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+# Reconciliation checkpoints design
+
+## Purpose
+
+Add a local reconciliation workflow that compares an institution-reported
+balance with Gizmoduck's ledger for one account on one date. It gives the owner
+auditable confidence in account balances without changing transactions,
+creating clearing state, or depending on a particular import format.
+
+## Scope
+
+The first version supports every active bank or credit-card account and any
+chosen as-of date. It records immutable balance checkpoints, shows their
+current status, and preserves their original calculation for audit.
+
+It does not clear individual transactions, lock a reconciled period, infer a
+balance from source files, create card statements, or modify financial rows.
+Those capabilities remain future enhancements.
+
+## Domain model
+
+Add `ReconciliationCheckpoint` to the finance domain:
+
+| Field | Meaning |
+| --- | --- |
+| `account` | Active account being checked; protected from deletion. |
+| `as_of_date` | Inclusive posting-date boundary for the comparison. |
+| `institution_balance` | Balance shown by the bank or card institution, in the account currency. Zero is valid. |
+| `ledger_balance_at_creation` | Sum of account transaction amounts through `as_of_date` when the checkpoint was recorded. |
+| `difference_at_creation` | `institution_balance - ledger_balance_at_creation`. |
+| timestamps | Immutable creation and update timestamps inherited from the existing base model. |
+
+There is deliberately no uniqueness constraint on `(account, as_of_date)`.
+Entering a corrected balance creates another checkpoint rather than rewriting
+or deleting history. The latest checkpoint by creation time is the active
+checkpoint for that account and date.
+
+The reconciliation service owns creation. It validates the account is active,
+accepts decimal-safe balances including zero, calculates the ledger snapshot in
+one database transaction, saves the checkpoint, and writes the existing
+`AuditEvent` with the human actor and outcome. No imported source text or
+institution credentials are persisted.
+
+## Current status and drift
+
+When displaying a checkpoint, Gizmoduck recalculates the account's live ledger
+balance through the inclusive `as_of_date`. It compares that value with the
+stored institution balance.
+
+* **Reconciled**: the live difference is zero.
+* **Difference**: the live difference is nonzero and the original checkpoint
+  also did not reconcile.
+* **Changed since reconciliation**: the original checkpoint reconciled, but
+  later backdated activity changed the live ledger balance.
+
+The checkpoint continues to retain its original ledger balance and difference.
+This makes late imports and dated manual entries visible without mutating the
+historical record. Opening balances participate in the ledger sum exactly like
+other transactions; reports still exclude them from income and spending.
+
+## Owner workflow
+
+Add a Reconciliation navigation entry and page.
+
+The page lists active accounts with their most recent checkpoint date and live
+status. The owner can select an account, choose an as-of date, and enter the
+institution balance. Before submission, the form shows the current ledger
+balance and difference for confirmation. Saving records the immutable
+checkpoint and redirects to the account's reconciliation history.
+
+History shows each checkpoint's as-of date, institution balance, original
+ledger balance, original difference, current ledger balance, current
+difference, created time, and status. Amounts never cross currency boundaries.
+The existing dashboard retains account balances and gains only a compact latest
+reconciliation status per account.
+
+## Error handling and security
+
+Invalid dates and money values receive field-level form errors. Archived or
+missing accounts are rejected by the domain service and translated to the
+existing safe owner-facing error messages. Forms use the existing CSRF
+protection and fixed local `HUMAN/local-owner` actor. Database exceptions and
+financial source data are never exposed in responses.
+
+## Verification
+
+Use only synthetic data. Tests cover:
+
+* exact bank and credit-card reconciliation, including a zero institution
+  balance;
+* an initial difference and a later corrected checkpoint for the same date;
+* a backdated transaction changing a previously reconciled checkpoint;
+* opening balances in reconciliation totals;
+* archived account rejection and audit behavior;
+* migration constraints, owner form validation, CSRF protection, account
+  history, and dashboard status rendering.
+
+Run focused domain and web tests, the full pytest suite, Django migration and
+system checks, and the existing PostgreSQL permission check.