Computer-implemented systems and methods for cost flow analysis

• US 8,024,241 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2007
• Issued: 09/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Golovashkin, Dmitry V., Bailey, Christopher D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malhotra; Sanjeev
• Application Number:
  US11/777,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20090018880A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/10, 705/30, 705/36, 705/37, 707/2, 707/3, 707/6, 709/207, 709/218, 712/10, 345/744, 700/262
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Computer-implemented systems and methods for analyzing costs associated with a cost flow model having components of relationships and entities. A system and method can be configured to receive data associated with the cost flow model that identifies the costs associated with the relationships among the entities. One or more matrices are created that are representative of the costs and the entity relationships. One or more sparse matrix operations are performed upon the created one or more matrices in order to determine cost contribution amounts from an entity to another entity.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing costs associated with a cost flow model, the method comprising:

receiving data associated with the cost flow model, wherein the cost flow model is associated with one or more entities, wherein each entity is represented by a node, and wherein the cost flow model identifies costs associated with relationships among the entities;

creating one or more matrices that are representative of the costs and the entity relationships, wherein the one or more matrices include one or more linear equations;

reordering, using one or more data processors, the one or more matrices using a topological sort;

constructing virtual nodes, wherein construction of the virtual nodes results in one or more modified linear equations; and

using one or more sparse matrix operations to solve the one or more modified linear equations, wherein the solutions to the modified linear equations are used to determine real-time activity based cost flow and cost contribution amounts among arbitrary subsets of the entities associated with the cost flow model.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost flow model is an activity based cost flow model;

wherein the relationships are edges of the activity based cost flow model; and

wherein the entities are nodes of the activity based cost flow model.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the activity based cost flows are determined in less than ten seconds.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the activity based cost flow model is a forward contribution on a directed acyclic graph model.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the activity based cost flow model is a reciprocal allocation model having cost cycles among two or more of the entities.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the cost contribution amounts is inflated based on self-contribution through a cycle existing between two of the entities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sparse matrix operations include a sparse LU factorization operation or a Krylov iterative operation.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more matrices include a permutation matrix, an inverse permutation matrix, a lower triangular matrix, and a square matrix.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more matrices are represented in a data structure as:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein when the square matrix M is empty and PAP^T=[L], a forward substitution is performed using either sparse or dense right-hand-side operations.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more sparse matrix operations comprise operations for which only non-zero components are stored.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the cost contribution amounts is not dependent upon a number of relationships or a presence of reciprocal relationships among the entities of the cost flow model.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the cost contribution amounts is dependent upon a number of entities and a number of edges present in the cost flow model.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the entities include resources, activities and cost objects;

wherein the cost flow model is a multi-dimensional directed graph for depicting how money flows in an enterprise;

wherein nodes of the graph represent accounts associated with the resources, activities, or cost objects; and

wherein an edge of the graph is associated with a percentage, which defines how much money flows from a source account to a destination account.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the cost flow model depicts how money flows in the enterprise from the resources to the activities to the cost objects.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the resources represent accounts in a general ledger.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the cost objects represent products or services provided by the enterprise.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two of the entities comprise accounts associated with service departments.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the service departments comprises a human resources department, an information technology department, a maintenance department, or an administrative department.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the entities comprise cost pools.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the cost pools include at least one of the group consisting of:

organizational cost pools, activity-based cost pools, process-based cost pools, and combinations thereof.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the cost flow model in a relational database management system (RDBMS) or a multi-dimensional database (MDDB).

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the multi-dimensional database is an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) database.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, the creating, the constructing, and the using limitations are performed using one or more processors.

24. A computer-implemented system for analyzing costs associated with a cost flow model, comprising:

one or more processors;

a computer-readable memory containing instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform operations, including;

receiving data associated with the cost flow model, wherein the cost flow model is associated with one or more entities, wherein each entity is represented by a node, and wherein the cost flow model identifies costs associated with relationships among the entities;

creating one or more matrices that are representative of the costs and the entity relationships, wherein the one or more matrices include one or more linear equations;

reordering the one or more matrices using a topological sort;

constructing virtual nodes, wherein construction of the virtual nodes results in one or more modified linear equations; and

using one or more sparse matrix operations to solve the one or more modified linear equations, wherein the solutions to the modified linear equations are used to determine real-time activity based cost flow and cost contribution amounts among arbitrary subsets of the entities associated with the cost flow model.

25. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that cause a computer to perform a method for analyzing costs associated with a cost flow model, comprising:

receiving data associated with the cost flow model, wherein the cost flow model is associated with one or more entities, wherein each entity is represented by a node, and wherein the cost flow model identifies costs associated with relationships among the entities;

creating one or more matrices that are representative of the costs and the entity relationships, wherein the one or more matrices include one or more linear equations;

reordering the one or more matrices using a topological sort;

constructing virtual nodes, wherein construction of the virtual nodes results in one or more modified linear equations; and

using one or more sparse matrix operations to solve the one or more modified linear equations, wherein the solutions to the modified linear equations are used to determine real-time activity based cost flow and cost contribution amounts among arbitrary subsets of the entities associated with the cost flow model.