We do the same thing except we don't keep the version number in the main table since we have no reason to ever display that unless we're looking at the history

We do the same thing except we don't keep the version number in the main table since we have no reason to ever display that unless we're looking at the history anyway. We have a history table with two JSON columns representing the before and after state, so we don't need to keep columns in sync. (Technically the before state might be redundant, but it makes comparisons simpler). I really like this idea of using triggers, though. We handle it at the ORM event level so the DB isn't entirely self-sufficient. There have been many times where having the version information has helped us to debug and fix problems. We've had customers call us, freaking out because they accidentally deleted something, or confused because somebody else in the company changed something. We can tell them exactly when, what and by whom the data was changed and easily restore it.