RE: no change capabilty for a transaction

[Leo R. M. <Le...@Ne...>]

I don't believe that GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
requires the inability to alter or delete transactions.  This is still a
big argument because the proponents of the inability want to assume that
everyone's dishonest.  On the other hand, I had a client who stopped
doing his bookkeeping because he couldn't figure out how the reverse an
entry in the GL.  While some accounting professionals might want to
demand that we make the bookkeeping sufficiently difficult that most
small businesses would have to have their accountant do the work, the
ultimate principle of GAAP is that you get the right answer in a timely
manner.=20

Most countries only refer to GAAP by reference.  I suspect that Denmark
doesn't specifically prohibit the removal and editing of transactions
but someone has interpreted GAAP to include audit trail and therefore is
saying that the law says so.  I had a client here in Canada who had been
told the same thing here and, when challenged, had to admit that it was
only his interpretation of GAAP and no such Canadian law existed
verbatim. What got that accountant's services terminated was that he
wasn't aware of the regulations that could have saved our mutual client
much money. =20

As we teach people new to the net, corroborate your information with at
least two other independent sources.  Don't take my word for it, see if
you can get a reference to the legislation and look it up.

Regards,
Leo R Masciuch, MBA, PEng
Netryst Corp.
5051 Vantage Cres NW
Calgary, AB  T3A 1X6  CANADA
Le...@Ne...


-----Original Message-----
From: root [mailto:ro...@ma...]
Sent: November 3, 2001 12:36
To: ke...@dk...; nj...@ci...
Cc: sql...@li...
Subject: Re: no change capabilty for a transaction


Quickbooks (uughhh) has such a feature and here's how it works:
once you close out your year, you can view all transactions but not edit
prior year transactions.
Transactions can be edited, but only by the "master user" i.e. the
sysadmin.

But, for the pureist accountants out there, i do agree that no
transaction should ever be editable once entered, if you goof you just
do a GL transfer and add a comment - ' - $xxx.xx to correct transaction
12345.

but, just my two cents!