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

• US 7,805,497 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2008
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• 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:
  US12/060,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20090106254A1
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/376, 235/385, 345/418, 345/419, 345/581, 345/588, 705/30, 705/313, 707/792, 707/802, 707/999.01, 707/999.001, 707/999.1, 709/202, 709/217, 709/228, 715/221, 715/234, 715/235, 715/736, 715/738
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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 storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, the medium comprising:

instructions to deploy 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, the 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 the real estate properties, each of the audit firms having a computer system comprising a plurality of computers, the deploying resulting in each of the computer systems executing the computer program;

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

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

2. The medium of claim 1, further comprising:

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

instructions to input the second respective input data by the investment entity into a copy of the 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 medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions to generate a respective consolidated NOI summary report, the consolidated NOI summary report including data derived from the respective underwriting NOI audit report and the respective current NOI audit report.

4. A system, comprising:

a copy of a computer program deployed to each of a plurality of audit firms, each of the audit firms operating independently of each other, 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 the computer program including an interactive global NOI audit model and user-viewable standards, procedures, documentation, and reporting requirements, the 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 the real estate properties,

a computer system comprising a plurality of computers at each of the audit firms, each computer system at each of the audit firms executing the deployed computer program, wherein at least some of the computer systems are used to input the respective first input data by at least some of the audit firms to the computer program; and

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

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

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

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

6. The system claim 5, further comprising generating a respective consolidated NOI summary report, the consolidated NOI summary report including data derived from the respective underwriting NOI audit report and the respective current NOI audit report.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the computer program is deployed by transmitting said computer program over a network.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the computer program is deployed by recording the computer program on digital data storage media and distributing the media.