HI,

I need to understand this sentence that I came across in an accounting-related paper I'm translating. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

"Reports from batch systems are only valid through the last batch posted to the ledger, which could be one hour, one day, one week, or one month, in arrears."

It's talking about automated accounting system that uses batch-entry.
So, are the reports valid only for the period covered by the batch, or up until the batch was posted to the ledger... and the in arrears part just through me for a loop :S

Thanks in advance

"Reports from batch systems are only valid through the last batch posted to the ledger, which could be one hour, one day, one week, or one month, in arrears."

Batch systems are systems that process a large number of transactions, ie; a daily update of receipts from a banking system

I expect the report mentioned here is in summary form, because a report would usually list all the transactions processed and therefore would be a valid historical record, and refers to the most recent batch processed. Reports are usually time and date stamped.

Arrears refers to how long it takes the report to be produced, suggesting that reports are not immediately available or that the transactions may not be processed immediately but aggregated until a particular event occurs ie; last day of the month