integrity of entries

[Shane Litherland]

Hi Zeev and list,

Your question has had several comments, which may not have given a
promising answer on how to make GNUcash secure-to-the-nth-degree but
they did seem to have something in common...

Are your 'authorities' asking too much of you? I'm not sure where you
are (I am in Australia), in my experience it doesn't matter what
electronic form of record keeping one uses, if the authorities wish to
check you out, they wish to see original paper copies of everything.

They might look at electronic stuff, but if they did, they'd probably
have computer nerds tearing it to pieces and those people would know
what was secure/original/fraudulent, regardless of the brand.

Could I suggest rather than trying to get GNUcash to be set up with all
these extra 'securities' (which may or may not really be secure), could
you find out something more from your authorities? Because it sounds to
me like they may be 'taking you for a ride'... maybe someone in there
that you spoke to doesn't really understand computer security and simply
regurgitated a 'requirement' that was worded to match how a commercial
'BRAND X' accounting package attempts to make their files secure.

-could they tell you which accounting programs, alternative to GNUcash,
that they would be happy with?

-could they tell you why they were happy with them?

-could they demonstrate/explain how those programs/requirements did
actually deliver more security of the data than you using GNUcash?

-maybe from there, with some technical advice, you could compare how
GNUcash log files, backups or associated database files kept track of
changes compared to those recommended commercial options. It may well be
that you have been told GNUcash is unsuitable simply because those that
told you are only familiar with one particular software and are ignorant
of how alternatives can or may deliver records to their satisfaction...?

This kinda stuff is out of my field, but if I was told I couldn't use
'method G' to document my business accounts the same way I'd document
them with any other method, then I'd be seriously challenging that call.
In some cases, I think I'd prefer to go back to sending them something
on paper (and make them do the computer work) than go out and spend
money on something to make their life easier at my own expense!

If your original question has something to do with particular formats to
allow online/secure submissions of info... then I've misinterpreted your
question. Usually for that stuff, any given authority will have their
own in-house setup for users to connect to and often they only design
that to be compatible with one or two 'main' 'branded' softwares.
If that is where your question was headed, then it's probably beyond
GNUcash to be custom-made to communicate with any particular
authorities' online system? (I defer to GNUcash developers to give that
verdict)
That is a problem I can relate to - using Linux, I cannot lodge any
online forms with our government because they designed online systems
that need a W... computer to talk to them. They're still not even
offering much for M.. computers either.



Hope you do persevere in getting 'blood from a stone' and finding out
why they won't let you use what you want for your records :-/

Regards,
shane.