Generation of personalized and hybrid responses to queries submitted from within tax return preparation system during preparation of electronic tax return

• US 10,402,913 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2015
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Wang, Gang, Cabrera, Luis F., McCluskey, Kevin M., Char, Ronald Jason, Chon, David S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Norman, Samica L
• Application Number:
  US14/814,329
• Publication Number:
  US 20170032468A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,496 Days
• Field of Search: 705 19, 705 31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

A hybrid response mechanism for processing queries submitted through an interview screen of a tax preparation application. User submits query through search field of interview screen generated by tax preparation application. Response engine accesses runtime data of electronic tax return stored in data store and generates hybrid response including runtime data and an action. Hybrid response data may be alpha/numerical runtime data or data identifying runtime data and identifying or including a link to an action, e.g., a form to be completed or revised, or to prepare a new form. The hybrid search result can also include a result (such as reference materials, e.g., information about tax topics or an answer provided by an on-line community member) generated by an external computing resource such as an online community for the tax preparation application also processing the query but that is not included in the electronic tax return being prepared.

Claims

1. A computerized tax return preparation system comprising:

a shared data store; and

at least one processor configured to perform processing comprising;

presenting, by a user interface controller process, at least one interview screen to a user of the computerized tax preparation system, the interview screen comprising a search field for entry of a query by the user through the interview screen;

writing, by the user interface controller process, data to the shared data store to update runtime data of a current electronic tax return, the runtime data including user-supplied data and results of calculations performed using the user-supplied data;

reading, by a tax logic agent process independent of the user interface controller process, the runtime data from the shared data store;

analyzing, by the tax logic agent process, the runtime data for compliance with one or more rules;

generating, by the tax logic agent process, one or more non-binding suggestions of unanswered questions or topics for consideration by the user interface controller process based on the analyzing;

receiving, by a response engine process independent of the tax logic agent process, the query entered into the search field;

generating, by the response engine process, a hybrid result in response to the query, the hybrid result comprising;

at least one of the non-binding suggestions,

runtime data of the shared data store that is selected based at least in part upon the search query, and

an action to be performed for preparation of the electronic tax return;

receiving, by the user interface controller process, the hybrid result; and

presenting, by the user interface controller process, an interview screen comprising the hybrid result to the user in response to the query during preparation of the electronic tax return.

2. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the response engine process:

determining, by a query recognition component, terms of the search query that correspond to pre-determined terms of a schema of the shared data store;

associating, by a linking algorithm, runtime data of the electronic tax return in the shared data store with terms of the search query; and

determining, by an action identifier, which actions are to be included in the hybrid result.

3. The system of claim 2, the query recognition component comprising a natural language processing algorithm.

4. The system of claim 2, the query recognition component comprising a dictionary of pre-determined terms of the schema of the shared data store.

5. The system of claim 2, the linking algorithm comprising a reverse indexing algorithm that is executable on runtime data of the shared data store.

6. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the user interface controller process, processing the hybrid result by generating or selecting an interview screen including the selected runtime data and the action and presenting the generated or selected interview screen to the user.

7. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the user interface controller process, prioritizing processing of the hybrid result over a non-binding suggestion generated by the tax logic agent.

8. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the user interface controller process, processing the hybrid result and a non-binding suggestion generated by the tax logic agent by generating a single interview screen merging hybrid result and the question or topic of the non-binding suggestion.

9. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the response engine process, determining an action to be included in the hybrid result when the shared data store does not contain runtime data for the response to the search query.

10. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the response engine process, determining an action to be included in the hybrid result when the shared data store contains runtime data for a topic or question related to the search query and which requires additional data for completion.

11. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the response engine process, determining an action of completing a form or worksheet when the shared data store contains runtime data that partially completes the form or worksheet.

12. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the response engine process, determining an action of reviewing a form or worksheet when the shared data store contains runtime data that completes the form or worksheet.

13. The system of claim 1, the hybrid search result runtime data comprising raw runtime data.

14. The system of claim 1, the hybrid search result runtime data comprising schema terms of types or labels of respective runtime data without the associated raw runtime data.

15. The system of claim 1, the hybrid search result comprising a link to the runtime data, wherein when the link is selected by the user, the runtime data of the hybrid result is displayed to the user.

16. The system of claim 15, the hybrid search result comprising a link to the action, wherein when the link is selected by the user, a form or worksheet of the electronic tax return that is to be completed is displayed to the user.

17. The system of claim 1, the hybrid search result comprising a link to the action, wherein when the link is selected by the user, a form or worksheet of the electronic tax return that is to be completed is displayed to the user.

18. The system of claim 1, the hybrid result comprising a first action to be performed for preparation of a first form or worksheet that is at least partially populated with the runtime data and a second action to be performed for a second form or worksheet that is to be prepared with other data that is not stored in the shared data store.

19. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising, by the response engine process, identifying multiple actions, wherein respective actions are identified by respective links for respective actions are organized within a data structure that is presented to the user through one or more interview screens generated by the user interface controller.

20. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising:

reading, by a calculation engine process, the runtime data from the shared data store;

performing, by the calculation engine process, calculations utilizing the runtime data and a calculation graph to generate a calculation result; and

writing, by the calculation engine process, the calculation result to the shared data store.

21. The system of claim 20, the processing further comprising, by the calculation engine process, populating a directed calculation graph with runtime data.

22. The system of claim 21, the directed calculation graph comprising a plurality of nodes comprising:

input or leaf nodes comprising data for specific tax-related items;

function nodes associated with respective functions, wherein respective input nodes are associated with respective function nodes, and inputs to a function include data of respective associated input nodes; and

result nodes associated with respective functions nodes, a result node comprising an output generated by function associated with a function node.

23. The system of claim 20, the processing further comprising:

reading, by the tax logic agent process, updated runtime data from the shared data store including data written to the shared data store by the user interface controller and the result generated by the calculation engine; and

generating, by the tax logic agent process, a non-binding suggestion for the user interface controller based at least in part upon analysis of the tax logic utilizing updated runtime data.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor comprises a plurality of processors that are components of a distributed tax preparation application that execute commands on respective different computers and are in communication with each other through respective networks.

25. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising receiving electronic tax return data from an electronic source and writing the received electronic tax return data to the shared data store, wherein the electronic tax return is substantially completed based at least in part upon the imported electronic tax return data and user interaction with the search field.

26. The system of claim 1, the processing further comprising:

transmitting, by the response engine process, the query through a network to an external computing resource; and

receiving, by the response engine process, a result generated by the external computing resource, the hybrid result including the result generated by the external computing resource.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the external computing resource is an online support community for the tax preparation application.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the result generated by the online support community is not written to the shared data store.

29. A computer-implemented method for providing search capabilities in a tax preparation application operable to prepare an electronic tax return, the method being performed by one or more processors of one or more computers and comprising:

presenting, by a user interface controller, at least one interview screen to a user of the tax preparation application, the interview screen comprising a search field for entry of a query by the user through the interview screen;

writing, by the user interface controller, data to a shared data store to update runtime data of a current electronic tax return, the runtime data including user-supplied data and results of calculations performed using the user-supplied data;

reading, by a computerized tax logic agent independent of the user interface controller, the runtime data of the electronic tax return from the shared data store;

processing, by the tax logic agent, a decision table derived from a directed completion graph based at least in part upon the runtime data; and

generating, by the tax logic agent, one or more non-binding suggestions of a question or topic to present to a user of the tax preparation application based at least in part upon the decision table processing;

transmitting, by the tax logic agent, the non-binding suggestion to the user interface controller;

receiving, by a response engine independent of the tax logic agent, query data entered into the search field by the user;

accessing, by the response engine, the shared data store;

generating, by the response engine, a hybrid result in response to the query, the hybrid result comprising;

at least one of the non-binding suggestions,

runtime data of the shared data store that is selected based at least in part upon the search query, and

an action to be performed for preparation of the electronic tax return;

receiving, by the user interface controller, the hybrid result; and

presenting, by the user interface controller, an interview screen comprising the hybrid result to the user.