## Summary Our first mistake on the OpenCollective platform, and what it left behind. While adding funds to the SFD 2026 project to cover catering costs (Canapé Company, $513.48, paid 2 Sep), we typed a payee name into the OC web UI and accidentally created a fictitious vendor called "StartMeUp.nz" — instead of allocating the funds from the fiscal host (`startmeup-nz`), which actually holds the money for the project. The 2026-08-29 / 09-02 sessions left order #975997 with three legs across two phantom vendor accounts. The cleanup on 2026-09-07 fixed the money everywhere, but the production project page still shows inflated gross counters: | Stat | Production (`software-freedom-day-wellington-2026`) | Staging (`software-freedom-day-2026`) | Correct | |---|---|---|---| | Today's balance | $300.00 ✓ | $300.00 | $300.00 | | Total raised | $1,682.46 ✗ | $1,168.98 | $1,168.98 | | Total disbursed | $1,382.46 ✗ | $868.98 | $868.98 | | Estimated annual budget | $1,168.98 ✓ | $1,168.98 | $1,168.98 | Verified 2026-09-08 against the public GraphQL API (`stats.totalAmountReceived` = 168246 cents production vs 116898 staging). "Total disbursed" is derived (raised − balance), so it inherits the inflation. ## How each environment was cleaned up (2026-09-07) - **Staging:** refunded the phantom credit (`refundTransaction`), re-funded the earmark from the host, deleted/tombstoned the phantoms. Every stat ended up accurate. - **Production:** re-attributed order #975997 to the host with `editAddedFunds` — chosen to avoid a visible "paid then refunded" pair — and retired four phantom vendors (2 tombstoned, 2 deleted). Balance and estimated budget are correct; the gross counters each carry +$513.48. ## What we're learning about the platform Production `ADDED_FUNDS` legs after the cleanup (public transactions query): | Date | Amount | isRefund | isRefunded | refundKind | From | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 2026-09-07 | +513.48 | false | false | — | `startmeup-nz` (host, "SFD 2026 catering earmark") | | 2026-09-07 | −513.48 | true | false | EDIT | "Reverse of Lunch catering" | | 2026-09-02 | +513.48 | false | **true** | EDIT | `1084688-startmeup-nz-37d85679` (phantom) | | 2026-09-02 | −513.48 | true | false | EDIT | "Reverse of Lunch catering" | | 2026-08-29 | +513.48 | false | **true** | EDIT | `1084688-startmeup-nz-5078f1d7` (phantom) | | 2026-07-29 | +655.50 | false | false | — | `startmeup-nz` (initial allocation) | - **Never type payee names into the OC web UI.** Unknown names silently mint vendor accounts — that is exactly how the phantoms were born. Pre-create vendors deliberately, then post expenses with explicit slugs. - **OC books are append-only.** `editAddedFunds` doesn't rewrite history; it adds a new host credit plus a "Reverse of" leg. The balance nets out correctly, but the gross counters keep everything. - **Total raised excludes refunded legs — usually.** The 8/29 phantom leg (reversed on 9/2) is correctly excluded; the 9/2 phantom leg (reversed on 9/7 by `editAddedFunds`) is still counted despite `isRefunded=true`, so raised reads 655.50 + 513.48 + 513.48 = 1,682.46. Working hypothesis: the cached stat is bumped for the new host credit but not decremented for the refunded original. Worth understanding better as we go. - **The refund-then-re-fund path (staging) leaves fully consistent stats; the edit-in-place path (production) does not.** Staging-first proved its worth here. - Side observation: production `stats.totalPaidExpenses` reads $0.00 despite three paid `EXPENSE` legs totalling $868.98 (staging reports $105.50) — possibly the same stats-cache family. ## What NOT to do Do not `refundTransaction` the 9/2 phantom leg to "fix" the counter: it is already `isRefunded=true` with an EDIT reversal in place. A second refund leg would push the project balance to **−$213.48**. ## For now - Accept the counters: they are internally consistent (raised − disbursed = balance), and public reporting is generated from the ledger, not from OC page stats. - Correct the 2026-09-07 production alignment runbook note — the +$513.48 was written off as unavoidable "correction noise", but the 9/2 leg's exclusion shows refunded legs *are* normally dropped from the stat. - Revisit once our understanding of the platform matures — we are early in the integration and not at the point of taking anything upstream. ## Related - #12 — SFD 2026 + DevOpsDays 2027 event planning - Production page: https://opencollective.com/opsdevnz/projects/software-freedom-day-wellington-2026 - Staging comparison: https://staging.opencollective.com/opsdevnz/projects/software-freedom-day-2026