5 Comments

Great write up!

I've also had the same problems you described here and double-entry bookkeeping is the way to go for financial accuracy. As a programmer, things clicked when I realized this system is an extended directed graph. Here's my contribution to this discussion: https://matheusportela.com/double-entry-bookkeeping-as-a-directed-graph

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Hi Matheus! Would you believe me if I told you that I read your post in preparation for this article? I love the Internet!

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Every computer science student should arguably be given a project to implement a REA system:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resources%2C_Events%2C_Agents

We're not scribbling things on tablets or in books anymore, it's time for accounting to leave double entry bookkeeping and ledgers behind and enter the computer age.

On a side note, your "entries" have state transitions, pending->discarded or pending->posted, that map exactly to futures/promises state transitions [1]. There's probably something insightful to say about that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_and_promises

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Keep up the great work on these articles! They've caused me to think more intentionally about how my organization approaches and interacts with payments.

Additionally, I'd be interested and willing to buy a book about building a future-proof ledger. As long as you continue in a similar pattern of writing as your posts while adding context and specifics, I'm in!

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Hi Bayler, thanks for your kind words! Stay tuned for more on ledgers in the future... ;)

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