Help: Getting permission errors from an important document

Question

I'm having permissions errors with a specific document. I've tried running Disk Utility with no luck.
The problem started when I tried to restore an older version of the document from Time Machine. Time Machine gave me an error saying I didn't have permissions to save the restored document. Time Machine also removed my newer version of the document, because I said I wanted Time Machine to replace the old document with the new one.
I was able to save the document from Time Machine to an external drive. But now I'm getting permissions errors with that document and I'm unable to save. The document is a Moneywell document (Moneywell is a finance app).
Here are some more details:
When I tried to saved the document, I got the following error: The file “Moneywell 2013.moneywell” is locked.
If you want to make changes to this document, click Unlock. To keep the file unchanged and work with a copy, click Duplicate.
There were three buttons: Duplicate, Cancel, Unlock
When I clicked Unlock, I got the following message:
"The file “Moneywell 2013.moneywell” cannot be unlocked.
You can duplicate this document and edit the duplicate."
There were two buttons: Cancel and Duplicate.
I clicked Duplicate and got the following message:
"Could Not Duplicate File
Moneywell could not duplicate your file at this time"
There was one button: OK
When I clicked OK, I got the following message:
"“Moneywell 2013.moneywell” couldn’t be copied because you don’t have permission to access 'Dropbox'
To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File > Get Info."
So, I clicked OK.
I was saving to my Drop Box folder so I thought I'd try saving it somewhere else. I dragged the document out of my Dropbox folder and into my Documents folder (which is the parent folder for my Dropbox folder).
I got the same errors as I did when the document was in my Dropbox folder. Only this time when I chose Duplicate it's telling me I don't have permissions to my Documents folder:
"“Moneywell 2013.moneywell” couldn’t be copied because you don’t have permission to access “Documents”. To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File > Get Info."
So, I don't know what's going on. I had none of these problems yesterday and my Moneywell document is the only document giving me this trouble.
I know permissions problems like this one are common so I hope someone can help me.

Answer 1

Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
Step 1
If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.
Triple-click the following line to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):
{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.
In the Terminal window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not  going to reset a password.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.