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ADR 0018: BP3 Initial Release Scope and Development Sequence

Context

BooksPlus has had two pre-release prototype iterations. The next iteration is the first planned release built from the BooksPlus 3 architecture, wiki truth, and .NET/Avalonia implementation.

The project needs a release scope that guides workflow development without forcing BooksPlus to become an operational ERP before its accounting kernel, close discipline, reporting, and evidence model are stable.

The initial system is expected to rely on an external operational system for sales orders, customer invoices, purchase orders, supplier bills, banking operations, receipts, payments, and perpetual inventory operations. BooksPlus should account for that activity through summarized, reviewable, evidence-backed period activity.

Decision

The internal release name is BP3.

The public initial release should be treated as BooksPlus 1.0 unless external product-continuity or migration reasons later require a different public version label.

BP3 is an accounting control, close, reporting, and evidence system. It is not the first operational sales, purchasing, banking, payment, or perpetual inventory system.

Launch workflow areas are:

  • Setup & Onboarding;
  • Current Period Workbench;
  • Income Accounting;
  • Expense Accounting;
  • Inventory Accounting;
  • Corrections;
  • Period Close;
  • Reporting.

Current Period Workbench replaces Daily Accounting as a launch navigation idea. Daily cadence may still appear as task timing, but it is not a separate accounting domain.

Income Accounting replaces Sales for launch scope because BooksPlus will account for revenue, receivables, deposits, sales tax, and receipts summarized from external operations instead of owning operational sales order and invoice work.

Expense Accounting replaces Purchases for launch scope because BooksPlus will account for expenses, payables, payments, and contractor facts summarized from external operations instead of owning operational purchase order, supplier bill, or payment execution work.

Inventory Accounting replaces Inventory for launch scope because BooksPlus will account for inventory valuation, cost, variance, and reconciliation summarized from external operations instead of owning operational item, stock, warehouse, or perpetual inventory work.

Payroll accounting is deferred. Expense Accounting may include contractor classification, contractor payment accounting, W-9/1099 fact capture, and 1099 support reports, but not payroll calculation, payroll filings, or payroll payment execution.

Rules

All ledger effects still post through the central Accounting posting path.

Workflow staging records, summary batches, imports, adapter payloads, and review queues are not formal report truth.

Formal accounting reports derive from posted ledger truth.

Source Documents owns evidence identity, references, and supersession for all workflow families.

Close owns close runs, checks, waivers, approvals, close evidence coordination, and close-driven period transitions. Close must not bypass Accounting for ledger effects.

Provider-specific adapters must map into BooksPlus import or intake contracts before workflows, posting, close checks, reporting, or evidence linkage consume the facts.

Manual entry and reviewable file intake should be implemented before system-specific operational adapters. This keeps BooksPlus workflow meaning stable before automation depends on it.

Summary accounting workflows should preserve source identity, external references, source-world dates, BooksPlus acceptance time, evidence references, validation issues, review status, and resulting journal-entry references.

File or machine intake that can affect accounting workflows must define idempotency expectations. Conflicting reuse of a source identity and idempotency key must not silently overwrite accepted meaning.

Corrections are cross-workflow behavior. Posted accounting records are corrected through reversal or adjustment, not silent mutation.

Consequences

BooksPlus can deliver useful accounting control before replacing operational systems.

Workflow development can proceed from setup and kernel behavior through manual summary accounting before external adapters are added.

User-facing workflow names better match launch behavior and avoid implying that BooksPlus owns operational sales, purchasing, banking, or inventory processes in the first release.

Future operational modules can be added without changing the accounting kernel, because they must still normalize into provider-agnostic contracts and post through Accounting.

The launch scope will require clear user documentation so users understand which work remains in their external operational system.

  • ../../vision-and-product-principles.md
  • ../../accounting/posting-and-reversal.md
  • ../../accounting/source-documents.md
  • ../../accounting/close.md
  • ../accepted/0007-provider-agnostic-import-boundaries.md
  • ../accepted/0009-persisted-report-runs.md
  • ../accepted/0010-close-runs-and-report-packs.md
  • ../accepted/0015-accounting-posting-foundation.md