Managing schedules in a financial close management system

• US 8,738,489 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2010
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Clark, John Jr., Kumar, Shailesh, Liu, Fang, Battaglia, David
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TIEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/912,953
• Publication Number:
  US 20120109801A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,308 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.26, 705/7.16, 705/42, 705/35, 717/106, 340/540, 715/716, 706/50, 370/395
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, and financial close management system are provided that manage a schedule. A schedule is a core object of the financial close management system, and is an expression of a template. Managing a schedule can include creating a new schedule, modifying an existing schedule, deleting an existing schedule, duplicating an existing schedule, validating an existing schedule, creating a template from an existing schedule, setting a status of an existing schedule, and importing and exporting an existing schedule. In addition, managing a schedule can include defining task type parameters that can be set during scheduling and setting task parameters of a schedule at a schedule level rather than a task level.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to manage a schedule in a financial close management system, comprising:

selecting a template in the financial close management system, wherein the template comprises a repeatable ordered collection of tasks, and wherein each task is assigned an offset day that defines an offset from a user-defined date;

automatically creating the schedule in the financial close management system from the selected template, the schedule comprising an ordered set of tasks and a status, wherein each task is copied from the selected template to the schedule, wherein each task of the schedule is assigned a calendar date that is calculated based on the user-defined date and the offset day, and wherein at least one task of the schedule comprises one or more parameters defined to be set by the schedule;

modifying the schedule in the financial close management system, while the schedule is active;

restricting modifications that can be made to the schedule, based, in part, on the status of the schedule;

wherein the status of the schedule has one of a plurality of values;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a first value;

wherein only certain types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a second value; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a third value;

selecting a value to be assigned to each parameter of the one or more parameters at the schedule; and

assigning, by the schedule, each value to each parameter of the at least one task.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the status of the schedule has one of the following values:

Pending, Open, Closed, and Locked;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Pending;

wherein only the following types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Open;

creating a new task for the schedule, modifying a task of the schedule that has not begun, or deleting a task of the schedule that has not begun; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Closed or Locked.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the creating the schedule further comprises:

manually creating the schedule in the financial close management system; and

setting attributes of the schedule in the financial close management system.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the creating the schedule further comprises:

validating the template in the financial close management system.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises at least one of:

adding a task to the schedule, deleting a task from the schedule, and modifying a task of the schedule.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule in the financial close management system;

creating a duplicate schedule from the selected schedule; and

aligning the task calendar dates of the duplicate schedule.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule in the financial close management system; and

validating the schedule.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule in the financial close management system;

creating a template from the schedule, wherein the template comprises a repeatable set of tasks; and

aligning the offset days of the tasks of the template with the calendar dates of the tasks of the schedule.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting a file; and

loading the contents of the file into the schedule of the financial close management system.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the modifying the schedule further comprises:

selecting the schedule;

loading the contents into a file; and

saving the file in the financial close management system.

11. A computer-implemented method for managing a schedule, the computer-implemented method comprising:

selecting a template in the financial close management system, wherein the template comprises a repeatable ordered collection of tasks, and wherein each task is assigned an offset day that defines an offset from a user-defined date;

automatically creating the schedule in a financial close management system from the selected template, the schedule comprising an ordered set of tasks and a status, wherein each task is copied from the selected template to the schedule, wherein each task of the schedule is assigned a calendar date that is calculated based on the user-defined date and the offset day, and wherein at least one task of the schedule comprises one or more parameters defined to be set by the schedule;

modifying the schedule by the financial close management system, while the schedule is active;

restricting modifications that can be made to the schedule, based, in part, on the status of the schedule;

wherein the status of the schedule has one of a plurality of values;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a first value;

wherein only certain types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a second value; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a third value;

selecting a value to be assigned to each parameter of the one or more parameters at the schedule; and

assigning, by the schedule, each value to each parameter of the at least one task.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the status of the schedule has one of the following values:

Pending, Open, Closed, and Locked;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Pending;

wherein only the following types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Open;

creating a new task for the schedule, modifying a task of the schedule that has not begun, or deleting a task of the schedule that has not begun; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Closed or Locked.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the creating the schedule further comprises:

manually creating the schedule in the financial close management system; and

setting attributes of the schedule in the financial close management system.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the creating the schedule further comprises:

validating the template in the financial close management system.

15. A financial close management system, comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions stored on the memory;

wherein the processor is further configured, when executing the instructions stored on the memory, to;

select a template in the financial close management system, wherein the template comprises a repeatable ordered collection of tasks, and wherein each task is assigned an offset day that defines an offset from a user-defined date;

automatically create the schedule in a financial close management system from the selected template, the schedule comprising one or more tasks and a status, wherein each task is copied from the selected template to the schedule, wherein the one or more tasks are ordered and each task of the one or more tasks is assigned a calendar date that is calculated based on the user-defined date and the offset day, and wherein at least one task comprises one or more parameters defined to be set by the schedule;

modify the schedule in the financial close management system, while the schedule is active;

restrict modifications that can be made to the schedule, based, in part, on the status of the schedule;

wherein the status of the schedule has one of a plurality of values;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a first value;

wherein only certain types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a second value; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a third value;

select a value to be assigned to each parameter of the one or more parameters at the schedule; and

assign, by the schedule, each value to each parameter of the at least one task.

16. The financial close management system of claim 15, wherein the status of the schedule has one of the following values:

Pending, Open, Closed, and Locked;

wherein any type of modification can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Pending;

wherein only the following types of modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Open;

creating a new task for the schedule, modifying a task of the schedule that has not begun, or deleting a task of the schedule that has not begun; and

wherein no modifications can be made to the schedule when the status of the schedule has a value of Closed or Locked.

17. The financial close management system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured, when executing the instructions stored on the memory, to:

manually create the schedule in the financial close management system; and

set attributes of the schedule in the financial close management system.