Transaction Allocation

• US 20090043684A1
• Filed: 10/08/2008
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: SOLBERG, Eric L., Avital, Jacob
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,503 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Systems and methods of allocating transactions among business objects are described. Allocation is accomplished using a multi-phase process. In a first phase, allocation of the transactions among a set of business objects is attempted. In a subsequent phase, allocation of transactions that were either unallocated, under-allocated, or over-allocated in the first phase is determined. The second phase includes using a set of allocation rules to identify business objects configured to manually determine allocation of the unallocated, under-allocated, or over-allocated transactions. The invention is applicable to a variety of business objects including people, organizations, accounts, tasks, or the like.

Claims

1. A transaction allocation system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

access a first allocation rule associated with one of a plurality of business objects represented by a hierarchical data structure;

execute a first query on transaction data using a query engine, the first query being based on the first allocation rule, the transaction data characterizing one or more transactions;

access a second allocation rule associated with another of the plurality of business objects represented by the hierarchical data structure; and

execute a second query on a subset of the transaction data using the query engine, the second query being based on the second allocation rule and identifying a business object for determining allocation of at least one of the one or more transactions; and

generate transaction allocation output based on results of the first and second queries.

2. A transaction allocation system according to claim 1, wherein the first query based on an allocation rule is generated using the hierarchical data structure and associated with a leaf node of the hierarchical data structure, the first query generating a first set of transactions, at least one transaction of the first set of transactions including a transaction value, a second set of transactions having an allocation determined by a business object identified using the second query, at least one transaction of the second set of transactions including a transaction value, the instructions when executed by the processor further causing the processor to:

generate a summation of the transaction values as part of the transaction allocation output.

3. A transaction allocation system according to claim 1, wherein the transaction allocation output includes digital data transferred through a communications channel between a computing system and a client.

4. A transaction allocation system according to claim 1, wherein the second query is generated using the hierarchical data structure.

5. A transaction allocation system according to claim 1, wherein the generated allocation rule includes a predefined rule associated with a node of the hierarchical data structure.

6. A method of determining allocation of one or more transactions, the method comprising:

accessing a first allocation rule associated with one of a plurality of business objects represented by a hierarchical data structure;

executing a first query on transaction data using a query engine, the first query being based on the first allocation rule, the transaction data characterizing the one or more transactions;

accessing a second allocation rule associated with another of the plurality of business objects represented by the hierarchical data structure;

executing a second query on a subset of the transaction data using the query engine, the second query being based on the second allocation rule and identifying a business object for determining allocation of at least one of the one or more transactions; and

generating transaction allocation output based on results of the first and second queries.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the business object determines allocation manually.

8. A method according to claim 6, further including receiving the transaction data characterizing the one or more transactions from a transaction source.

9. A method according to claim 6, further including allocating the one or more transactions responsive to the results of the queries.

10. A method according to claim 6, wherein a subset of the transaction data is representative of a subset of the one or more transactions.

11. A method according to claim 6, wherein a subset of the transaction data is representative of a subset of the one or more transactions, and the subset of the one or more transactions includes an under-allocated transaction.

12. A method according to claim 6, wherein a subset of the transaction data is representative of a subset of the one or more transactions, and the subset of the one or more transactions includes an unallocated transaction.

13. A method according to claim 6, wherein a subset of the transaction data is representative of a subset of the one or more transactions, and the subset of the one or more transactions includes an over-allocated transaction.

14. A method according to claim 6, further comprising:

determining transaction allocation of any of the one or more transactions that are unallocated, under-allocated, or over-allocated;

parsing each of the one or more transactions to determine a value of each of the one or more transactions;

summing the values determined by parsing each of the one or more transactions; and

including the sum of the determined values in the transaction allocation output.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more transactions include at least one of a sales commission, a purchase cost, an inventory allocation, and a resource allocation.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining transaction allocation of any of the one or more transactions that are unallocated, under-allocated, or over-allocated, is determining transaction allocation of an unallocated transaction.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein determining transaction allocation of any of the one or more transactions that are unallocated, under-allocated, or over-allocated, is determining transaction allocation of an under-allocated transaction.

18. A system for determining allocation of a plurality of transactions, the system comprising:

means for accessing a first allocation rule associated with one of a plurality of business objects represented by a hierarchical data structure;

means for executing a first query on transaction data using a query engine, the first query being based on the first allocation rule, the transaction data characterizing the one or more transactions;

means for accessing a second allocation rule associated with another of the plurality of business objects represented by the hierarchical data structure;

means for executing a second query on a subset of the transaction data using the query engine, the second query being based on the second allocation rule and identifying a business object for determining allocation of at least one of the one or more transactions; and

means for generating transaction allocation output based on results of the first and second queries.

19. A computer readable medium storing processor-executable instructions for determining an allocation plan, comprising:

program code for accessing a first allocation rule associated with one of a plurality of business objects represented by a hierarchical data structure;

program code for executing a first query on transaction data using a query engine, the first query being based on the first allocation rule, the transaction data characterizing the one or more transactions;

program code for accessing a second allocation rule associated with another of the plurality of business objects represented by the hierarchical data structure;

program code for executing a second query on a subset of the transaction data using the query engine, the second query being based on the second allocation rule and identifying a business object for determining allocation of at least one of the one or more transactions; and

program code for generating transaction allocation output based on results of the first and second queries.