System and method for front end business logic and validation

• US 20070162363A1
• Filed: 12/13/2006
• Published: 07/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amy Snavely, Jean-Paul Chollon, Sherry Wilson, Timothy Kane
• Inventors: Kane, Timothy, Wilson, Sherry, Snavely, Amy, Chollon, Jean-Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,895,095 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A hybird Notes/DB2 environment provides a requisition catalog on the Web. Client browsers are connected to a GWA infrastructure including a first network dispatcher and a virtual cluster of Domino.Go servers. The network dispatcher sprays out browser requests among configured .nsf servers in virtual server cluster. Communications from this virtual server cluster are, in turn, dispatched by a second network dispatcher servers in a Domino cluster. External objects, primarily for a GUI, are served in a .dfs and include graphic files, Java files, HTML images and net.data macros. The catalog is built from supplier provided flat files. A front end is provided for business logic and validation, as also is a relation database backend. HTML forms are populated using relational database agents. A role table is used for controlling access both to Notes code and DB2 data. Large amounts of data is quickly transferred using an intermediate agent and window.

Claims

1-3. -3. (canceled)

4. A method for validating zip code entries on a requisition, comprising the steps of:

providing a database of valid zip codes;

responsive to entry of a zip code on a requisition or to the changing of delivery information which includes zip code on a requisition line item, validating the zip code against said database.

5. The method of claim 4, said validating step comprising determining that a new or changed zip code exists as a valid zip code in said data base.

6. The method of claim 4, said validating step comprising

determining that said new or changed zip code exists matches a valid zip code in said data base and that it is valid zip code per state, city and zip code;

and

said providing step includes initializing said data base with valid zip codes from a trusted source thereby enabling validation of a zip code with respect to state and city.

7. A requisition catalog system for a large enterprise in a web environment, comprising:

application server means for insuring that all general ledger accounts associated with commodities in a relational database are correct; and

said application server means also for providing a description mapping account codes to commodity codes from an associated accounting system for use by a requester to select the correct general ledger account when doing financial validation on a requisition for said commodities.

8. A method for validating a requisition in a requisition catalog system for a large enterprise in a web environment, comprising the steps of:

matching general ledger accounts associated with commodities in a relational database; and

displaying to a user a mapping of account codes and descriptions to commodity codes from said relational database, thereby enabling said user to select a correct general ledger account when validating said requisition.

9. A method for managing a chart of accounts, comprising the steps of:

displaying to an administrator an accounting system generated chart of accounts, said chart including for each account an account identifier and commodity description;

responsive to administrator selection, pushing a selected commodity description and account identifier to a company commodity group document together with information enabling a user to select a correct commodity.

10. The method of claim 9, said information including commodity description, approvers, general ledger account, route to buyer, and preferred supplier.

11. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for managing a chart of accounts, said method steps comprising:

displaying to an administrator an accounting system generated chart of accounts, said chart including for each account an account identifier and commodity description;

responsive to administrator selection, pushing a selected commodity description and account identifier to a company commodity group document together with information enabling a user to select a correct commodity.

12. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for validating a requisition in a requisition catalog system for a large enterprise in a web environment, said method steps comprising:

matching general ledger accounts associated with commodities in a relational database; and

displaying to a user a mapping of account codes and descriptions to commodity codes from said relational database, thereby enabling said user to select a correct general ledger account when validating said requisition.

13. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for validating zip code entries on a requisition, said method steps comprising:

providing a database of valid zip codes;

responsive to entry of a zip code on a requisition or to the changing of delivery information which includes zip code on a requisition line item, validating the zip code against said database.

14. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for creating a valid chart of accounts from which an administrator can facilitate and enable a requisitioner to select a valid general ledger account, said method steps comprising:

establishing a communication link with an external enterprise catalog system to build an appropriate chart of accounts for a given company;

transmitting from said enterprise catalog system a chart of accounts with descriptions to a requisition catalog system database;

administrator selecting from said requisition catalog system database valid accounts with descriptions for a given commodity and purchase period, said description mapping account codes selected by said administrator to a given commodity code from an associated accounting system for use by a requester to select the correct general ledger account when doing financial validation on a requisition for said commodities;

said administrator then associating a selected account/description tuple with company commodity groups for use in a requisition creation process; and

upon said requester selecting a commodity from a commodity description document presenting said commodity codes and initiating a proceed to accounting process, presenting to said requisitioner a financial worksheet with valid general ledger accounts numbers and descriptions for selection by said requisitioner.

16. The program storage device of claim 14, said method steps further comprising:

requisitioner searching against commodities and catalogs in commodity description documents and responsive thereto, creating one or more line items.

22. The program storage device of claim 14, said method further comprising the steps of:

displaying to said administrator an accounting system generated chart of accounts, said chart including for each account an account identifier and commodity description;

responsive to administrator selection, associating a selected commodity description and account identifier with a company commodity group document together with information enabling said requisitioner to select a correct commodity.

23. The program storage device of claim 22, said information including commodity description, approvers, general ledger account, route-to buyer, and preferred supplier.

15. A computer program product for creating a valid chart of accounts from which an administrator of a local enterprise can facilitate and enable a requisitioner to select a valid general ledger account, said computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

first program instructions to establish a communication link with an external enterprise catalog computer system to build an appropriate chart of accounts for a given company;

second program instructions to transmit from said enterprise catalog system a chart of accounts with descriptions to a requisition catalog computer system database;

third program instructions to enable an administrator to select from said requisition catalog computer system database valid accounts with descriptions for a given commodity and purchase period, said description mapping account codes selected by said administrator to a given commodity code from an associated accounting computer system for use by a requester at a computer terminal to select a correct general ledger account when doing financial validation on a requisition for said commodities;

fourth program instructions to enable said administrator to then associate a selected account/description tuple with company commodity groups for use in a requisition creation process; and

fifth program instructions, responsive to said requester selecting a commodity from a commodity description document, to pre sent said commodity codes, initiate a proceed to accounting process, and to present to said requisitioner a financial worksheet with valid general ledger accounts numbers and descriptions for selection by said requisitioner; and

wherein

said first, second, third, fourth, and fifth program instructions are recorded on said medium.

17. The program storage device of claim 15, said method steps further comprising:

administrator creating a company commodity document including for each commodity code under each company, a commodity category code, a short description, a long description, key words, approvers, financial information, route-to buyer by plant association, preferred supplier, special handling codes all usable for enabling customer selection of a correct commodity;

requisitioner initiating a proceed to accounting process, which displays line items which may be selected by said requisitioner; and

displaying an agent created financial worksheet with fields which need to be selected or populated by requisitioner derived from company commodity document, based on purchase type, thereby presenting valid general ledger accounts numbers and descriptions to said requisitioner.

18. The computer program product or computer program element of claim 15, said steps further comprising:

requisitioner searching against commodities and catalogs in commodity description documents and responsive thereto, creating one or more line items.

19. The computer program product or computer program element of claim 18, said steps further comprising:

administrator creating a company commodity document including for each commodity code under each company, a commodity category code, a short description, a long description, key words, approvers, financial information, route-to buyer by plant association, preferred supplier, special handling codes all usable for enabling customer selection of a correct commodity;

requisitioner initiating a proceed to accounting process, which displays line items which may be selected by said requisitioner; and

displaying an agent created financial worksheet with fields which need to be selected or populated by requisitioner derived from company commodity document, based on purchase type, thereby presenting valid general ledger accounts numbers and descriptions to said requisitioner.

20-21. -21. (canceled)