Skip to content

REA & Other References

REA (Resources, Events, Agents)

The REA ontology is the main basis for the Valueflows model. Here is some background.

Bill McCarthy's list of REA papers

McCarthy's original 1982 REA paper

REA ontology paper

Singapore REA Learning Tool

Extending REA from internal business systems into larger economic networks:

Radically Distributed Supply Chain Systems

A semantic model for Internet supply chain collaboration a little dated and most of the internal links are broken, but still useful

ISO Accounting and Economic Ontology based on REA.

International Standards Organization, “ISO 15944-4: Information Technology – Business Operational View – Part 4: Business Transaction Scenarios – Accounting and Economic Ontology,” Second Version of International Standard, The International Organization for Standards (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland, April 2015. (Link connects reader to request for free copy of certain ISO standards; reader then chooses to ask for 15944-4-2015.)

McCarthy ISO slide deck

REA Beyond the Enterprise

From private ownership to commons accounting

IPO (Input-Process-Output)

Merged into the REA pattern, is the IPO pattern, which is used in many fields of study and analysis. IPO use for Material Flow Analysis is almost the same as we use it in Valueflows.

Dependent Demand

We do event-driven Resource Requirements Planning based on that pattern. Dependent Demand - a Business Pattern

REA and Climate

REA (and Valueflows) works very well for climate analysis and accounting, see Accounting for Planetary Survival, especially Resources - Events - Agents (REA): An accounting system for networked cooperation and shared supply chains starting on pg. 85; and Appendix I: From private ownership accounting to commons accounting.