Methods and apparatus for analysing and/or pre-processing financial accounting data
First Claim
1. An on-line method of analyzing financial accounting data, the method comprising:
- receiving at a server financial accounting data communicated from a computerized accounting package, the financial accounting data comprising a set of accounts comprising accounting transactions comprising values allocated to one or more in the set of accounts, the set of accounts being organized as a chart of accounts having a hierarchical tree structure wherein the structure of the tree is unknown;
abstracting the financial accounting data to correspond to an accounting ontology that is stored at the server, the accounting ontology having a predetermined structure comprising a hierarchy of nodes in a tree structure that is independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, wherein each node represents an accounting category and wherein at least one node is mapped to plural accounts in the set of accounts;
wherein abstracting the financial accounting data comprises an automatic process in which the nodes of the ontology are matched with the accounts in the set of accounts to determine a mapping between the financial accounting data and the accounting ontology;
analyzing the abstracted financial accounting data at the server to identify anomalies in the data by;
applying predetermined accounting or other validation rules to the data to determine validation failures, the rules being defined in terms of nodes of the accounting ontology so as to be independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, wherein at least one rule is defined in terms that include said at least one node that is mapped to plural accounts; and
providing a report or a display representing the anomalies that have been identified.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In an on-line method of analyzing financial accounting data, uploaded financial accounting data is received at a server (2) from a client computer (3). The data is analyzed at the server (2) to identify anomalies in the data. A display is provided at the client computer (3) representing the anomalies that have been identified. Further, in a method of pre-processing financial accounting data prior to analyzis of the data, the financial accounting data is abstracted to correspond to a pre-stored accounting ontology. Further, in a method of analyzing financial accounting data, the method checks the data for violation of a particular state to identify inconsistent combinations of values in the data.
16 Citations
26 Claims
-
1. An on-line method of analyzing financial accounting data, the method comprising:
-
receiving at a server financial accounting data communicated from a computerized accounting package, the financial accounting data comprising a set of accounts comprising accounting transactions comprising values allocated to one or more in the set of accounts, the set of accounts being organized as a chart of accounts having a hierarchical tree structure wherein the structure of the tree is unknown; abstracting the financial accounting data to correspond to an accounting ontology that is stored at the server, the accounting ontology having a predetermined structure comprising a hierarchy of nodes in a tree structure that is independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, wherein each node represents an accounting category and wherein at least one node is mapped to plural accounts in the set of accounts; wherein abstracting the financial accounting data comprises an automatic process in which the nodes of the ontology are matched with the accounts in the set of accounts to determine a mapping between the financial accounting data and the accounting ontology; analyzing the abstracted financial accounting data at the server to identify anomalies in the data by; applying predetermined accounting or other validation rules to the data to determine validation failures, the rules being defined in terms of nodes of the accounting ontology so as to be independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, wherein at least one rule is defined in terms that include said at least one node that is mapped to plural accounts; and providing a report or a display representing the anomalies that have been identified. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. An apparatus for on-line analysis of financial accounting data, the apparatus comprising:
-
a server constructed and arranged to receive financial accounting data from a computerized accounting package, the financial accounting data comprising a set of accounts comprising accounting transactions comprising values allocated to one or more account in the set of accounts, the set of accounts being organized as a chart of accounts having a hierarchical tree structure wherein the structure of the tree is unknown; wherein the server comprises an abstraction engine constructed and arranged to abstract the financial accounting data to correspond to an accounting ontology that is stored at the server, the accounting ontology having a predetermined structure comprising a hierarchy of nodes in a tree structure that is independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, each node representing an accounting category, wherein at least one node is mapped to plural accounts in the set of accounts, wherein abstracting the financial accounting data comprises an automatic process in which the nodes of the ontology are matched with the accounts in the set of accounts to determine a mapping between the financial accounting data and the accounting ontology; the server having a data analysis engine constructed and arranged to analyze the abstracted financial accounting data at the server to identify anomalies in the data by; applying predetermined accounting or other validation rules to the data to determine validation errors, the rules being defined in terms of nodes of the accounting ontology so as to be independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, wherein at least one rule is defined in terms that include said at least one node that is mapped into plural accounts; and the server being constructed and arranged to provide a report containing a representation of the anomalies that have been identified. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A non-transitory computer readable carrier containing program instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to:
-
receive financial accounting data communicated from a computerized accounting package, the financial accounting data comprising a set of accounts comprising accounting transactions comprising values allocated to one or more in the set of accounts, the set of accounts being organized as a chart of accounts having a hierarchical tree structure wherein the structure of the tree is unknown; abstract the financial accounting data to correspond to an accounting ontology that is stored at a server, the accounting ontology having a predetermined structure comprising a hierarchy of nodes in a tree structure that is independent of the structure of the financial accounting data, wherein each node represents an accounting category and wherein at least one lode is mapped to plural accounts in the set of accounts; wherein abstracting the financial accounting data comprises an automatic process in which the nodes of the ontology are matched with the accounts in the set of accounts to determine a mapping between the financial accounting data and the accounting ontology; analyze the abstracted financial accounting data to identify anomalies in the data, wherein the processor further; applies predetermined accounting or other validation rules to the data to determine validation failures, the rules being defined in terms of nodes of the accounting ontology so as to be independent f the structure f the financial accounting data, wherein at least one rule is defined in terms that include said at least one node that is mapped to plural accounts; and provide a report or a display representing the anomalies that have been identified.
-
Specification