Businesses must report their activity in certain categorical details, often dictated by the government. For example, we now must report how many employees we have by certain Equal Employment Opportunity Commission categories - thus requiring a new field on the employee master file. Here again, more complexity. In the regulation arena, businesses often must develop techniques to get around the regulations legally. Businesses often add subsidiaries and dummy corporations to accomplish their goals while achieving favorable tax benefits.
Subsidiaries become yet another subject entity on the enterprise data model.
The initial recording of a transaction if fairly straight forward. In an automated system, it creates a record. Perhaps a log is produced. Each has its drawbacks. In an order for some widgets, for example, a copy of the order is forwarded to various departments who take action.