Emmitt: I agree again. In order to ensure that a re-generated invoice is the same as the original, you MUST store every single piece of information. In this client's case, I would have to store the original client information (name, address, etc), store a beginning balance number, every transaction that appeared on the invoice, the ending balance. Each statement can have up to 3 personalized notes on it depending on that particular customer's status at the time, so I would have to store 3 notes.
And who knows, you might change the statement report since it was sent out, resulting in an invoice that, at best, does NOT look like the original invoice, but at WORST the data might not even conform to the current statement format. You'd have to almost store previous statement formats. Don't know about you, but I'll bet I tweak their statements at least once a year. Karen > The problem with regenerating from the data is that the data may have > changed, so there is no audit-supportable method of recreating an exact copy > of the original. > > For documents such as invoices, purchase order acknowledgements, bills of > lading, etc., where the document cannot and must not change once issued, > PDF is the perfect solution. > > A statement, on the other hand, is subject to change over time – new > charges happen, payments are applied. So generating from current data makes > sense. > > > > Emmitt Dove > > >
