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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-19T12:18:24+00:00

I have a database where the Balance and Payments need to be broken down

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I have a database where the Balance and Payments need to be broken down into different “money buckets” to show how they are allocated. For example, there is principal, interest, late fees, bounced check fees, Misc, etc. There are up to 10 different money buckets.

Which of these two methods is the better way of designing a database for this, and why?

Option A

PAYMENTS 
AccountId
// Other payment-related columns
TotalPaid 
PrincipalPaid
InterestPaid
MiscPaid
BadCheckChargesPaid
...

Option B

PAYMENTS
AccountId
// Other payment-related columns
TotalPaid

PAYMENT_DETAILS
PaymentId
PaymentTypeId
AmountPaid

In most cases only 1-3 of the different balance types are used

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Option B is the better normalized, more flexible option (easy to add a new bucket later) and would get my vote.

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