits or credits, just the bare-bones recording of what happened). We do allow changing events.
I have discussed this with accountants, and their opinions vary. Our economic events are like a receipt or a material issue in an ERP system, which is in a subsystem from which journal entries will be derived. So in a journal system they would be like the special journals where for example cash receipts would be recorded without their double entries.
I have seen ERP systems allow changing receipt and issue records in subsystems, but when journal entries have been generated from them (sometimes at end of month), lock them down.
We will generate journal entries on the fly, on demand.
One accountant that I discussed this question with thought it might actually be better to allow changing initial entries as long as the system kept each version of an entry with an explanation of the reason for each change and who did it. They thought that might be even better for auditing purposes than corrected entries, where following the chains of corrections can be difficult. But they would want to see all of the versions in a report.
From email, excellent question from Radu: I was expecting not to allow new transfers for an existing Exchange. At what moment do you "lock" the exchange from future modifications?
I'm not sure what the OVN requirement would be, and I do think it will need to be flexible to account for different practices and policies. But at least, if you have filed your taxes, those should be locked down, right? Just like people will close out a fiscal year in a normal accounting package. For further discussion.....