JiffyTrade separates visibility, editing, unlocking, and permanent deletion into different permission layers.

This ensures financial records cannot be altered or destroyed casually.

This article explains how system safeguards work.

🔐 The Locking System (Recap)

Documents may be locked:

• Manually by a user
• Automatically when:
  • Sent
  • Converted (Quote → Invoice)
  • Reminder sent
  • Marked as paid

Locked documents:

• Cannot be edited
• Cannot be modified
• Remain part of the audit trail

Unlocking requires explicit permission.

🔓 Unlocking Documents

Unlocking is controlled by two capability levels:

unlock_documents

Allows unlocking of general locked documents.

unlock_financial_documents

Allows unlocking of financially sensitive documents, including:

• Sent invoices
• Paid invoices
• Converted quotes

Unlocking financial documents carries higher risk.

Best practice: restrict to senior roles or Plugin Super Administrators.

🗑 Permanent Deletion Rules

Deletion in JiffyTrade is a staged process:

1. Move to Trash
2. Restore from Trash (optional)
3. Permanently delete

Permanent deletion is controlled by:

delete_documents_permanently

This action:

• Completely removes the document
• Cannot be undone
• Deletes the audit record

🚫 System-Level Deletion Protections

Even with permission, certain actions are blocked by design.

🔗 Quotes with Associated Invoices

A Quote that has generated one or more Invoices:

• Cannot be permanently deleted
• Is protected until all linked invoices are deleted

This prevents:

• Broken conversion chains
• Lost pricing history
• Audit inconsistencies

This protection is enforced at system level.

👤 Customers with Existing Documents

Customers that have associated Quotes or Invoices:

• Cannot be deleted
• Delete option is disabled
• Documents must be removed first

This prevents relational data corruption.

💰 Paid Invoices

Paid invoices:

• Are automatically locked
• Should not be deleted in normal operation
• Affect financial reports and tax summaries

Even if permanent deletion is technically allowed via RBAC, deletion of paid invoices is strongly discouraged.

Best practice: cancel instead.

🧠 Why These Restrictions Exist

Without enforced protections:

• Revenue records could disappear
• Quote → Invoice history could break
• Audit trails could be invalidated
• Financial reports could become inaccurate

JiffyTrade prevents structural damage even if permissions are misconfigured.

⚠ Unlocking vs Deleting — Important Distinction

Unlocking:

• Allows editing
• Does not remove history

Permanent deletion:

• Removes the record entirely
• Is irreversible

These are intentionally separated permissions.

🛡 Recommended Safeguards

For most businesses:

• Allow staff to move to Trash
• Restrict unlocking to managers
• Restrict financial unlocking to owners
• Restrict permanent deletion to Plugin Super Administrators

This ensures:

✔ Operational flexibility
✔ Controlled financial authority
✔ Strong audit protection

🎯 Key Principle

RBAC controls who can attempt an action.

System safeguards control what is structurally allowed.

Even high-level users cannot break document relationships or delete protected records without meeting required conditions.