I would ordinarily agree, but to be honest the UI in the screenshot doesn't really look all that terrible. Not saying it couldn't improve to clarify effects, incorporate documentation and nudge the user away from making mistakes - but overall I agree with the grandparent post. Clearly the operator is supposed to have business knowledge of what those GL fields mean. I'd bet there are more experienced operators who would be frustrated and less productive if they were forced to use a dumbed-down UI where you couldn't just put the amounts you want in the fields they should go.
My decade-old Quickbooks software similarly lets me create GL entries and assign amounts to the accounts involved. If I let my $12/hr intern who doesn't know what they're doing use that feature and they post to the wrong accounts, then of course bad things will happen. Instead, he uses other more specialized interfaces (like you suggested) to enter things like invoices, bills, etc. We give children safety scissors, and expect adults to be able to handle the real thing.
I really do have sympathy for the employees involved, and strongly agree with your sentiments that software should be engineered for safety. But I encourage anyone else reading this and forming an opinion to click into the article and have a glance at the screenshot.
My decade-old Quickbooks software similarly lets me create GL entries and assign amounts to the accounts involved. If I let my $12/hr intern who doesn't know what they're doing use that feature and they post to the wrong accounts, then of course bad things will happen. Instead, he uses other more specialized interfaces (like you suggested) to enter things like invoices, bills, etc. We give children safety scissors, and expect adults to be able to handle the real thing.
I really do have sympathy for the employees involved, and strongly agree with your sentiments that software should be engineered for safety. But I encourage anyone else reading this and forming an opinion to click into the article and have a glance at the screenshot.