System and Method to Utilize Presumptions, Database Information, and/or User Defaults to Calculate Construction Lien, Notice, Bond Claim, and Other Construction Document Deadlines and Requirements

• US 20140172684A1
• Filed: 12/12/2013
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Procore Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Jr., Scott Gerard Wolfe
• Inventors: Wolfe, Scott Gerard Jr.
• Application Number:
  US14/104,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20140172684A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system and method to calculate construction lien, construction notice, bond claim, and other construction document requirements and deadlines based on system user provided information that may lack identification of critical data, by employing a system and method of utilizing presumptions, preexisting and dynamically building database information, user defaults, and/or other data elements, to supplement user provided information.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method and system of examining and analyzing, by the computer or computer program, the system user'"'"'s defaults and other data within the system, program, database, or data source, to supplement missing information to complete known data about a construction project record, comprises the following steps:

a. Identifying, by the computer or computer program, the data needed to make a calculation and the data available for the calculation, by performing the following steps;

i. Examining, by the computer or computer program, the deadline or requirement calculation methodology, and extracting the data elements required to perform the calculation, including any data elements that are not required but can be used to assist in or improve the calculation;

ii. Examining, by the computer or computer program, the project record subject to the calculation or determination task, and extracting the data elements contained within or association with the subject project record that are required to perform, or will improve, the calculation;

iii. Identifying, by the computer or computer program, by comparing the data extracted from (i) and (ii) above, which data can be utilized from (i) which is missing from (ii), and establishing this data, by the computer or computer program through the performance of this method, system, and process, as the “

missing data.”

b. Examining, by the computer or computer program, whether the system user has any defaults established and associated with the system user'"'"'s record, as stored within a computer program, database, script, or data source, and usable for the purposes of supplementing the “

missing data,”

consisting of the following steps;

i. If a default record matching the “

missing data”

is associated with a system account and contains rules for its applicability, then this method requires an examination, by the computer or computer program, of the subject project record and its associated records, to determine if the rules are met and the default record applies, and if so, for the computer or computer program to consider the default record as usable for supplementation, as contemplated herein;

ii. If a default record matching the “

missing data”

is associated with a system account and does not contain rules for applicability, to consider, by the computer or computer program, the default record as usable for supplementation as contemplated herein;

1. If, through the process explained in the above steps (b)(i) and (b)(ii), usable default data is located by the computer or computer program, which will match and supplement certain “

missing data,”

then this method will create, by the computer or computer program, a record of the supplemental data for the system user, as it relates to the project record and the function of—

through any method—

calculating or determining lien and bond claim compliance requirements;

2. Examining, by the computer or computer program, whether any “

missing data”

remains, and if so, to continue to step c. If not, and all missing data is fulfilled by the method up to this point, then the method of calculating or determining the compliance requirements shall be performed utilizing the system user'"'"'s standard data, and the supplemented data based on defaults;

c. Examining, by the computer or computer program, the “

missing data”

remaining after performing steps (a) and (b) of this method and system, and thereafter, looking to system data to make presumptions that can supplement the missing data, comprising the following steps, depending on the data type;

i. When the missing data is the “

project type,”

this invention contemplates performing one or more than one of the following processes;

1. Examine, by the computer or computer program, whether the subject project record is associated with information about who owns the subject project, and if so, to examine, by the computer or computer program, the system'"'"'s entire universe of data, whether stored within a database, data source, or otherwise, and to extract any other project records associated with the same project owner, and for those located projects to further extract, by the computer or computer program, the project type identifier(s) assigned to those projects;

2. Examine, by the computer or computer program, the system'"'"'s entire universe of data, whether stored within a database, data source, or otherwise, and to extract any other project records that are substantially similar to the subject project record, and if such projects are located, to extract, by the computer or computer program, the project type identifier(s) assigned to those projects;

3. Examine, by the computer or the computer program, whether the subject project record is associated with information about who owns the subject project, and if so, to examine the name of the subject project owner and determine whether it is contains any “

white label”

identifiers which would suggest the project type;

regarding said “

white label”

identifiers;

A. A list of white label identifiers would be established and stored within the computer program, script, software, database, or data source, and may be established as unique to each system user, and/or applicable system-wide;

B. White label identifiers are key characters or character strings that, when appearing within a name of a project owner, would strongly indicate a certain project type. For example, the terms “

Inc.” and

“

Incorporated”

in an owner name would strongly indicate a commercial project type, but a term like “

US Army Corps of Engineers,”

or “

USACE”

would strongly indicate a federal project type.

C. If, after examination by the computer or computer program, a white label identifier is located within the project record'"'"'s affiliated owner, to extract, by the computer or computer program, the project type identifer(s) affiliated with the identified white label.

4. Determine, by the computer or computer program, a presumption project type by performing the following;

A. Collecting, by the computer or computer program, the project type identifiers extracted from the above subpart (c)(i) process; and

B. Comparing, by the computer or computer program, those identifiers, and determining if they are all the same, or if any are unique; and

C. If all of the project identifiers are the same, using the associated project type as the “

presumptive”

project type, and if there are no results, or if the results conflict with one another, then to not create presumptive project type.

iii. When the missing data is the “

user role,”

this invention contemplates performing one or more than one of the following processes;

1. Examine, by the computer or computer program, the system'"'"'s entire universe of data, whether stored within a database, data source, or otherwise, and to extract any other project records that are substantially similar to the subject project record, and if such projects are located, to extract, by the computer or computer program, the whether the current system user appears associated with that project record in any way, and if so, then to extract, by the computer for computer program, the user role identifier(s) assigned to the user for that project;

2. Examine, by the computer or computer program, the subject project record and determine if the record contains a reference to the system user'"'"'s “

hired-by role”

for the subject project, and if so, then to calculate, by the computer or computer program, the user role based thereupon, using a formula set in the computer database or script that assigns presumptive user roles based on hired-by roles, such as, for example, that when the hired by role is property owner the presumptive user role is general contractor, or as another example, when the hired by role is general contractor, the presumptive user role is subcontractor, and to extract, the user role identifier that results from that calculation.

3. Examine, by the computer or computer program, the system user'"'"'s universe of associated projects within the system data, stored within a database, data source, or otherwise, and to extract the user role on each of the projects therein, and to determine if a specific user role identifier repeats for the user more than 90% of the time, and if so, to extract that repeating user role identifier;

4. Determine, by the computer or computer program, a presumption user role by performing the following;

A. Collecting, by the computer or computer program, the user role identifiers extracted from the above subpart (c)(ii) process; and

B. Comparing, by the computer or computer program, those identifiers, and determining if they are all the same, or if any are unique; and

C. If all of the user role identifiers are the same, using the associated user role as the “

presumptive”

user role, and if there are no results, or if the results conflict with one another, then to not create presumptive user role.

iv. When the missing data is the “

hired by role,”

this invention contemplates performing the method and process of examining the universe of data, stored in a database, data source, or otherwise within the computer program, and extracting every possible hired-by role identifier, and then, for the purposes of this method and process, creating a presumptive hired by role equal to all possible hired by roles.

v. When the missing data is a specific date or trigger date, this invention contemplates performing one or more than one of the following processes;

1. Examine, by the computer or computer program, the system'"'"'s entire universe of data, whether stored within a database, data source, or otherwise, and to extract any other project records that are substantially similar to the subject project record, and if such projects are located, to extract, by the computer or computer program, all date records associated therewith. For this method and system, date records are associated with projects, contain a record of the date, and also contain some association with a descriptor for the records, with some associative data element distinguishing between those dates that “

individually”

relevant to a project, and those dates that are “

project wide”

or “

master dates.”

A project wide date is a date that is not unique to the particular system user, but instead, is applicable to all users that are associated with a project. In the computer or computer program'"'"'s examination of the dates associated with substantially similar projects, the system and method shall extract, by the computer or computer program, all associated “

project wide dates”

date records;

2. Examine, by the computer or computer program, the system user'"'"'s universe of associated projects within the system data, stored within a database, data source, or otherwise, and to extract an average date (related to the missing date) for projects, within the user'"'"'s data, that are similar to the subject project;

3. Determine, by the computer or computer program, a presumption date by performing the following;

A. Collecting, by the computer or computer program, the date(s) extracted from the above subpart (c)(iv) process; and

B. Determining, by the computer or computer program, if the dates discovered will satisfy the missing dates data for the subject project;

C. Comparing, by the computer or computer program, the discovered dates with one another, to the extent they are the same date type, and determining if they are all within a five (5) day period of each, or if any are not within the range; and

D. If all of the dates are within the five (5) day period range, using the associated date as the “

presumptive”

date, and if they are outside of the range, then to not create presumptive date.

d. Collect, by the computer or computer program, all of the subject project record data, qualifying default data, and qualifying presumptive data, all of which applies to a method and system—

of any sort—

to calculate or determine mechanics lien or bond claim deadlines and requirements, and to utilize, by the computer or computer program, all of that date to perform the calculation function.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the entire process and method is performed, or if any component of the method or process is performed by the computer or computer program, individually, to supplement missing information to complete known data about a construction project record, for the purposes of using a method or system—

of any sort—

to calculate or determine mechanics lien or bond claim deadlines and requirements.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein any number of components of the process and method is performed to supplement missing information to complete known data about a construction project record, for the purposes of using a method or system—

of any sort—

to calculate or determine mechanics lien or bond claim deadlines and requirements.

4. The method of claim 1, except that when the computer is examining and extracting data from the system, program, database, or data source, to create presumptive dates, instead of requiring the discovered data to match perfectly, a scoring system is implemented to score the data found through the method and system, and the usability of said data relying on the attained score.

5. A computer implemented method and system of examining, by the computer or computer program, a system'"'"'s project records that are subject to a process and method—

of any type—

of calculating or determining mechanics lien or bond claim deadlines, and of creating indicators for certain data that affect or deserve caution in the calculation or determination process, comprising of the following steps;

a. Identifying, by the computer or computer program, the data needed to make a calculation and the data available for the calculation, by performing the following steps;

i. Examining, by the computer or computer program, the deadline or requirement calculation methodology, and extracting the data elements required to perform the calculation, including any data elements that are not required but can be used to assist in or improve the calculation;

ii. Examining, by the computer or computer program, the project record subject to the calculation or determination task, and extracting the data elements contained within or association with the subject project record that are required to perform, or will improve, the calculation;

iii. Identifying, by the computer or computer program, by comparing the data extracted from (i) and (ii) above, which data can be utilized from (i) which is missing from (ii), and establishing this data, by the computer or computer program through the performance of this method, system, and process, as the “

missing data;

”

iv. Examining, by the computer or computer program, any default data or presumptive data that was obtained through the process described in claim 1, supra, and comparing that data with the “

missing data”

extracted through part (a)(iii) herein, and identifying, by the computer or computer program, what data remains missing.

b. Extracting, by the computer or computer program, all of the missing data, and displaying, by the computer or computer program through a user, device, or system interface, the record of the data that is missing, and enabling, through said interface, the user or administrator to complete the missing data, which when performed, would enable the system to utilize a process and method, of any sort, of calculating or determining the mechanics lien or bond claim compliance requirements for a project record.

6. The method of claim 5, except that subpart (a)(iv) is not performed.

7. The method of claim 5, except that subpart (b) is replaced with:

“

Extracting, by the computer or computer program, all of the missing data, and providing, by the computer or computer program through an electronic mailing, RSS feed, or other electronic transmission or notification, the record of the data that is missing, and enabling, through a user, device, or computer interface, the user or administrator to complete the missing data, which when performed, would enable the system to utilize a process and method, of any sort, of calculating or determining the mechanics lien or bond claim compliance requirements for a project record.”

8. The method of claim 6, except that subpart (b) is replaced with:

“

Extracting, by the computer or computer program, all of the missing data, and providing, by the computer or computer program through an electronic mailing, RSS feed, or other electronic transmission or notification, the record of the data that is missing, and enabling, through a user, device, or computer interface, the user or administrator to complete the missing data, which when performed, would enable the system to utilize a process and method, of any sort, of calculating or determining the mechanics lien or bond claim compliance requirements for a project record.”

9. The method of claim 5, except that subpart (b) is replaced with:

“

Extracting, by the computer or computer program, all of the missing data, and providing, by the computer or computer program through the download or transmission of a csv, xml, txt, xls, or similar data file, the record of the data that is missing, and enabling, through a user, device, or computer interface, or by making changes within the sent file itself, the user or administrator to complete the missing data, which when performed, would enable the system to utilize a process and method, of any sort, of calculating or determining the mechanics lien or bond claim compliance requirements for a project record.”

10. The method of claim 6, except that subpart (b) is replaced with:

“

Extracting, by the computer or computer program, all of the missing data, and providing, by the computer or computer program through the download or transmission of a csv, xml, txt, xls, or similar data file, the record of the data that is missing, and enabling, through a user, device, or computer interface, or by making changes within the sent file itself, the user or administrator to complete the missing data, which when performed, would enable the system to utilize a process and method, of any sort, of calculating or determining the mechanics lien or bond claim compliance requirements for a project record.”