maybe terminology will help. there should be "reversal" of a transaction. this would be a transaction entry that cancels the original entry with notes in the reversal of why and the transaction this relates to. So the transaction file would show the original transaction and a reversal. This is true audit trail. Now once the transaction file has been balances and before it is posted to the GL, a copy of this Transaction file is copied and frozen.
The paymentapplication is an important piece of data. it links payments, invoices, and billingAccounts. all those should have a reverse entry that matches the original. so no matter where you start you can trace back and come up with same totals. Vince Clark sent the following on 7/3/2009 2:25 PM: > This is a very important discussion because this applies to voiding any type > of document that has accounting consequences, not just payments. We need to > get this right. > > As far as I can tell from scanning the code the only thing being "thrown > away" are payment applications to the invoice. The original payment document > is being set to a VOID status and the accounting transaction is being > "reverted". Looking at the copyAcctgTransAndEntries service it makes a copy > of the original entries with opposite debit and credit. > > Our testing will confirm, but I assume the new accounting transaction will > also have the paymentId. So if we were to look at all the gl transactions for > this voided payment we would see the original D/C and the reversal. I have > worked in other systems that made a copy of the payment and tied the > reversing entries to the new document. I personally do not care for this > approach but am not qualified to say which is proper accounting practice. > Seems to me that as long as all the gl entries can be tied back to the > original payment document we have an audit trail. > > Regarding payment applications, it is possible that rather than delete the > payment application it should also be treated as a void and retained for > audit trail. But from what I can tell in OFBiz the Payment Application is not > what relieves AR. So Payment Applications have no accounting consequences. > The invoice gets the payment application entries. So as long as everything > associated with the invoice is reversed, and as with the payment, all those > new entries are tied to the original invoice, we should have an audit trail. > > I think the main outstanding question is whether or not to create a copy of > the original document (payment) and tie the reversing entries to that > document rather than tie all entries to the original payment. > > Vince Clark > [email protected] > (303) 493-6723 > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "BJ Freeman" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2009 7:40:25 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain > Subject: Re: Accounting Audit Trail > > to further this, most accountants take a snapshot of the Database just > before they post the transaction to the GL. > I see the copyAcctgTransAndEntries happening just before the posting to > the GL that is a snapshot of the transactions. it is then frozen and no > other interaction with that snapshot can be made. > > > BJ Freeman sent the following on 7/2/2009 2:48 PM: >> Vince the answer to this is if you walked in cold ,as an auditor and run >> the audit would you know what happened. Would you know when the original >> invoice happened and when the cancel entries happened. >> could you trace the original invoice and when and how the new entries >> that reversed it happened? >> Normally, in the past, you leave the records in then you post new >> entries that cancel with notes to the previous entries that they are >> posting against. >> This also affords the original date of the transaction and the date it >> was effectively canceled. >> >> In the paper world the the service you mention would be the equivalent >> of throwing away the original paper work and putting a note in place >> that I canceled the invoice. >> >> Unless I missed something. >> >> >> >> >> Vince Clark sent the following on 7/2/2009 1:31 PM: >>> According to the patch the service being called in voidPayment is: >>> <call-service service-name="copyAcctgTransAndEntries" >>> in-map-name="copyAcctgTransCtx"/> >>> >>> I have not looked at the code in that service but would assume it is making >>> additional AcctgTransEntry records that are the exact opposite Debit/Credit >>> from the original entries. Is this not an audit trail? >>> >>> >>> Vince Clark >>> [email protected] >>> (303) 493-6723 >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "BJ Freeman" <[email protected]> >>> To: [email protected] >>> Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2009 11:48:10 AM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain >>> Subject: Re: Accounting Audit Trail >>> >>> r790606. >>> voidPayment simple method does not have any audit trail to show these >>> actions were taken. >>> I did not find any SECA or EECA on payment entity that cover this. >>> >>> Based on this someone can come in are reverse payment and pocket the >>> money with no trace of how it happened. >>> >>> >>> there is couple more but I will have to dig for them when I have time. >>> >>> >>> Jacopo Cappellato sent the following on 7/2/2009 9:36 AM: >>>> Hi BJ, >>>> >>>> could you please be more specific about the revision number of the commits? >>>> >>>> Jacopo >>>> >>>> On Jul 2, 2009, at 9:26 AM, BJ Freeman wrote: >>>> >>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audit_trail >>>>> http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-importance-of-a-bookkeeping-audit-trail.seriesId-107023.html >>>>> >>>>> http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/16709/Tax%20XML%20AuditTrail_60215.doc. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> I see code going in to accounting where entries are removed and no audit >>>>> trail is kept. >>>>> this goes against all accounting practices. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> BJ Freeman >>>>> http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation >>>>> http://bjfreeman.elance.com >>>>> http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=1237480&locale=en_US&trk=tab_pro >>>>> >>>>> Systems Integrator. >>>>> > -- BJ Freeman http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation http://bjfreeman.elance.com http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=1237480&locale=en_US&trk=tab_pro Systems Integrator.
