In one embodiment the present invention includes a computer-implemented for determining whether or not a data object is frozen. The method comprises accessing, by a user on a computer, a first data object of a plurality of data objects in one or more computer software applications. The plurality of data objects are assigned to a plurality of entities, where each entity specifies a category, and each of the plurality of data objects belong to a specific entity. The method determines if the first data object is frozen based on a relationship between the first entity and a second entity.