Populating cells of an electronic financial statement

• US 6,292,811 B1
• Filed: 07/13/1998
• Issued: 09/18/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Modernsoft Incorporated
• Inventors: Canty, Edgar P., Wu, John, Helfert, Erich A., Hecht, Lee, Clancey, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph H.
• Application Number:
  US09/114,590
• Time in Patent Office: 1,163 Days
• Field of Search: 707/503, 707/504, 707/538, 707/540, 705/30, 705/35, 705/36
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/183 Tabulation, i.e. one-dimensional positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of populating row and column cells of an electronic financial statement document containing with formulas and data, and related apparatus. A formula for a cell in a financial statement is generated from a row definition for the row and a column definition for the column of the cell, where the row definition defines a term of the statement and the column definition specifies a period of time. The resulting statement is displayed to a user, and new formula expressions can be generated to reflect changes in the statement. The statement can have three kinds of columns, namely base columns, subtotal columns, and grand total columns. Data in columns of an input database corresponds to a database period of time, and the base columns in the statement have statement period unit. For each base column of the statement, a correspondence to more than one column of the input database can be computed dynamically. The cells of the statement column can be populated using data from the corresponding database columns. The cells can be repopulated in response to a change in the statement period unit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of generating a formula expression for a cell in an electronic financial statement, the cell being at an intersection of a row and a column of the financial statement, the method comprising:

obtaining a row definition for the row, the row definition being applicable to the entire row and defining a term of the statement;

obtaining a column definition for the column, the column definition being applicable to the entire column and defining a period of time; and

deriving from the row definition and the column definition a formula expression for the cell, the formula expression being completely defined by the term and the period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

deriving from definitions a formula expression is done with reference to the position of the cell with respect to other columns in the statement.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the formula expression for the cell in response to a change in either the row definition or the column definition.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

evaluating the formula expression in each cell of the statement having a formula expression and displaying the resulting statement to a user; and

obtaining data for the formula expressions from a database.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing a statement base period, being the smallest time duration represented in a column of the statement; and

providing a database base period, being the smallest time duration represented in a record of the database, the database base period being no greater than the statement base period.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the database base period is automatically detected from column labels read from the database.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying the statement to a user;

receiving from the user a command to change a current time period style of the statement to a new time period style, a time period style specifying the period of time covered by the statement and the duration of a period unit defining the temporal granularity of the statement; and

generating a new formula expression for the cell according to the new time period style, and displaying the resulting statement to the user.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying the statement to a user; and

receiving from the user a command to use a new database for input data having a new base period different from a current base period, generating a new formula expression for the cell reflecting the new base period, and displaying the resulting statement to the user.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing three kinds of columns, namely base columns, subtotal columns, and grand total columns, where for a row holding a flow term, a subtotal column has a row value defined as the sum of base column values, and a grand total column has a row value defined as the sum of subtotal columns, and for a row holding a stock term, a subtotal column has a row value defined as a preceding base column value, and a grand total column has a row value defined as a preceding subtotal column.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

collapsing the period columns to show the user a view of the statement consisting of the term column and total columns.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving from a user a subtotal time period for a subtotal column, comparing the subtotal time period to the period of time covered by the statement, and extending the period of time covered by the statement to allow computing the subtotal column.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving from the user a subtotal time period for a subtotal column, determining whether the beginning of the user-input subtotal time period is earlier than, later than, or the same as the beginning of the period of time covered by the statement, and leaving a row value in the subtotal column blank according to the result of the determining step if the row has a flow term.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

accepting from a user a command to insert a subtotal column in the statement and generating new formula expressions in cells of the statement reflecting the command to insert a subtotal column.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

accepting from a user a command to insert a grand total column in the statement and generating new formula expressions in cells of the statement reflecting the command to insert a grand total column.

15. A computer program residing on a computer-readable medium for generating a formula expression for a cell in an electronic financial statement, the cell being at an intersection of a row and a column of the electronic financial statement, the computer program comprising instructions to:

obtain a row definition for the row, the row definition being applicable to the entire column and defining a term of the statement;

obtain a column definition for the column, the column definition being applicable to the entire column and defining a period of time; and

derive from the row definition and the column definition a formula expression for the cell, the formula expression being completely defined by the term and the period.

16. A computer-implemented method of generating content in an electronic financial statement having cells at intersections of rows and columns, each cell having a cell value, the method comprising;

obtaining a row definition associated with an entire row of the financial statement;

obtaining from the statement data a first column definition associated with an entire first column of the financial statement and a second column definition associated with an entire second column of the financial statement, each column definition specifying a period of time, the first and second columns being different columns of the financial statement; and

generating from the row definition and the first and second column definitions a first cell value for a first cell at the intersection of the row and the first column and a second cell value for a second cell at the intersection of the row and the second column, the first cell value being generated by evaluating a first formula expression generated automatically and solely from the row definition and the second column definition, the second cell value being generated by evaluating a first formula expression generated automatically and solely from the row definition and the second column definition.