62 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
# Storage API
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Most accounting systems continually reimplement double-entry accounting. As
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a developer, I find this frustrating because very commonly, user-interface
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code for accounting systems is co-mingled with details of the double entry
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accounting implementation.
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What I propose is a clear API that simply does the basic functions of
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double-entry accounting, treating double-entry accounting more like
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mathematical operations and less like business logic. Business logic varies,
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but the rules of double entry accounting remain roughly the same.
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Users of the API would be those who write accounting applications and want to
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treat the double-entry portion purely as a black box.
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The ideal scenario would be an known double-entry accounting API that
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different accounting projects could support, separating the problem of
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storage of double-entry accounting data from specific accounting systems.
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A very rough idea of the API's core data structures follows. This is not
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fully baked.
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# Postings
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The primary record of a double-entry accounting is a posting, which has the
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following fields:
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- Date
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- Payee
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- Two or more entries, and the sum of the amounts on all entries must
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balance, otherwise the posting is not valid.
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- State
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## State
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State has the following fields:
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- User
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- Value
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The idea behind posting state is that it is somewhat user-configurable.
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Typical posting states would be things like CLEARED for items that have
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cleared a bank account. However, one idea behind the state is use it to
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allow for "user-specific" versions of the books. The goal is to allow users
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to "stage" postings that may or may not be accepted. For example, a user
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might submit an expense report, and the state might be "REQUESTED".
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Generally, the rest of the system would ignore REQUESTED postings, as they
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aren't officially approved for the books yet.
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# Entry
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Entries have the following fields:
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- Account
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- Amount
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- Currency
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- (optional) fixated price per unit price to another Currency
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- (optional) entry-specific price to another Currency
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- (optional) zero or more key value pairs for tagging
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