Re: drafting invoices

[Peter Houppermans <..hidden..>]

I think we're talking cross purposes here.

> I'm not an accountant, nor do I play one on TV.

Ditto..

> I think a lot of folks who might use L-SMB would be turned off by such
> a rigidly-conforming system.  My suggestion would be continue with
> allowing users the option of either allowing re-posting of records or
> not allowing it.  I'm just not too sure who would be well-served by
> this "draft" mode.


I have three answers to that:

(1) The primary reason I am interested in LedgerSMB is precisely because 
I see a good stand on rigidly following the rules.  An ability to adjust a 
transaction retrospectively is just not acceptable as it destroys my 
audit trail and accounting transparency.  The reason I'm so hard on that 
is easy: we had a substantial fraud occurring in one of the businesses I 
deal with, and it happened via creative use of weaknesses in accounting 
(which is why I now know a lot more about this <wry grin>).  There is no 
way I would accept anything but a full reverse and report audit trail 
now - I have seen what can happen otherwise.  Besides, it's much easier 
to get accounts signed off if it's transparent what happens when.
In short, I have good reasons to abhor any 'flexibility' in accounting..

(2) The draft mode is a front end activity.  Like a draft email, in 
principle the document in progress does not exist to the world, only to 
the operator, i.e. it does not affect the business or the accounts.  
I would want to make sure that any print function or presentation of 
any such documents would paste "DRAFT" or "NULL AND VOID" or "THIS IS A 
TEST" as a graphic (not background because browsers exclude that in print.
That stops the potential for it being used as a way to generate formal docs
without a matching audit trail. 
I can see the use of this function, but it's also an avenue 
for abuse so you need a master on/off switch.  When the draft is turned 
into a formally issued invoice (i.e. indeed affects the 
business/stock/accounts) all warning signs could be removed.

(3) It strikes me that such a mechanism is a nice route into template 
invoices.  Use draft to create one, then store as template.  Wouldn't
really work for any of the businesses I work with, but I can see use.

/// P ///