Theory of Documentation

The Theory of Documentation is a metatheory which is part of the Seattle Method and describes the information which is provided, traditionally in the form of a document, which is the source of a business event and commonly ultimately part of a financial transaction.

The Theory of Documentation considers the standard Semantics Of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) which specifies how to create vocabularies and rules for creating them and the OASIS standard and ISO/IEC standard Universal Business Language (UBL) which is a standard for creating business documents.

First, it is important to understand the terms "documentation" and "document" as we are using these concepts.  Documentation is the information contained within a document which is the source of a business event.  A document, as we will define it here, is the set of all documentation that wears the "costume" of a document which memorializes the information related to a business event.

Note that a document can be an artifact written on a piece of paper, a document can be an electronic document which is structured for presentation of information for interpretation by humans, and a document can be in digital form structured for meaning represented in the form of a graph of information that is interpretable by machine based processes and that same graph representation of information can be projected in a presentation which can be read by and interpreted by humans.

By way of example, a document as we are using the concept is used in cross border paperless trade. All of the following are cross border trade documents: bill of lading, commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, customs declaration, warehouse receipt, insurance certificate.

Again, by way of example; each of the following is a common norm, convention, or standard document used to capture information about business events:

• Invoice
• Purchase invoice
• Sales invoice
• Order
• Purchase order
• Sales order
• Check
• Deposit
• Remittance advice
• Memorandum
• Contract
• Shipping manifest
• Schedule

Different types of business processes/workflows use different sets of documents.  For example, as Data Centric Accounting (DCA) from The Future of Accounting points out three common business workflows:

• Procure to pay
• Order to cash
• Make

Different types of business events generate different sets of documents. For example, the business event "Proceeds from Collection of Receivables" involves receiving a check with perhaps a remittance advice which is summarized in a deposit.

A "statement of account" which summarizes what is due on a customer account or a "bank statement" which summarizes bank transactions and even a "financial statement" are documents, but those documents summarize the "state" of business events as contrast to generating an actual business event which would result in a financial transaction.

The workflow(s) in which documentation is used is separate from the actual documentation itself. Digital signatures and digital hashes to make sure of the authenticity of documentation and to assure that documents have not been tampered with are part of documentation.  Traceability/trackability and provenance are port of documentation.

Additional Information:

• Document is a "Costume" a Financial Statement Wears
• What is a Document? (Sean McGrath)
• Document (Wikipedia)