Canonical public standard
The architecture is public. The operating methods stay protected.
IVA Standard v1.1 defines five independent ledgers, recognition and valuation requirements, structural events, registers, reporting cadence, governance roles, conformance concepts, and a micro-entity tier.
A standard should be examinable without publishing the proprietary methods required to implement it with integrity.
Published 2026
Governance Architecture Standard, Version 1.1.
The published PDF is the authoritative public document. It supplements rather than replaces GAAP or GASB, governs structural accounting, and applies to public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit entities that adopt the architecture.
The document uses normative language: shall indicates a mandatory conformance requirement, may indicates permission, and should indicates recommendation.
Public architecture
What the Standard requires.
- All five independent ledgers exist and no ledger consolidates, converts, nets, offsets, subordinates, or redefines another.
- Structural positions satisfy documentation, persistence, materiality, cross-functional impact, and verifiability before recognition.
- Nonfinancial structural positions use domain-bound, nonconvertible Structural Value Units.
- Cross-ledger events are recorded independently in every affected ledger.
- Each ledger maintains an authoritative register with an owner, evidence reference, review date, and event history.
- Defined reporting cadence, review authority, audit, structural integrity, non-compliance, misstatement, and certification concepts govern conformance.
Intellectual-property boundary
Public doctrine is not the full implementation system.
| Question | Public and examinable | Protected operating methods |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Five ledgers, domain independence, non-consolidation | Implementation sequencing and adoption playbooks |
| Measurement | SVU definition and valuation criteria names | Calibration, scoring interpretation, formulas, and manuals |
| Evidence | Recognition criteria and ledger-register fields | Evidence templates, diagnostic protocols, and audit instruments |
| Governance | Roles, cadence, integrity, and conformance concepts | Client-specific matrices, findings, and internal review methods |
Density scaling
The doctrine remains intact when the organization is small.
Governance density may scale with complexity, but the architecture does not disappear. Standard v1.1 includes a micro-entity tier for single-owner, single-operator entities. All five ledgers still exist; evidence may be binary, nonfinancial magnitude may be low, moderate, or high, and one unified monthly structural review can replace separate institutional cycles.
The purpose is not to bury a founder under administration. It is to keep concentration, capacity, learning, and overextension visible before one person becomes the undocumented load-bearing system.