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The OCAUP Accounting Model

Ocaup is an acronym derived from currency Organization, Creation, Assignment, Use and Publication. The ocaup accounting model is intended to be implemented by a market entity for managing its independent currency brand and budget. It assures that independently maintained ledgers would a) internally reconcile the results of each transaction with current account balances and b) externally reconcile the reported currency inflows and outflows of transacting entities.

Unlike a mutual-credit based accounting model that tracks net account balance, ocaup emphasizes tracking of an entity's unused expense and unmet revenue budgets. In many ways, ocaup is geared towards any market entity that wishes to establish a long-term, sustainable currency brand that it could use to pay members and suppliers. The ocaup accounting model is not directly intended for building community or reciprocal currencies.

OCAUP and Prowl

Prowl supports the ocaup accounting model through the unusedBudget parameter and the evaluation metrics such as percent recovery, inflow/outflow ratio and currency units issued per member per week. Please refer to the Prowl dictionary in the technical document for more details. Please refer to an example itemized report for a general idea of the type of report that is generated under an ocaup accounting model.

Specialize, Budget and Publish

• Declare A Market Niche or Specialization

  A participant establishes or joins an entity with a declared market specialization. An entity's mission and market performance is symbolized by its currency brand. An entity steers its self-determined specialization towards goals that are likely to receive widespread support from market participants.
   

• Create Revenue and Expense Budgets

  Budgets represent the quantification of an entity's contributions and obiligations towards its mission. When members of independent entities complete a transaction, the debited entity's unused expense budget decreases, while the credited entity's unmet revenue target decreases by an equivalent amount.

  In other words, beneficiaries of goods and services do not accrue debt against market entities that specialize in providing those products. Rather, each market entity cancels its self-accrued debits as market participants benefit from its specialization.
   

• Publish Currency Activity

  An entity opens its books for public audits and evaluation in order to build its reputation. Popular entities are likely to encounter widespread acceptance of its currency brand among market participants, thereby improving its members' access to market products. In contrast, members of disreputable entities are likely to find their respective currency brands rejected by market participants.
   

More Detailed Documents

Prior to the development of a Prowl dictionary, earlier documents were drafted in order to arrive at more exact, unambigous terminologies. The following documents may answer some questions that are more in-depth:

• Independent Currency Brand
• OCAUP
• Reporting