bihla

Maybe the most thoughtful fundraising announcement I’ve seen. Focusing on all the right stuff.

I think this depends on what you consider to be the fundamental trait of double-entry accounting: the error-checking or the explanatory power.

It is true that by enforcing that value movement have both a source and a target, we make it possible to add a useful checksum to the system. But I believe this is a side benefit to the more fundamental trait of requiring all value flow to record both sides, in order to capture the cause for each effect.

I agree with your general perspective though: technology has afforded us new and different tools, and thus we should be open to new data models for accounting. I don't agree with other commenters that we should tread lightly in trying to decipher another field, nor do I agree with the view that the field of Accounting would have found a better way by now if there were one. Accountants are rarely, if ever, experts in CS or software engineering; likewise software developers rarely have depth in accounting.

Source: just my opinions. I've been running an accounting software startup for 5 years.

I agree with your first statement, but a little lost on the last one—I would think of the first idea as a question of data modeling, whereas the last (bad inputs) is one of enforcement and ownership.

Both present challenges, but better inputs don't help without a better model for business objects (as I see it)?

This is essentially a no-op measure. There is already no enforcement against drinking in public anywhere in SF