Hi everyone...
So I explain why we need to change invoices... there are
many reasons...
Let's start from big one:
Accountants are perfectionist. I have seen many very
stressed out accountants, almost burned out, who use software
where they can't make changes. Every mistake is visible and
reminds itself to them and also their clients / bosses, who
ask about those mistakes as they see these as well.
When we moved over to first SQL-Ledger and then LedgerSMB,
this was the big relief and accountants are much more relaxed
and happy persons because they know it's ok to make mistakes
and fix them. And the best... nobody knows that there even was
a mistake.
Practical reasons:
Clients change their minds about order size, products, ask
for additional discounts, want different wording for services
etc etc. Today I just change the invoice according to their
wiches and I do it in LedgerSMB. Then resend. If this would
not be possible I would have to use Word or LibreOffice and
remake the invoice there as client wants one clear invoice.
And yes, clients even want to change invoice receiving company
after they have paid it (as private person).
Another big one:
I have developed a script for 1.2 version which generates
for me .csv file which I upload to Estonian Tax Authorites. It
includes invoice information both sales and purchases with
partners where we have had more than 1000 eur worth of
invoicing in a given month. It must include also credit
invoices, so total might be less than 1000. There are some
other rules to follow as well. It means I cannot have random
back and forth invoicing in the system or this report would
include them which by the end of day means I would need to do
this report manually or check it manually line by line as I
cannot upload information about invoices which actually didn't
happen. Estonian Tax Authorites check that both parties
declare the same information and it would not match if I have
there some voided invoices etc.
And if all this changing means that inventory is messed up
in the end, so be it... so far I have made once a year on 31st
of December a correction into ledger based on the inventory
report value and the difference in balance sheet. So it
matches at this point.
Also from regulatory point of view... we are talking about
small / medium companies... trust level between people is very
high, so we are not afraid of fraud by employees. Also I have
nightly backups and few times a year when somebody really
messes up something I restore the old copy and compare... and
find the mistake.
From Estonian Tax Authorities perspective... they have
never asked for audit log or something like that. Just the
list of invoices which include VAT, or whats inside cash
account. That's pretty much it. Banks want balance sheets and
income statements. Nobody really cares how many mistakes there
were or how they got corrected.
I understand this might not be the case in all countries,
but we need a stress free working environment which is
flexible and allows correction of everything as needed.
Before using SQL-Ledger / LedgerSMB I used HansaWorld and
back then there was no way to correct changes... only way was
to make a text backup copy and then search from there where
the mistake is and correct and then reimport the backup
copy... with bigger database it toke like a day or more... and
I had to do it couple of times. I had enough, that's why we
changed. Nowadays it's much easier with HansaWorld as well
because I can give changing rights to a specific user who can
open old documents, change them and close them. Yes this
person needs to know what he or she is doing and correct
manually some other things as well, so everything balances but
once You learn what needs to be done, it's doable.
I really hope this helps the developers and You will
develope some userfriendly way to make changes into existing
documents, so I can finally upgrade from 1.2 to a newer
version.
All the Best,
Peeter Pärtel