In Containn, a saved póliza (the Mexican term for a journal entry) is never edited: not its date, its accounts, its amounts or its description. There is no button to do it. An entry that can be edited isn't an entry; it's a draft, and a ledger made of drafts can't be audited.
Why
- The number has been used. Pólizas are numbered consecutively each month. If one could be changed, the same póliza would say one thing today and another tomorrow.
- The statements have been read. The trial balance, income statement and balance sheet come from the pólizas. Editing one would silently change figures someone already reviewed, delivered or filed.
- The trail would be lost. Correcting with another póliza keeps the error and its correction in plain sight, each with its own date. Editing erases exactly what an auditor will ask about.
- The account stays as it was. Each line keeps the account number and name it was recorded with: if you later rename the account in the chart of accounts, the saved póliza still shows the ones from its day.
How to correct a mistake
The correction is always another póliza, dated when you correct it and in an open month:
- In Containn → Pólizas, use Capturar póliza (record a póliza) to enter the reversing póliza: the same lines as the original with the amounts on the opposite side, and a description of what it corrects.
- Then record the correct póliza.
- If only the account was wrong and the amount was right, a reclassification is enough: a póliza that takes the amount out of the wrong account and into the right one.
Both follow the usual rules: the Guardar póliza (save) button stays off until it balances to the cent, each line carries a debit or a credit (never both), and only detail-level accounts can be used.
Canceling isn't deleting
When a póliza is canceled, it doesn't disappear: it keeps its number, is marked Cancelada (canceled), the reason is appended to its description, and its amounts stop counting in the trial balance and the statements. Canceling requires a written reason and isn't allowed in a closed month. Reopening a fiscal year, for example, cancels its year-end closing póliza; it doesn't delete it.
The Pólizas list doesn't yet have a button to cancel a manually recorded póliza. Until it does, the correction is made with a reversing póliza, which leaves the same trail.
The daily póliza
The póliza created from a signed day reflects the sheet your auditor signed, and it isn't corrected by hand. An operational error is corrected in operations, on an open day, and that correction goes into that day's póliza (see Why a signed day is never recalculated).
If a signed day is reopened and signed again, its póliza is not rebuilt: it keeps the amounts from the first signature. That's why a change to the amounts of a day that already has a póliza is recorded on an open day or with a manual póliza, not by reopening the day.
What can go wrong
- The original póliza's month is already closed. The reversing póliza can't be dated in that month: record it in the open month, or ask for the month to be reopened, which is a special permission.
- Guardar póliza won't turn on. While you type, the screen shows which side is over and by how much (“La póliza no cuadra: sobra en el debe por…”, meaning the póliza is out of balance on the debit side by that amount).