Method and product for calculating a net operating income audit and for enabling substantially identical audit practices among a plurality of audit firms

• US 7,353,228 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2000
• Issued: 04/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: GE Capital US Holdings, Inc. (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Capital Corporation (General Electric Company)
• Inventors: McCoy, Mary Kay
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US09/731,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20020107764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,672 Days
• Field of Search: 705/30, 705/10, 705/104.1, 715/503
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Deployment of a computer program including a global NOI audit model together with standards, procedures, documentation, and reporting requirements in interactive, digital form to a plurality of audit firms operating independently of each other and having a reporting relationship with an investment entity. The program is adapted for receiving audit data from a respective audit firm in connection with an associated real estate property and for generating an associated respective Current NOI audit report. The specific fields and screen arrangements, together with interactive instructions and definitions of the program require that each audit firm identify a consistent set of input parameters and apply them in a consistent way, as driven by the global audit model, thereby assuring computation and transmission of structurally consistent Current NOI audit reports to the investment entity, wherein the Current NOI calculations have been developed by substantially identical audit practices, procedures and assumptions. Using the same program, the investment entity then calculates and stores an Underwriting NOI set of values corresponding to each Current NOI report for the purpose of investment evaluation. The program generates a consolidated report of both Current and Underwriting NOI values for all of the plurality of audit firms so that the investment entity can effect a uniform analysis of all investment properties under consideration.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

deploying a copy of a computer program to each of a plurality of audit firms, each of the audit firms operating independently of each other and having a reporting relationship with a common investment entity, each of the plurality of audit firms conducting an audit of a real estate property and generating an associated set of current net operating income (NOI) values, each copy of said computer program including an interactive global NOI audit model and user-viewable standards, procedures, documentation, and reporting requirements, said computer program operating to receive a first input data associated with the respective real estate property and to generate a respective current NOI audit report associated with each of said real estate properties, each of the audit firms having a computer system comprising a plurality of computers, said deploying resulting in each of the computer systems executing said computer program;

using at least some of said computer systems to input said respective first input data by at least some of the audit firms to said computer program; and

receiving by the investment entity a plurality of current NOI audit reports, each of said reports being generated by execution of a copy of said computer program on one of said computer systems and reflecting said received associated first input data, wherein all said received current NOI audit reports have been developed by substantially similar audit practices resulting from the audit firms using said interactive global NOI audit model and user-viewable standards, procedures, documentation, and reporting requirements.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

generating a respective underwriting NOI audit report based on each of at least some of said received current NOI audit reports, said respective underwriting NOI audit report being calculated from a second respective input data including identified values corresponding to selected portions of said first respective input data; and

inputting said second respective input data by said investment entity into a copy of said computer program configured to run said respective current NOI audit report, wherein all respective underwriting NOI audit reports are developed by substantially identical audit practices.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2, further comprising the step of generating a respective consolidated NOI summary report, said consolidated NOl summary report including data derived from said respective underwriting NOI audit report and said respective current NOI audit report.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said step of deploying a computer program comprises transmitting said computer program over a network.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said step of deploying a computer program comprises transmitting said computer program by recording said computer program on digital data storage media and distributing said media.

6. A method comprising:

using a computer system comprising a plurality of computers to input first input data by each of a plurality of audit firms into a copy of a computer program, each one of said plurality of audit firms having one of said computer systems associated therewith, said first input data corresponding to an associated real estate property, each of the plurality of audit firms operating independently of each other and having a reporting relationship with a common investment entity, each of the plurality of audit firms conducting an audit of a real estate property and generating an associated set of current net operating income (NOI) values, all of said copies of said computer program being identical, said computer program including an interactive global NOI audit model and user-viewable standards, procedures, documentation and reporting requirements, said computer program calculating a current NOI report from said first input data;

generating a respective current NOI audit report by executing each of said copies of said computer program on a respective computer system of said plurality of audit firms; and

transmitting to the investment entity said generated current NOI audit reports.