Finance operation and system building tips from String Theory's engineers

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    AI and Financial Systems

    AI is a powerful tool, but it's also incredibly over-eager. Without the right foundation in place adding AI to your financial systems massively amplifies risk. We'll walk you through what solid building blocks look like that will allow you to leverage AI for financial tasks without risking your business.

    Think you are ready to unleash AI on your financial systems?

    AI is a powerful tool, but it's also incredibly over-eager. Without the right foundation in place adding AI to your financial systems massively amplifies risk. We'll walk you through what solid building blocks look like that will allow you to leverage AI for financial tasks without risking your business.

    Read more

    The Attribution Problem

    The attribution problem is an issue that arises from double entry systems relying on authoritative sums for balances, and the cumulative property of addition. The problem can be summarized as:

    What is the attribution problem?

    The attribution problem is an issue that arises from double entry systems relying on authoritative sums for balances, and the cumulative property of addition. The problem can be summarized as:

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    Deterministic Attribution

    Learn about the ledger properties that allow money to be tracked through balances to the outbound side.

    Track money with absolute precision.

    Learn about the ledger properties that allow money to be tracked through balances to the outbound side.

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    Lossless Financial Systems

    I've spent years fixing systems where everyone at a company made reasonable choices and ended up building software that lost them money. Here at String Theory we think we can do better. In this article we'll show you how this often happens and provide a blueprint for the solution.

    Building financial systems that can't lose money

    I've spent years fixing systems where everyone at a company made reasonable choices and ended up building software that lost them money. Here at String Theory we think we can do better. In this article we'll show you how this often happens and provide a blueprint for the solution.

    Read more

    Money Positioning System

    Traditionally people think about money in terms of accounts. When we build String Theory we created a new concept called groups that we thought would provide a more flexible way to think about money. What we've seen from users is that they start to think about money like a set of coordinates. I don't care about a specific account, give me all the money that originated from the US, came from user 1, and has been flagged as potential fraud.

    Start thinking about money like coordinates

    Traditionally people think about money in terms of accounts. When we build String Theory we created a new concept called groups that we thought would provide a more flexible way to think about money. What we've seen from users is that they start to think about money like a set of coordinates. I don't care about a specific account, give me all the money that originated from the US, came from user 1, and has been flagged as potential fraud.

    Read more

    Non-Fungible Currencies

    Think your company doesn’t have its own currency? Think again. From loyalty points to hours worked, many businesses are unknowingly managing non-fungible currencies: units with unique values that traditional systems struggle to track. This post breaks down what non-fungible currencies are, why they matter, and how to handle them properly: embrace uniqueness, keep records immutable, model exchanges to real money, and define a single source of truth. Stop losing context and start building smarter financial systems.

    Making your own currency isn't a bad thing.

    Think your company doesn’t have its own currency? Think again. From loyalty points to hours worked, many businesses are unknowingly managing non-fungible currencies: units with unique values that traditional systems struggle to track. This post breaks down what non-fungible currencies are, why they matter, and how to handle them properly: embrace uniqueness, keep records immutable, model exchanges to real money, and define a single source of truth. Stop losing context and start building smarter financial systems.

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    A Matter of Perspective

    A lot of companies get frustrated by an endless amount of manual reconciliation work and consistent small errors in their financial flows. But what causes this? Is it faulty technology? Bad ops people? Is your data just bad? In most cases the core issue is actually a conflict of perspective between different parts of the business.

    Why do your financial systems never seem to fit together quite right?

    A lot of companies get frustrated by an endless amount of manual reconciliation work and consistent small errors in their financial flows. But what causes this? Is it faulty technology? Bad ops people? Is your data just bad? In most cases the core issue is actually a conflict of perspective between different parts of the business.

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    Risking Fearlessly

    Take calculated financial risks to grow your business with confidence. We'll walk you through how lossless systems allow you to make smart bets with your money without ever opening yourself up to catastrophic losses.

    Only risk money intentionally.

    Take calculated financial risks to grow your business with confidence. We'll walk you through how lossless systems allow you to make smart bets with your money without ever opening yourself up to catastrophic losses.

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    The Single Context Problem

    Understanding the Single Context Problem in Account-Based SystemsWhen money can only be described by its accounts, you are gonna need a lot of accounts

    Why can't accounts provide enough context?

    Understanding the Single Context Problem in Account-Based SystemsWhen money can only be described by its accounts, you are gonna need a lot of accounts

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    Sticky Context

    Learn how having money with sticky context gets around the single context problem

    How does end-to-end context help?

    Learn how having money with sticky context gets around the single context problem

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    The Zero-Sum Fallacy

    Learn about the loop holes to the guaranteed integrity of double entry accounting

    Why everything summing to zero doesn't add up.

    Learn about the loop holes to the guaranteed integrity of double entry accounting

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