Office system with audit history

• US 5,448,729 A
• Filed: 05/25/1994
• Issued: 09/05/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Vertafore Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cisgem Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Murdock, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kriess, Kevin A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUTLER, DENNIS
• Application Number:
  US08/249,883
• Time in Patent Office: 468 Days
• Field of Search: 395/575, 395/600, 364/225.1, 364/225.3, 364/225.4, 364/282.1, 364/283.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A system is disclosed for the automation of virtually all clerical functions in an office, such as for example, an insurance agency. Virtually any document generated by the office may be printed without the need for pre-printed forms, as the system prints such forms on a laser printer near the worker requesting the form, using a page description language (PDL) appropriate to the printer. The clerical activity involved in maintaining, updating, retrieving, displaying and printing information relating to the functions of the office is supported.

A complete audit history of all activity to a specific database (DB) file record is maintained without saving the entire DB record in a historical file. The system also supports a worker when it is desired to interrupt a particular task and execute a different task, without losing information already entered for the first task, but without allowing the worker to exit the system without completing or accounting for the first task.

Claims

1. An office automation system comprising:

(a) a computer;

(b) an entry device and a display device, each in communication with the computer;

(c) means for storing, updating and displaying the contents of a database, each of said functions of storing, updating and displaying comprising all or part of a task that the system is capable of performing in response to entries from the entry device, and

(d) means for maintaining an audit history of the database comprising;

(1) means for generating an audit history of a plurality of records of said database wherein said means for generating an audit history comprises;

(i) means for retrieving the original active record and delta records associated with a record;

(ii) means for applying to the original active record, the corresponding delta record to create a first chronologically-ordered displayable historical data image record stored in a third temporary memory storage location, said historical data image record comprising data associated with the record after data in the original active record was updated and stored in memory in the first session;

(iii) means for applying each subsequent delta record to the previously created historical data image record until all delta records associated with the record have been applied, whereupon, each sequential displayable historical data image record represents data corresponding to the record each time the record was sequentially stored into the database, and

(2) wherein each of said plurality of records has associated therewith;

(i) an original active record stored in a first temporary memory storage location;

(ii) at least one delta record stored in a second temporary memory storage location comprising an identification of each location within the record of data that was changed at a session and a copy of the data changed at said session, and

(3) means for displaying said displayable historical data image records.

2. The office automation system of claim 1 wherein each of said records of (d)(i) further comprises an original visual image record stored in a fourth temporary memory storage location, and means (d)(1)(iii) further comprises means for creating a visual image record for each corresponding historical data image record, each visual image record having associated therewith:

(a) means for highlighting the changed data in each of said displayable historical data images, and

(b) means for displaying each visual image record in conjunction with its corresponding historical image record, thus creating a historical image, whereby the changed data is highlighted in each of said historical images.

3. The office automation system of claim 2 wherein said display device is a video display device and wherein each of said visual image records further comprises means for separately highlighting the data changed in the session associated with the historical data image over other changed data, whereby the data changed in each session is highlighted in bright reverse video and the other changed data is highlighted in reverse video in each of said displayable historical images.

4. The office automation system of claim 1 further comprising means for generating the original active record and at least one delta record from a record, wherein said means for generating the original active record comprises:

(a) means for retrieving the current active record into a temporary memory storage location identified as an active record;

(b) means for applying to the active record previous data stored in memory and associated with a location in the audit history record having the highest change number, for creating;

(1) a resulting active record comprising the previous data associated with the location in the audit history record at the beginning of the session associated with said highest change number, and

(2) a delta record of changes within the active record made at the session associated with said highest change number, said delta record comprising an identification of each location within the active record at which said changes during said session were made and a copy of the changes made at said session and at said location within the active record,

wherein said means for applying to the active record previous data stored in memory further comprises applying the audit history record having the next highest change number to the resulting active record until each subsequent audit history record associated with the database record has been applied to each subsequent corresponding resulting active record, whereupon the information created is that associated with the original active record and a delta record created for the application of each audit history record;

and where said delta record comprises;

(a) a current active record stored in memory, wherein the current active record contains current information, and

(b) an audit history record stored in memory, wherein the audit history record is generated at each session at which data in the current information in the current active record has been changed and entered into memory, comprising;

(1) a change number associated with said each session, and

(2) an identification of each location within the current active record at which the data in the current information was changed during said each session and a copy of the data previously contained at that location.

5. The office automation system of claim 4 further comprising means for applying audit history records, associated with the record and generated by other application programs, to the database record comprising:

(a) means for determining if other application programs have generated audit history records associated with the record, and

(b) means for retrieving the audit history records generated by other application programs and applying said historical audit records to the corresponding active record.

6. An office automation system comprising:

(a) a computer;

(b) an entry device and a display device, each in communication with the computer;

(c) means for storing, updating and displaying the contents of a database, each of said functions of storing, updating and displaying comprising all or part of a task that the system is capable of performing in response to entries from the entry device, and

(d) means for generating an audit history record of a database record for each session data changes to the database record are saved in memory, wherein each database record comprises a current active record stored in memory which records current information, said means for generating an audit history record comprising;

(1) means for prompting an operator to select a database record to change existing information in the current active record;

(2) means for retrieving the current active record of the selected database record from memory into a location identified as an old record;

(3) means for storing in a temporary storage location said current active record and data changes made to said current active record in a session in response to the operator'"'"'s inputs to change data in the current active record;

(4) means for comparing the data contents of the old record comprising comparing the current active record of the selected database record with the data contents of the temporary storage location to select for storage said data changes made to said current active record during said session;

said means for generating an audit history record further comprising;

(5) a change number associated with said session, said change number incremented by one over the change number of the previous session;

(6) an identification of each location within the old record that has different data than in the temporary storage location and a copy of the data contained in the old record at that location;

(7) means for storing in memory said different data at each said location having said identification within the old record as said audit history record associated with said session, and

(8) means for reading the contents of the temporary storage location back into memory as the new current active record;

whereby an audit history record is created and stored in memory for each session during which the data in the current active record is changed by the operator.

7. The office automation system of claim 6 wherein the audit history record further comprises the date and time of posting corresponding to the session data changes that were made to the current active record.

8. The office automation system of claim 7 further comprising means for displaying the historical images in chronological order of posting comprising:

(a) means for generating a sorted key table sorted by posting date and change number;

(b) means for prompting an operator to select a starting date for which the first history image is to be displayed, and

(c) means for retrieving and displaying the historical data image as designated by the sorted key table corresponding to the starting date selected.

9. The office automation system of claim 6 wherein the audit history record further comprises additional history information of an alternate display sequence.

10. The office automation system of claim 9 further comprising means for displaying the historical images in some alternative order corresponding to the additional history information comprising:

(a) means for generating a sorted key table sorted by the additional history information;

(b) means for prompting an operator to select a starting date for which the first historical data image is to be displayed, and

(c) means for retrieving and displaying the historical data image as designated by the sorted key table corresponding to the starting date selected.

11. The office automation system of claim 10 further comprising means for displaying the historical data image prior to or after the historical data image corresponding to the starting date comprising:

(a) means for prompting the operator for the next display command, and

(b) means for displaying the next historical data image in the alternative order as designated by the sorted key table corresponding to the operator'"'"'s regressive or progressive command.

12. The office automation system of claim 11 further comprising means of displaying historical data images in any increment, regressive or progressive, of the historical data image corresponding to the starting date.

13. The office automation system of claim 9 wherein the additional data history is the effective date of the data changes made to the current active record.

14. A method for maintaining an audit history of a plurality of active records of a database residing in memory of a computer, said method comprising:

(a) the operation of the computer to perform the following steps;

(1) retrieving the original active record and delta records associated with a record;

(2) applying to the original active record the corresponding delta record to create a first chronologically-ordered displayable historical data image record stored in a third temporary memory storage location, said historical data image record comprising data associated with the record after data in the original active record was updated and stored in memory in the first session;

(3) applying each subsequent delta record to the previously created historical data image record until all delta records associated with the record have been applied, whereupon, each sequential displayable historical data image record represents data corresponding to the record each time the record was sequentially stored into the database, and

(4) displaying said displayable historical data images, and

(b) each of said plurality of records having associated therewith;

(1) an original active record stored in a first temporary memory storage location, and

(2) at least one delta record stored in a second temporary memory storage location comprising an identification of each location within the record of data that was changed at a session and a copy of the data changed at said session;

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of generating the original active record and at least one delta record from a record comprising:

(a) a current active record stored in memory, wherein the current active record contains current information;

(b) an audit history record stored in memory, wherein the audit history record is generated at each session at which data in the current information in the current active record has been changed and entered into memory, comprising;

(1) a change number associated with said each session, and

(2) an identification of each location within the current active record at which the data in the current information was changed during said each session and a copy of the data previously contained at that location;

(3) retrieving the current active record into a temporary memory storage location identified as an active record;

(4) applying to the active record changed data recorded in memory and associated with a location in the audit history record having the highest change number, for creating;

(i) a resulting active record comprising previous data stored in memory and associated with the location in the audit history record at the beginning of the session associated with said highest change number, and

(ii) a delta record of changes within the active record made at the session associated with said highest change number, said delta record comprising an identification of each location within the active record at which said changes during said session were made and a copy of the changes made at said session and at said location within the active record;

whereby applying the next audit history record having the next highest change number to the resulting active record until ,each subsequent audit history record associated with the database record has been applied to each subsequent corresponding resulting active record, whereupon the information created is that associated with the original active record and a delta record created for the application of each audit history record.

16. A method for maintaining an audit history of a plurality of active records of a database residing in memory of a computer, wherein each said active record comprises a current active record stored in memory which records current information, said method comprising the operation of the computer to perform the following steps:

(a) prompting an operator to select a database record to change existing information in the current active record;

(b) retrieving the current active record of the selected database record from memory into a location identified as an old record;

(c) storing in a temporary storage location said current active record and data changes made in response to the operator'"'"'s inputs to change data in the current active record;

(d) comparing the data contents of the old record comprising the selected database record with the data contents of the temporary storage location to select for storage said data changes made to said current active record;

(e) generating an audit history record comprising;

(1) a change number associated with said session, said change number incremented by one over the change number of the previous session, and

(2) an identification of each location within the old record that has different data than in the temporary storage location and a copy of the data contained in the old record at that location;

(3) storing in memory said different data at each said location having said identification within the old record as said audit history record associated with said session, and

(4) reading the contents of the temporary storage location back into memory as the new current active record;

whereby an audit history record is created and stored in memory for each session during which the data in the current active record is changed by the operator.

17. An office automation system comprising:

(a) a computer;

(b) an entry device and a display device, each in communication with the computer;

(c) means for storing, updating and displaying the contents of a database, each of said functions of storing, updating and displaying comprising all or part of a task that the system is capable of performing in response to entries from the entry device;

(d) means for generating an audit history of a plurality of records of said database, each of said plurality of records having associated therewith;

(1) an original active record stored in a first temporary memory storage location, and

(2) at least one delta record stored in a second temporary memory storage location comprising an identification of each location within the record of data that was changed at a session and a copy of the data changed at said session;

(3) means for retrieving the original active record and delta records associated with the record;

(4) means for applying to the original active record, the corresponding delta record to create a first chronologically-ordered displayable historical data image record stored in a third temporary memory storage location, said historical data image record comprising said copy of the data associated with the record after data in the original active record was updated and stored in memory in the first session;

wherein said means for generating an audit history further comprises;

(1) means for applying each subsequent delta record to the previously created historical data image record until all delta records associated with the record have been applied, whereupon, each sequential displayable historical data image record represents data corresponding to the record each time the record was sequentially updated into the database, and

(2) means for displaying said displayable historical data image records.

18. The office automation system of claim 17 wherein the original active record is a filled-in form and the delta record comprises changes made in said filled-in form.

19. The office auto,nation system of claim 18 wherein the filled-in form is a form used in an insurance agency.

20. An office automation system comprising:

(a) a computer;

(b) an entry device and a display device, each in communication with the computer;

(c) means for storing, updating and displaying the contents of a database, each of said functions of storing, updating and displaying comprising all or part of a task that the system is capable of performing in response to entries from the entry device, said database comprising a plurality of active records, where each of said plurality of said active records comprises a current active record and at least one of audit history record associated with said active record;

(d) means for generating audit history of said active record comprising;

(1) means for retrieving said current active record from said database,

(2) means for storing said current active record in a first temporary storage location, and

(3) means for retrieving and storing in a second temporary storage location at least one said audit history record associated with said active record as a delta record, said delta record comprising;

(i) an audit history change number;

(ii) changed data associated with said audit history change number, and

(iii) an identifying location in said active record of said changed data;

(e) means for applying to said current active record the corresponding delta record to create a first chronologically-ordered displayable historical data image record stored in a third temporary storage location, where said historical data image record comprises said changed data associated with said corresponding delta record, wherein said generating means further comprise applying each previous delta record to the subsequently created displayable historical data image record until all delta records in said audit history record have been applied, whereupon, each sequential displayable historical data image record represents changed data corresponding to each time said active record was sequentially stored in the database; and

(f) means for displaying said displayable historical data image records.