In$ite: a finance analysis model for education
First Claim
1. A computer readable media storing a software program wherein said software program is based on a relational database, and wherein said software program implements a method for cost accounting and analysis, management reporting, performance assessment and decision support in an educational institution that permits the standardized evaluation and comparison of expenditure data of said educational institution with one or more other institutions to enable cost effective management of said educational institution, wherein said software comprises a method and said method comprising the steps of:
- importing line items of financial data from a General Ledger of said educational institution;
classifying selected ones of said imported line items of financial data as benefit expenditure line items;
mapping said imported line items of financial data to a specific and standardized set of Functions, Programs and/or Locations;
allocating selected ones of said imported line items and said classified benefit expenditure line items to one or more Locations based upon user input, said allocation of selected imported line items being performed by an allocations process and said allocation of said classified benefit expenditure line items being performed by a benefits allocation process;
analyzing said allocations and creating summary expenditure data for each Location and wherein said summary expenditure data is internally stored and is externally manipulable in an intermediate format and wherein said intermediate format has multiple basic dimensions which further include a Functional Dimension, a Program Dimension and a Locational Dimension and wherein said Functional Dimension shows expenditures and budgets comprising all of an educational entity'"'"'s funds and categorizes said expenditures and budgets into at least five classes, including an Instruction class, an Instructional Support class, an Operations class and an Other Commitments and Leadership class; and
generating one or more reports based upon the results of said analysis.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An advanced software package for cost accounting and analysis, management reporting, performance assessment and decision support tool is described. The IN$ITE™ software package collects, organizes, manages and consolidates financial data and permits the standardized evaluation and comparison of different educational institutions. The software package implements the Finance Analysis Model For Education as a relational database for the efficient and cost-effective management of educational institutions.
Financial data is organized into three dimensions: Functions, Programs and Locations. IN$ITE has five Functions which are subdivided into 15 Subfunctions and further divided into 32 Detail Functions, each of which provides greater clarity of fund use. The Program Dimension of IN$ITE permits the identification and determination of the costs of various special programs within the school system. The Organizational (or Locational) Dimension of IN$ITE comprises three levels: Expenses that are to be charged to the central location, to various school-sites, or to be retained as non-allocated expenses. IN$ITE also permits reporting of decision-support data by school-site or cost-center.
141 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A computer readable media storing a software program wherein said software program is based on a relational database, and wherein said software program implements a method for cost accounting and analysis, management reporting, performance assessment and decision support in an educational institution that permits the standardized evaluation and comparison of expenditure data of said educational institution with one or more other institutions to enable cost effective management of said educational institution, wherein said software comprises a method and said method comprising the steps of:
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importing line items of financial data from a General Ledger of said educational institution; classifying selected ones of said imported line items of financial data as benefit expenditure line items; mapping said imported line items of financial data to a specific and standardized set of Functions, Programs and/or Locations; allocating selected ones of said imported line items and said classified benefit expenditure line items to one or more Locations based upon user input, said allocation of selected imported line items being performed by an allocations process and said allocation of said classified benefit expenditure line items being performed by a benefits allocation process; analyzing said allocations and creating summary expenditure data for each Location and wherein said summary expenditure data is internally stored and is externally manipulable in an intermediate format and wherein said intermediate format has multiple basic dimensions which further include a Functional Dimension, a Program Dimension and a Locational Dimension and wherein said Functional Dimension shows expenditures and budgets comprising all of an educational entity'"'"'s funds and categorizes said expenditures and budgets into at least five classes, including an Instruction class, an Instructional Support class, an Operations class and an Other Commitments and Leadership class; and generating one or more reports based upon the results of said analysis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15)
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6. A computer readable media storing a software program wherein said software program is based on a relational database, and wherein said software program implements a method for cost accounting and analysis, management reporting, performance assessment and decision support in an educational institution that permits the standardized evaluation and comparison of expenditure data of said educational institution with other institutions to enable cost effective management of said educational institution, said method comprising the steps of:
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installing and customizing said software program to be operable on a selected hardware platform; determining the format of data to be imported for analysis; importing metric data and line items of financial data from a General Ledger system of said educational institution; identifying selected ones of said imported line items of financial data as representing a benefit cost; mapping said imported line items of financial data to a specific and standardized set of Functions, Programs and/or Locations; defining one or more allocation methods, each having an associated allocation metric; selecting one or more of said imported line items of financial data for allocation to one or more of said Locations; assigning a selected allocation method to each one of said selected line items; executing an allocations process on said selected line items using said allocation metric that is associated with said selected allocation method; allocating said identified line items representing benefit cost in said imported line items of financial data to a specific Location using a benefits allocation process; validating the results of the allocation processes and generating summaries therefrom; and generating one or more reports in a standardized format based upon said generated summaries. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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16. A computer readable media storing a software program wherein said software program is based on a relational database, wherein when executed by a computer said software provides instructions for a system for cost accounting and analysis, management reporting, performance assessment and decision support in an educational institution that permits the standardized evaluation and comparison of expenditure data of said educational institution with one or more other institutions to enable cost effective management of said educational institution, said system comprising:
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means for importing line items of financial data from a General Ledger of said educational institution; means for classifying selected ones of said imported line items of financial data as benefit expenditure line items; means for mapping said imported line items of financial data to a specific and standardized set of Functions, Programs and/or Locations; means for allocating selected ones of said imported line items and said classified benefit expenditure line items to one or more Locations based upon user input, said allocation of selected imported line items being performed by means for allocation and said allocation of said classified benefit expenditure line items being performed by means for benefits allocation; means for analyzing said allocations and creating summary expenditure data for each Location wherein said summary expenditure data is internally stored and is externally manipulable in an intermediate format which has multiple basic dimensions and wherein said basic dimensions further include a Functional Dimension, a Program Dimension and a Locational Dimension and wherein said Functional Dimension shows expenditures and budgets comprising all of an educational entity'"'"'s finds and categorizes said expenditures and budgets into at least five classes, including an Instruction class, an Instructional Support class, an Operations class and an Other Commitments and Leadership class and wherein said basic dimensions further include a Functional Dimension, a Program Dimension and a Locational Dimension and wherein said Functional Dimension shows expenditures and budgets comprising all of an educational entity'"'"'s funds and categorizes said expenditures and budgets into at least five classes, including an Instruction class, an Instructional Support class, an Operations class and an Other Commitments and Leadership class; and means for generating one or more reports based upon the results of said analysis, wherein said summary data is internally stored and is externally manipulable in an intermediate format. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29, 30)
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21. A computer implemented software system based on a relational database, wherein said system is in the form of a software program stored on a computer readable media, said software program being for cost accounting and analysis, management reporting, performance assessment and decision support in an educational institution that permits the standardized evaluation and comparison of expenditure data of said educational institution with other institutions to enable cost effective management of said educational institution, said system comprising:
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means for installing and customizing said software program to be operable on a selected hardware platform; means for determining the format of data to be imported for analysis; means for importing metric data and line items of financial data from a General Ledger system of said educational institution; means for identifying selected ones of said imported line items of financial data as representing a benefit cost; means for mapping said imported line items of financial data to a specific and standardized set of Functions, Programs and/or Locations; means for defining one or more allocation methods, each having an associated allocation metric; means for selecting one or more of said imported line items of financial data for allocation to one or more of said Locations; means for assigning a selected allocation method to each one of said selected line items; means for allocating said selected line items using said allocation metric that is associated with said selected allocation method; means for allocating said identified line items representing benefit cost in said imported line items of financial data to a specific Location using means for benefits allocation; means for validating the results of the allocation processes and generating summaries therefrom; and means for generating one or more reports in a standardized format based upon said generated summaries. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification