How safe is GnuCash?

[70147persson at telia.com]

Small comments below. /Kaj


Den 2017-01-12 kl. 03:49, skrev Adrien Monteleone:
> If using paper, I would never draw through an incorrect transaction. I think the proper method is to make a correcting entry and use notes as needed to explain what was done.
Correct! I think overwriting a transaction is most suitable for pure 
typos, so e.g. debet and credit do not marry up, which can easily happen 
in a manual system. Such errors do not appear in a computerized system, 
but other typos can, of course.
>
> The same can be done with GnuCash.
>
> I’ll let those more knowledgeable be the definitive chime in, but I don’t think GnuCash has the type of data security you describe in mind. I would expect that level of security to be a function of your operating system and file access permissions. As for editing previous entries, the app was designed with the ability to do that intentionally. I think the best you can do is close your books periodically as needed, manually transfer rolling balances to a new file as needed and archive and lock access to the older file. Of course, this complicates reporting over many periods. You would have to run all necessary period reports before closing and archiving, and then have a separate system for accessing/combining reports for analysis. You might gain some advantages over paper books in this setup, but not by much. This doesn’t even address ‘creative’ transactions, or transactions of immaterial amounts that add up to material questions and discrepancies over long periods of time.
You possibly do not have to close the books but take snapshots and 
saving them on a suitable media, which is locked in at a reserved place. 
At responsible companies this a procedure applied for all kinds of 
documents as a part of the daily back up work. Here also are taken into 
consideration selecting this place in another firezone. So this is 
nothing special for the book keeping security.
>
>
>> On Jan 11, 2017, at 1:10 PM, 70147persson at telia.com wrote:
>>
>> How safe is GnuCash? No, I am not talking about lack of bugs etc, but from an auditor's point of view. How to secure that no one is manipulating the figures in the book? The best way of book keeping is an, in advance paginated, paper book, in which you write your notes with non erasable ink. Then, if I make a mistake, I have to make a change by drawing a straight line (in ink) over the wrong figures and write the correct ones next to the original and sign it with my signature. That way the auditor can see all changes and can verify it to the written documents/verifications.
>>
>> A good electronic book keeping system should be as close to these (manual) methods as possible, and I have also seen such programs. An already written and accepted notation can never be changed in such a program, but substituted with the correct one next to the original. Moreover there are log files, protected with checksums, where all transactions are noted.
>>
>> Does GnuCash have anything of this? My impression is no, but I might have missed something important. If not  the program is not much better then a simple spread sheet, which some people use, although a wee easier to use. When using GnuCash or any book keeping program, in professional business, and if I was the auditor I would demand these facilities, to make sure that no way exist to manipulate the book after the original book keeping .
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>> /Kaj
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