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Message Posted: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 @ 15:29:58 GMT

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Hi Folks,

This query concerns the representation of debit and credit financial transactions in a Data Warehouse table.

We're designing a single transaction table into which we will load financial transactions from multiple operational sources.

Each transaction row will include a Transaction_Type and Transaction_Amount column.

Some sources distinguish between credits and debits by the sign in Transaction Amount data (ie. credits are positive values, debits are negative values).

Other sources distinguish between credits and debits by ranges of codes in the Transaction Type data (eg.'2201' = deposit account credit, '8801' = deposit account debit) and hold only positive values in Transaction Amount data.

We want to choose one or other approach to implement in our Data Warehouse table.

From your experience, which do you consider to be best practice for identifying debit and credit transactions - (a) positive/negative sign on amounts or (b) separate type code??

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Ronan

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