Maintaining the ledger

Public source: data/ledger.json. USD amounts are integer cents. null means unknown. Dates use YYYY-MM-DD. updatedAt is the review date, not a live query timestamp.

Overlapping records: do not add together#

• items: original equipment list and quotes. Quantity means purchase units, not always individual parts. Quoted total = quantity × quoted unit price.
• equipmentAllowances: owner-requested planning amounts, kept separate from item quotes, orders and verified payments. The equipment estimate is item quotes plus these allowances.
• orders: vendor-level quote, documentary order total and verified payment where evidence exists. invoiceTotalCents is the order amount; shippingInvoicedCents, taxInvoicedCents and tariffInvoicedCents describe its charges. An order confirmation alone does not establish settled payment: actualPaidCents and the *PaidCents fields remain unknown until payment evidence exists. Paid tax and shipping are breakdowns of the paid total, not additional amounts to add again.
• An awaiting_invoice order acknowledges a request awaiting the vendor's final invoice. invoiceTotalFinal: false and shippingChargeFinal: false distinguish provisional amounts from final charges; neither establishes payment or dispatch.
• amazonOrders: anonymized extracts of five real orders. They include equipment and extras. Documentary order totals are distinct from reconciled bank payments.
• otherExpenses: domain and grouped additions. includedInVendorOrderTotals: true prevents duplicate counting. The “Taxes and others” category includes owner-approved additions and documented vendor taxes, with a separate breakdown for Amazon and Walmart. vendorTaxCents (or the earlier amazonTaxCents) is a category allocation already included in the vendor order, not an additional charge. Discounts are not allocated to that category without evidence.
• shipments: real shipped package or preparation record. Planned dispatch is distinct from estimated arrival. Complete deliveredAt only with delivery evidence.
• funding: preserve unknown amounts until reconciled. Do not publish individual supporters or contributions without authorization.

Initial evidence#

FramingTech: payment email and PDF confirmation. GoDaddy: email receipt. Amazon: authenticated order details, order invoices and tracking pages. DigiKey and BoltDepot: vendor order confirmation emails, without shipment or settled-payment evidence. Walmart: confirmation email and authenticated order details; fulfillment groups at Placed status and estimated arrival windows are not dispatched packages. MakerStore: Custom Invoice acknowledgement with provisional shipping, awaiting final invoice and payment. Private originals stay outside the repository. AMZ codes are public references independent of actual order numbers.

Updating#

1. Read current evidence and retain its original reference privately.
2. Update only verified fields, preserving uncertainty.
3. Add a changes entry with date, title and detail. Record verified cancellation, refund or return amounts explicitly; retain history rather than silently deleting records.
4. Run arithmetic and relationship tests. Expand checks when the data model changes.
5. Regenerate and compare CSV, JSON, Markdown and HTML against the same source.
6. Commit, publish and verify live. Journal posts remain dated snapshots; tables show the latest record.

Maintaining this ledger does not authorize purchases, payment-method changes, outgoing email or recurring monitoring.