Managing Schedules In a Financial Close Management System

• US 20120109801A1
• Filed: 10/27/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: CLARK, John Jr., KUMAR, Shailesh, LIU, Fang, BATTAGLIA, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,738,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, and financial close management system are provided that manage a schedule. A schedule is a core object of the financial close management system, and is an expression of a template. Managing a schedule can include creating a new schedule, modifying an existing schedule, deleting an existing schedule, duplicating an existing schedule, validating an existing schedule, creating a template from an existing schedule, setting a status of an existing schedule, and importing and exporting an existing schedule. In addition, managing a schedule can include defining task type parameters that can be set during scheduling and setting task parameters of a schedule at a schedule level rather than a task level.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to manage a schedule in a financial close management system, the instructions comprising:

creating the schedule in the financial close management system, the schedule comprising an ordered set of tasks and a status, wherein each task of the schedule is assigned a calendar date;

modifying the schedule in the financial close management system, while the schedule is active; and

restricting modifications that can be made to the schedule, based, in part, on the status of the schedule.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, the instructions further comprising setting a value for a parameter of a task at the schedule.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1,

wherein the status of the schedule has one of the following values:

Pending, Open, Closed, and Locked;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Pending;

wherein only the following types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Open;

creating a new task for the schedule, modifying a task of the schedule that has not begun, or deleting a task of the schedule that has not begun; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Closed or Locked.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the creating the schedule further comprises:

manually creating the schedule in the financial close management system; and

setting attributes of the schedule in the financial close management system.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the creating the schedule further comprises:

selecting a template in a financial close management system, wherein the template comprises a repeatable collection of tasks;

validating the template in the financial close management system; and

creating the schedule from the selected template.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises at least one of:

adding a task to the schedule, deleting a task from the schedule, and modifying a task of the schedule.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule in the financial close management system;

creating a duplicate schedule from the selected schedule; and

aligning the task calendar dates of the duplicate schedule.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule in the financial close management system; and

validating the schedule.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule in the financial close management system;

creating a template from the schedule, wherein the template comprises a repeatable set of tasks; and

aligning the offset days of the tasks of the template with the calendar dates of the tasks of the schedule.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting a file; and

loading the contents of the file into the schedule of the financial close management system.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule;

loading the contents into a file; and

saving the file in the financial close management system.

12. A computer-implemented method for managing a schedule, the computer-implemented method comprising:

creating the schedule in a financial close management system, the schedule comprising an ordered set of tasks and a status, wherein each task of the schedule is assigned a calendar date;

modifying the schedule in the financial close management system, while the schedule is active; and

restricting modifications that can be made to the schedule, based, in part, on the status of the schedule.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising setting a value for a parameter of a task at the schedule.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12,

wherein the status of the schedule has one of the following values:

Pending, Open, Closed, and Locked;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Pending;

wherein only the following types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Open;

creating a new task for the schedule, modifying a task of the schedule that has not begun, or deleting a task of the schedule that has not begun; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Closed or Locked.

15. A financial close management system, comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions stored on the memory;

wherein the processor is further configured, when executing the instructions stored on the memory, to;

create the schedule in a financial close management system, the schedule comprising one or more tasks and a status, wherein the one or more tasks are ordered and each task of the one or more tasks is assigned a calendar date;

modify the schedule in the financial close management system, while the schedule is active; and

restrict modifications that can be made to the schedule, based, in part, on the status of the schedule.

16. The financial close management system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured, when executing the instructions stored on the memory, to set a value for a parameter of a task at the schedule.

17. The financial close management system of claim 15,

wherein the status of the schedule has one of the following values:

Pending, Open, Closed, and Locked;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Pending;

wherein only the following types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Open;

creating a new task for the schedule, modifying a task of the schedule that has not begun, or deleting a task of the schedule that has not begun; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Closed or Locked.