Re: Documentation for Financial Software

[Roy Jacobsen <rjacobse -at- GPS -dot- COM>]

Cornelia,
Sometimes we state that "xxx is the sum of yyy" or "this field displays
the total of xxx less any yyy" or something like that. The only time we
spell out specific formulas is a cases such as clarifying the
differences between item pricing methods (e.g. Percent of Margin vs.
Percentage Markup) or what the extended price on a PO form is.
Otherwise, we say our product is GAAP-compliant and leave it at that. So
far we haven't had any request to document the "under the covers"
calculations.
Roy M. Jacobsen
Editor
Great Plains Software
rjacobse -at- gps -dot- com

"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to
resemble a nail." --Abraham Maslow

>To those of you who write documentation for financial software ...
>
>When do you document the calculations that are going on behind the
scenes?
>
>In my case, the users are internal financial planners, accountants,
subject
>matter experts. They tend to be on the anal side when it comes to
numbers.
>
>On the other hand, my product sponsor balks at the idea of providing
all
>the calcs (basically, the code) for the users.
>
>Any advice?
>
>Please copy me in directly on your responses. I get the digest version
of
>this list.
>
>Thank you,
>Cornela King