undo close books?

whwtan whwtan at hotmail.com
Fri Oct 4 03:23:10 EDT 2013


Hi Geoff,

The point you make is a very valid "user" requirement.
I suggest doing this following as a business procedure for your case.

When you are finished with your year end, adjustments done and audited.
Save your file using "File -> Save As" and date the file. [e.g. 
2012-12-31 Widget Co. Pty Ltd)
For additional safety, burn the saved file onto a write-only CD which 
physically prevents you from changing. One CD per year would make it 
very easy for your personal filing.

Now this does not change the way Gnucash works, there will be people 
here who love the idea of freedom to change data and I am one of them. 
But what I suggest would be a practical compromise and if I were in your 
position (which is completely understandable) that is the method I would 
use.

By the next year end, all you need to do is pull out your previous year 
data from the CD and do a quick check to see if your numbers are the 
same...takes  5 minutes but you give yourself the assurance nothing was 
changed during the year.

I hope that helps.

Ideally, the software would offer two options, one with the ability to 
lock previous data and one which gives you complete freedom. This is 
determined at set-up.
I can personally refer you to a particular professional accounting 
software which does just that if you wish...It's not 
free/voluntarily-developed like Gnucash though.

William

On 4/10/2013 2:56 PM, Geoff Jankowski wrote:
> William
>
> I confess I take a different view.  On my VT accounts package I lock each year.  If I try to enter something in a prior year I get a message and if I really want to make the change I can but it serves as a good reminder not to mess with prior year accounts.  I do not see this as an accountant demand but a user discipline aid for those of us that run our own business and accounts.  We are so busy trying to make money that we do not have time to be accounting principles experts as well.
>
> While paper copies are used at the moment, I see the uk moving quickly to an online submission system and it will be necessary to be able to refer back to prior electronic accounts (previous 7 years) that are accurate against the submitted accounts.  It is not an issue at the moment but I do not think it would be a bad idea to provide a locking option longer term in the software.
>
>
>
>
> Geoff
>
> Geoff Jankowski
> +33 5 46 97 13 89
> +33 7 53 16 92 10
> +44 20 71 00 10 92
> +44 77 70 58 48 38
> Sent from my iPad
>


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