Practical tips - Charts and coding

Frequently clients offer me inaccurate birth times. This can be frustrating, because the accuracy of data determines how I approach the chart upon further delination. It might be alright there and then, because I have a fresh mind on the limitations of chart and can quickly adjust my techniques thereafter - but most calculations are saved on my computor and if I ever return to the chart, then I might forget whether it is an acccurate chart of not.

Sometimes I decide to cast a chart for the unknown moment or birthtime for Sunrise, this being one of the most significant moments of the day; Other times for noon - whether the native is born early or late, the Moon is then located just about a close as it can to the midpoint or average. Occasionally, the client has a faint idea regarding the time of day that birth occurred; "It was early in the morning," or "late in the afternoon, just before tea-time","My father had just come home from work," etc. Few people are born at the exact dawn, and few people are born at 12.00hrs sharp. Just as few people are born exactly on the hour, or half hour for that case - but this is most often what the astrologer has to deal with. Yet, in some cases the native is quite specific; "I was born at 12.00hrs sharp," or "The time was precisely 16.30 GMT." - and people do get born at Sunrize, too...

How to register the difference?
One way to get around the problem is by using the 'seconds'-option in the data entry form. Generally, I don't enter anything here and if I don't the computor will ignore 'seconds' and leave the form blank or seconds set at '00'. However, if I have an uncertain birthtime I may simply enter '01' into the seconds-window. The data is saved and when the chart pops up later, I immediately recognize I am dealing with an uncertain birthtime. Choose your own codes as you please, but if the birthtime is correct, yet location inaccurate (i.e. the town was not in the Atlas, or it took too long to sort out so you took the closest place next to that) then it might appropriate to enter the code '02'. If the chart is based upon a rectification there may still be reason to question the accuracy of the time - then code '04' could be applied. If the chart is based upon a rectification of your own, the code '06' may serve as a memory for your mind for later occasions.

Hope someone finds the suggestions useful.