Postgres and Open Source Experts

Anytime. Anywhere. Since 1997.

Blog

PostgreSQL and Financial Calculations - Part Two

PostgreSQL and Financial Calculations - Part Two

The second in a series of blogs covering common mistakes in Database and Application designs for financial calculations.

Inconsistent precision scaling:

This is probably the most common mistake in database design that I observe. It is understood to use exact data types (such as numeric) and the precision must be fixed, but for whatever reason the decision is made that it’s OK for one table to use numeric(12,4),a second table …

PostgreSQL and Financial Calculations - Part One

PostgreSQL and Financial Calculations - Part One

A series on the use of data types to insure accurate financial calculations with your application.

Over my multi-decade career, I have often noticed the problematic use of real, floating, double, and fixed precision types to store and calculate financials. Most believe the application only needs two digits to the right of the decimal point for financial data. The use of only two digits assumes that many financial calculations do …