Using Auditor to Make Corrections

Auditor is a powerful tool to correct Jewel databases. Therefore it must be used with extreme caution. Jewel locks down all but the current month, so that treasurers cannot make changes to closed months. There are important reasons for this, such as preserving an audit trail, and not changing reports that have been accepted by the church board. Auditor users must exercise care to not change closed months unnecessarily, and to leave an audit trail for necessary changes.

Additionally, Jewel includes safeguards that keep the database in balance. The "front end" of Auditor, the part that looks like Jewel, also includes these safeguards. But when you click Auditor and go into the "back end", those safeguards are gone. Do not make changes to a database in the back end of Auditor unless you are 100% sure you know what you are doing. If you are not completely confident, ensure that you have a backup accessible so you can use it to undo your changes, if necessary.

There is a lot of "use your best judgement" involved in deciding how to make corrections. When a month has been recently closed, it's usually fine to directly edit the incorrect transaction(s) and reprint the affected monthly reports. Please thoroughly familiarize yourself with Making Corrections in the Jewel Handbook for general guidelines on how to edit transactions. Note that the Current Month instructions often also work for Previous Months when you're using Auditor. Always use the front end of Auditor whenever possible, as it's much easier to use and harder to make mistakes.