| Multi Currency: | | This means that the underlying accounting facilities of the application is designed to handle any currency. | | Every business will have one defined base currency that everything is aggregated to for tax purposes. | | Each financial transaction is converted from its local currency to the base currency on a date using an exchange rate. | | Each account has one and only one base currency - each account statement will always be shown in one base currency. |
| Conversion: | | Each transaction may be converted on the day the payment is made using the transaction date and the daily exchange rate. Where an amount in USD is paid into a Euro bank account, the bank will convert the USD to Euros using that days exchange rate. | | Transactions in a USD account may be accumulated and moved to a Euro account once a month or as needed. The date that the money is transfered between accounts is the date of the currency change. |
| Currencies: | | Euro, USD and GBP are the primary currency codes that all enjoy a 2 decimal precision. All other currency codes that are identified by the UN are supported. | | Money is internally stored as 8 digits and presented to a user in accordance with their money format rules. The decimal place may be shown with a comma or period, the thoudands separator may be shown with a period or comma or nothing. | | Where data is exported by way of a comma separated file (CSV), the comma will generally be a semi-colon to avoid conflicts with data containing a comma. |
| Countries: | | All country codes inside the EU are supported. All other country codes that are identified by UN are supported. | | Classification for tax purposes is generally; (a) local country, (b) another EU country or (c) outside the EU. |
| Data Quality: | | Account data is read-only and accumulated into management information that is also read-only. | | Payments are entered, but only in relation with an identified invoice or part-payment. | | Invoicing (and credit notes) is automated from contract data with automated renewals, follow-up and standard letters. | | The business is protected by eliminating the need for a person to hand craft a critical business document so it may contain personal opinions, omissions and inappropriate terms and/or conditions. |
| Account Example: | | A customer in Germany with a USD account pays a premium (including IPT) to a broker in France with a Euro account for insurance written in England with a GBP account. | | * The customers USD account shows the amount paid-out as USD with the applicable USD-Euro exchange rate. | | * The brokers Euro account shows the amount paid-in as Euros with the applicable Euro-USD exchange rate. | | * The brokers Euro account shows the amount paid-out as Euros with the applicable Euro-GBP exchange rate. | | * The insurers GBP account shows the amount paid-in as GBP with the applicable GBP-Euro exchange rate. | | When the Customer USD amount is paid into the brokers Euro account, it is converted at the current exchange rate to Euros. | | When the Agent Euro amount is paid into the Owners GBP account, it is converted at the current exchange rate to GBP. | | The Owner only sees amounts in GBP. The Agent only sees amounts in Euros. The Customer only sees amounts in their bank account base currency. |
| Data Example: | | Every financial transaction shall include: | | * Tax Point Date the effective VAT date that the goods are made available or service begins. | | * Invoice Date when the invoice is raised may be before the tax point date. | | * Paid Date when the invoice is paid may be after the tax point date. | | * Net Amount before tax held as up to 8 digits with implied 2 decimals (up to one million). | | * Direction code as CR for credit paid-in or DR for debit paid-out. | | * VAT or IPT code that will imply a rate based on the tax point date and country. | | * Country code that will imply a tax rate. | | * Currency code as the original transaction currency before it was converted - if it was converted else base currency code. | | * Exchange rate from the original transaction currency - if it was converted else 1.0. | | * and | | * Status code as: pending, invoiced, paid, cancelled. | | * Payment Method code as: SO, DD, Cheque, Credit Card, Cash, Paypall. | | * Commencement date and time | | * Expiry date and time | | * Terms and conditions | | * Endorsements and clauses | | * Termination code, days or rules | | * and | | * Branch or broker account | | * Customer account | | * Owner or supplier account | | * Owner Scheme or product | | * Asset as car or boat or course or supply | | * Contract or booking account | | * Description of product-service covered by contract |
| | | Single Currency: | | A single currency accounting solution needs the following data: | | * Transaction (tax point) Date. | | * Net (without tax) Amount to 2 decimal places. | | * Vat code (not rate or amount) or IPT code. | | * Vat country code. | | * Credit-Debit (paid in or paid out) code. |
| VAT Processing: | | Value Added Tax rate reference data must be maintained as the Vat rate that applies to each Vat code in each Vat country between a pair of dates. | | The Vat registered company raising the invoice will charge Vat at the rate imposed by the Vat registration country for all invoicing with in the European Union. | | Vat is not charged on companies/persons who are outside the European Union, but commodity import taxes may apply. | | Vat accrual accounts must be kept for purchased transactions and sales transactions that are made in the local country or any other EU country. For accounting completeness an accrual account for transactions with all other (non-EU) countries is needed to strike a balance. | | VAT is a common tax in all countries that must be processed in accordance with strict local procedures without any regard to what currencies are involved. VAT codes include: Standard, Low, Zero and None. |
| IPT Processing: | | Insurance Purchase Tax is held in a similar way to VAT, however a unique IPT account must be maintained. | | IPT is very different from VAT - IPT belongs to the insurers government without any deductions. | | IPT is a 5% or 17.5% tax on the premium paid by the customer to the insurer - special rules regarding commissions apply. |
| Multiple Currency: | | A multiple currency accounting solution has a few extra bits of data: | | * Currency code : what it was converted from. | | * Exchange rate : what conversion rate was used. |
| Processing: | | Where the transaction is paid into a base currency bank account, it will be exchanged to base currency using that days exchange rate. The currency code and exchange rate applied complete the transaction and then everything is processed in base currency. | | Where the transaction is paid into a local (USD or UKP) currency bank account, it will not be converted and no exchange rate is used. | | Periodically, a local currency bank account may make a transfer to a base currency bank account. A new transaction is raised showing the date and amount transferred with the exchange rate that applied. | | Every account held in the database has one and only one base currency that is used to accumulate amounts. |
| Upload | | User provided content can be a major threat and cause of security vulnerabilities so all user provided content is subject to exacting rules. The only two file typs that can be supported are a web page as HTML and an image as PNG. | | Even these files type could be the source of malware and vulnerabilities, so all user provided content is scanned, changed and stored in a sandbox that is not part of the normal web site. All SCRIPT content is removed from any HTML web page. All hypertext links are removed - they could be a link to an inappropriate web site or a site hosting malware. All PNG images are resized to ensure they are an image and to remove internal location, date and origin information. | | Where an HTML file is mascarading as a program source code file, it will be detected and silently rejected with a security report issued. Any file begning with "MZ" is an executable program that is rejected. Any file begning with "BM" is a bit map that is rejected. | | Plans exist to support XML and CSV file uploads with certain scanned content restrictions. |
| Function Architecture: | | 0. Dashboard is a point of stability that remains open with the sign-off icon in the top-right corner. Each dashboard page has its own distinctive image. | | 1. Popup is a is a popup page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each popup page has its own distinctive image. | | 2. Search is a popup page with search bar and close icon in the top-right corner. Each search has its own distinctive image that identifies the service - the same as sheet and list. | | 3. List is the result of a search or an appendage to the current page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each list has its own distinctive image that identifies the service - the same as search and sheet. | | 4. Add page will replace a list page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each add function reuses the same add image. | | 5. Clone page will replace a change page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each clone function reuses the same clone image. | | 6. Change page will replace a list of add page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each change function reuses the same change image with a label as "refresh". | | 7. Sheet is a popup page like a list but with its own selection options and close icon in the top-right corner. Each sheet has its own distinctive image that identifies the service - the same as search and list. | | 8. History is a popup page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each history function reuses the same history image. | | 9. View is a is a popup page with close icon in the top-right corner. Each view has its own distinctive image that identifies the service. |
| Business Analysis | | Please do not confuse business analysis with application design - they must be very different things. | | Business analysis is a task that results in the creation of a Business Requirement Specification (BRS) document. Intelectual Property Rights are locked up in the Business Requirement Specification (BRS) document and owned by the author or company that paid for the BRS. By reissuing later versions of the BRS, the Intelectual Property Rights are proven with a viable audit trail of publications. | | Where the business requirements are expressed by way of an obsolete Windows system, then the IPR are for an obsolete Windows system and not for a modern cloud application service. |
| Architecture | | A single consistent Information Engineering architecture has continually evolved for more than 30 years and this does not vary for any one customer. Any bespoke business requirement can be implemented and delivered by the same consistent architecture and so the cost of delivery is lower that all competitors. Hand crafted programs have been eliminated and replaced with meta data that can be quickly changed using fill-in-the-blanks forms. | | The overall architecture must evolve for both technical and business reasons. When a new technical requirement such as HTML5 and SSL are needed, the architecture is upgraded without any impact on the business services. When a new business requirement such as Quotes is needed, the architecture is upgraded without any impact on the technical infrastructure. |
| Document Control: | | 1. Document Title: Service Catalogue Manager. | | 2. Reference: 162100. | | 3. Keywords: ITIL Service Catalogue Manager. | | 4. Description: Service Catalogue Manager. | | 5. Privacy: Public education service as a benefit to humanity. | | 6. Issued: 13 Feb 2017. | | 7. Edition: 2.2. |
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