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Not really. In double entry bookkeping you have to always add every entry "twice" (I'm not sure how prevalent it is to have split entries, $20 in one and $10+$1
by captainmuon 6y ago
Not really. In double entry bookkeping you have to always add every entry "twice" (I'm not sure how prevalent it is to have split entries, $20 in one and $10+$10 in another - I've learned in school that you don't do that).
I'm just suggesting a different entry format where you enter the number once and the computer creates both bookkeeping entries. Yeah you have the chance to make a typo, but I guess preventing that kind of error is not what this is about, is it?
It's actually not like a checksum, but more like the DRY (don't repeat yourself) principle. Where one framework requires you to define a constant, say a SQL table name, in multiple places, and another lets you type it only once. Like handrolled SQL vs- an ORM. In this case, I think less typing is less error prone.
- kgwgk 6y ago> Yeah you have the chance to make a typo, but I guess preventing that kind of error is not what this is about, is it? That's the kind of error it catches, where you entered one of the entries (say, the cash outflow) and not the other (say, the invoice you were paying) or they were not consistent. Note it's not always as easy as "this number goes into two places". One entry in one account may correspond to multiple entries elsewhere (say, price plus tax). At least that's what I think, nobody told me not to do that or I don't remember... And it's literaly a checksum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_balance "The purpose of a trial balance is to prove that the value of all the debit value balances equals the total of all the credit value balances. If the total of the debit column does not equal the total value of the credit column then this would show that there is an error in the nominal ledger accounts."