Abstract: The present invention relates to a witness system that takes advantage of EDI (electronic data exchange) to perform efficient distribution and account settlement (accounting) processes between selling and buying companies. The present invention also provides a system ensuring information safety and offers account settlement (accounting) processes utilizing said witness system. A buying company's computer 5 makes documents according, illustratively, to delivery vouchers or order vouchers, and sends said documents to a selling company's computer 6 via a notarization authority 7. The selling company compares authentication documents so transmitted with, illustratively, delivery vouchers or order vouchers that the selling company itself has issued, and, after checking for substantive errors and determining that the contents of said documents are correct, executes a confirmation response with respect to the notarization authority.

Abstract: Transaction data representing a transaction to be processed is input through an input terminal. An interface unit assigns the input transaction data a business code identifying the business activities of a company involved in the transaction represented by the transaction data, and a type code identifying an account title classified based on a cost element. A journalizing unit refers to a master information storage unit, and journalizes the transaction data based on the business code and the type code. The journal result is stored in a database accessible from the terminal device of the accounting division.