How to best encapsulate monetary values in a database

I am not familiar with accounting, but I solved some similar problems in inventory-type environments. I store running totals in the same row with the transaction. I am using constraints, so that my data is never wrong even under high concurrency. I have written the following solution back then in 2009::

Calculating running totals is notoriously slow, whether you do it with a cursor or with a triangular join. It is very tempting to denormalize, to store running totals in a column, especially if you select it frequently. However, as usual when you denormalize, you need to guarantee the integrity of your denormalized data. Fortunately, you can guarantee the integrity of running totals with constraints – as long as all your constraints are trusted, all your running totals are correct. Also this way you can easily ensure that the current balance (running totals) is never negative - enforcing by other methods can also be very slow. The following script demonstrates the technique.

CREATE TABLE Data.Inventory(InventoryID INT NOT NULL IDENTITY,
  ItemID INT NOT NULL,
  ChangeDate DATETIME NOT NULL,
  ChangeQty INT NOT NULL,
  TotalQty INT NOT NULL,
  PreviousChangeDate DATETIME NULL,
  PreviousTotalQty INT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT PK_Inventory PRIMARY KEY(ItemID, ChangeDate),
  CONSTRAINT UNQ_Inventory UNIQUE(ItemID, ChangeDate, TotalQty),
  CONSTRAINT UNQ_Inventory_Previous_Columns 
     UNIQUE(ItemID, PreviousChangeDate, PreviousTotalQty),
  CONSTRAINT FK_Inventory_Self FOREIGN KEY(ItemID, PreviousChangeDate, PreviousTotalQty)
    REFERENCES Data.Inventory(ItemID, ChangeDate, TotalQty),
  CONSTRAINT CHK_Inventory_Valid_TotalQty CHECK(
         TotalQty >= 0 
     AND (TotalQty = COALESCE(PreviousTotalQty, 0) + ChangeQty)
  ),
  CONSTRAINT CHK_Inventory_Valid_Dates_Sequence CHECK(PreviousChangeDate < ChangeDate),
  CONSTRAINT CHK_Inventory_Valid_Previous_Columns CHECK(
        (PreviousChangeDate IS NULL AND PreviousTotalQty IS NULL)
     OR (PreviousChangeDate IS NOT NULL AND PreviousTotalQty IS NOT NULL)
  )
);

-- beginning of inventory for item 1
INSERT INTO Data.Inventory(ItemID,
  ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty)
VALUES(1, '20090101', 10, 10, NULL, NULL);

-- cannot begin the inventory for the second time for the same item 1
INSERT INTO Data.Inventory(ItemID,
  ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty)
VALUES(1, '20090102', 10, 10, NULL, NULL);


Msg 2627, Level 14, State 1, Line 10

Violation of UNIQUE KEY constraint 'UNQ_Inventory_Previous_Columns'. 
Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'Data.Inventory'.

The statement has been terminated.


-- add more
DECLARE @ChangeQty INT;
SET @ChangeQty = 5;

INSERT INTO Data.Inventory(ItemID,
  ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty)

SELECT TOP 1 ItemID, '20090103', @ChangeQty, TotalQty + @ChangeQty, ChangeDate, TotalQty
  FROM Data.Inventory
  WHERE ItemID = 1
  ORDER BY ChangeDate DESC;

SET @ChangeQty = 3;

INSERT INTO Data.Inventory(ItemID,
  ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty)

SELECT TOP 1 ItemID, '20090104', @ChangeQty, TotalQty + @ChangeQty, ChangeDate, TotalQty
  FROM Data.Inventory
  WHERE ItemID = 1
  ORDER BY ChangeDate DESC;

SET @ChangeQty = -4;

INSERT INTO Data.Inventory(ItemID,
  ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty)

SELECT TOP 1 ItemID, '20090105', @ChangeQty, TotalQty + @ChangeQty, ChangeDate, TotalQty
  FROM Data.Inventory
  WHERE ItemID = 1
  ORDER BY ChangeDate DESC;

-- try to violate chronological order
SET @ChangeQty = 5;

INSERT INTO Data.Inventory(ItemID,
  ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty)

SELECT TOP 1 ItemID, '20081231', @ChangeQty, TotalQty + @ChangeQty, ChangeDate, TotalQty
  FROM Data.Inventory
  WHERE ItemID = 1
  ORDER BY ChangeDate DESC;

Msg 547, Level 16, State 0, Line 4

The INSERT statement conflicted with the CHECK constraint 
"CHK_Inventory_Valid_Dates_Sequence". 
The conflict occurred in database "Test", table "Data.Inventory".

The statement has been terminated.

SELECT ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty
FROM Data.Inventory ORDER BY ChangeDate;

ChangeDate              ChangeQty   TotalQty    PreviousChangeDate      PreviousTotalQty
----------------------- ----------- ----------- ----------------------- -----
2009-01-01 00:00:00.000 10          10          NULL                    NULL
2009-01-03 00:00:00.000 5           15          2009-01-01 00:00:00.000 10
2009-01-04 00:00:00.000 3           18          2009-01-03 00:00:00.000 15
2009-01-05 00:00:00.000 -4          14          2009-01-04 00:00:00.000 18


-- try to change a single row, all updates must fail
UPDATE Data.Inventory SET ChangeQty = ChangeQty + 2 WHERE InventoryID = 3;
UPDATE Data.Inventory SET TotalQty = TotalQty + 2 WHERE InventoryID = 3;

-- try to delete not the last row, all deletes must fail
DELETE FROM Data.Inventory WHERE InventoryID = 1;
DELETE FROM Data.Inventory WHERE InventoryID = 3;

-- the right way to update
DECLARE @IncreaseQty INT;

SET @IncreaseQty = 2;

UPDATE Data.Inventory 
SET 
     ChangeQty = ChangeQty 
   + CASE 
        WHEN ItemID = 1 AND ChangeDate = '20090103' 
        THEN @IncreaseQty 
        ELSE 0 
     END,
  TotalQty = TotalQty + @IncreaseQty,
  PreviousTotalQty = PreviousTotalQty + 
     CASE 
        WHEN ItemID = 1 AND ChangeDate = '20090103' 
        THEN 0 
        ELSE @IncreaseQty 
     END
WHERE ItemID = 1 AND ChangeDate >= '20090103';

SELECT ChangeDate,
  ChangeQty,
  TotalQty,
  PreviousChangeDate,
  PreviousTotalQty
FROM Data.Inventory ORDER BY ChangeDate;

ChangeDate              ChangeQty   TotalQty    PreviousChangeDate      PreviousTotalQty
----------------------- ----------- ----------- ----------------------- ----------------
2009-01-01 00:00:00.000 10          10          NULL                    NULL
2009-01-03 00:00:00.000 7           17          2009-01-01 00:00:00.000 10
2009-01-04 00:00:00.000 3           20          2009-01-03 00:00:00.000 17
2009-01-05 00:00:00.000 -4          16          2009-01-04 00:00:00.000 20

All current RDBMS' tables can have CONSTRAINTS on columns. These constraints are checked every time data is inserted into the table. It can also check data against other tables.

We know that each Plate Type has certain number of Rows and Columns. We can enumerate all Rows and Columns for each Plate Type. So, when data is inserted, the DB can check if a certain row/column combination exists for a given Plate Type.

Lets create a set of tables:

create table Plate_Types (
Plate_Type_id int,
Plate_Size int,
Plate_row int,
Plate_col int)

This table holds description of every Plate size like this:

Id     Size   Row     Col
1       6       1       1    -- 2x3
1       6       1       2
...
1       6       2       3
5       1536    1       1    -- 32x48
...
5       1536    32      32

Then, in your main table from Alternative 1 we introduce a Foreign Key - a "link" to another table to check if row and column are valid for this Plate size.

create table MyTable (
well_id int,
plate_id int, 
plate_size int,
row_id int,
col_id int,
value real);

ALTER TABLE MyTable  
ADD CONSTRAINT FK_Plate_SizeCheck 
   FOREIGN KEY (Plate_size_id, Row_id, Column_id)
    REFERENCES Plate_Types (Plate_type_id, Plate_row, Plate_col);

This Constraint here does the following: for every inserted row DB goes to table Plate_Types and looks for combination of Plate_size_id, Plate_row and Plate_col. In other words, it checks if this Plate Size can have row I and column J. If there is no match, then the DB fires an error.

Please note that this is one of several possible solutions for data integrity enforcement for your example. Medical data often comes in huge volumes and performance of this particular design is different question.

PS. This is a shortened explanation for non-developers. Code as well as table design is for concept illustration only.