Blockchain may have vanished from the technology hype cycle, but its strongest accounting use case is becoming practical: protecting ERP records with cryptographic evidence. Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CITP, CITP, CGMA, The Accounting Tech Lab is an ongoing series that explores the intersection of public accounting and technology.
The hosts examine how distributed-ledger technology can make changes tamper evident without replacing the ERP. Journal entries can be grouped into a Merkle tree, reduced to a root hash, and anchored to an external ledger with a timestamp. A sidecar design can capture write-ahead logs while the core system continues processing transactions in SQL.
Shared records could also keep one company’s accounts payable aligned with another company’s accounts receivable and support automated contract checks, reconciliations, and payment release. Examples include pharmaceutical traceability, food provenance and recall controls, professional-credential verification, payroll compliance, intercompany reconciliation, and customs clearance. T
he discussion also considers cryptographic privacy, through which a party may prove compliance without disclosing every commercial detail. Although many examples involve enterprise platforms, Randy and Brian expect these controls to move down-market. Their conclusion: blockchain-enabled audit trails could give smaller accounting systems substantially stronger data integrity, much as electronic signatures moved from specialized technology to an everyday business control.
- The Accounting Tech Lab is an ongoing series that explores the intersection of public accounting and technology.
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