Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!nrl-cmf!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!uh2
From: UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Unify help
Message-ID: <33984UH2@PSUVM>
Date: 18 Feb 88 15:03:02 GMT
References: <4623@ecsvax.UUCP>
Organization: Penn Sate Erie--School of Business
Lines: 31

In article <4623@ecsvax.UUCP>, emrozek@ecsvax.UUCP (Ed Mrozek) says:
>
>I am working with several projects that require some accounting in them.
>Not being a business type, I plead for any assistance from anyone who
>can make available a basic set of routiness to do receivables under
>UNIFY.  I will also accept any rules of thumb that you might share
>and warn you that at this point I probably won't be able to tell good
>advice from bad.

Free advice--you get what you pay for...

If the accounting system needn't be too powerful, you can probably
crib from an accounting information systems textbook.  You might
find "Case Studies in Business Data Systems" by Bradley (HRW, isbn
0-03-014134-6) of use.  |This book, and others, discuss how to implement
Accounting systems in the relational model, and should be easily
mapped on to Unify.

Secondly, be advised that in several key areas, Accounting Practice
and modern Relational Theory disagree.  In short, RT usually
strives to reduce redundancy in the database to ensure integrity
and consistencey.  AP often introduces redundancy by calculating
different balances in several different ways, and then compares
the balances as an integrity check.  In these cases, Accounting
Practice takes precedence, since auditors are accountants and they
insist that things be done their way.

Accounting is a lot harder than it looks, but then again, isn't that
true of anything that you look at closely?

                                          lee