GB2423598A

GB2423598A - Providing customised online reports by using HTML or XML or any other SGML tags with SQL statements to retrieve data from a server.

Info

Publication number: GB2423598A
Application number: GB0503294A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Norman Frederick James Silvain; Kai Wah Chan
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-02-17
Filing date: 2005-02-17
Publication date: 2006-08-30
Also published as: GB0503294D0

Abstract

A method and system, for creating and producing financial business accounting reports, in real time, in any format and any visual layout online and in real time via the Internet By using a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get ( WYSIWYG ) editor the user can design a report to their own visual specifications. The report is created by inserting text and SGML tags into the editor. Special tags as defined by the user are inserted into the report; these tags are associated with certain calculations as defined by the user before hand. When the user makes a request to view the report, our system replaces these tags with the value of the corresponding calculation that the user has defined. The report is then transmitted over the Internet and onto the user's browser.

Description

1 2423598

The Description

Title: A method and system for creating and producing financial business accounting reports online in real time in any format and in any visual layout via the Internet

Background:

This invention relates to the production of business accounting reports as defined by a user in a specific visual layout on the Internet.

Producing accounting reports is a long process involving many communications and physical mailings between client and accountant and client and staff. This is especially the case for reports which require a specific predefined layout which can change rapidly.

Statement of invention:

The invention proposes the use of the Internet to speed up the process of creating accounting reports which requires specific visual layouts.

With the expansion of the Internet, we now have a channel where all parties involved can work on the same data at the same time in separate and different remote locations. As a result, the client can enter transaction data on his terminal, and the accountant, who can be situated many miles away, can produce real time business accounting reports in various different layouts.

Advantages: The methods employed will speed up the production of the accounting reports. It will allow for the production of a business report in any visual format.

Detailed description:

The Internet consists of multiple computers and computer networks that can interconnect and communicate with each other through communication links The computers can exchange information using services such as electronic mail and the World Wide Web (WVVW). The WWW allows a server computer (web server or web site) to send Web pages to a remote client computer. The client computer can then display the Web pages. Every computer and Web page on the WWvV is identified by a unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

In order to view a specific Web page the client computer requests the Web page (e.g. a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request) by specifying the URL. The request is sent to the Web server that holds the Web page, and then the Web server forwards the Web page to the client computer. When the Web page is received by the client computer it is displayed within a browser A browser is an application specifically designed to process the requesting of Web pages and then displaying the Web pages.

At the moment, most Web pages are designed using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML is designed to provide a standard set of tags that set out how a Web page is displayed. The HTML document contains tags that determine the appearance of text, graphics, controls and various other features, it may also contain URLs to other Web pages which are either available on the same Web server or other Web servers. When a user enters a URL into a browser, the browser sends a request to the Web server to transfer the HTML document which decides how the web page will be displayed. When the client computer receives the HTML document the browser displays the Web page according the specifications of the HTML document.

The World Wide Web is especially conducive with the accounting environment. Through the use of the World Wide Web accounting practices can now conduct most of their business electronically. They can communicate with their clients through electronic mail, store documentation electronically; use Web pages to advertise themselves and their services. The introduction of Web based accounting systems has now enabled accounting practices to widen their clientele base. A clients data can be entered onto a Web based system from anywhere in the world and accessed from the offices of the accounting practice.

One of the core components of any Internet accounting application is the generation of reports. At present, reports are fixed in its visual layout and calculated values are placed in situ at the server and then transmitted over the Internet and displayed on the users browser. The user has no choice where to place values or define visual presentation. We will name these report formats as template reports. These formats are stored in SGML formats, variants of these include HTML and XML. An example is shown on figure 1.

The example contains both HTML and XML. The example template will output the profit and loss value of the business. When a user makes a request to view the report, the server replaces the SGML Tag {PROFIT_LOSS_VALUE} with the actual corresponding profit and loss value. The way the {PROFIT_LOSS_VALUE} tag is calculated is defined by the user.

As said, different visual formats are always needed. In order to change the existing format, the user will often need to manually adjust the final output that is displayed on the browser according to their own needs. This process is cumbersome and time consuming.

In order to overcome this problem, the user must have a method that allows them to edit the template reports itself. This is achieved by loading a What- You-See-Is-What-You-Get (VVYSIWYG) editor onto the browser where the template reports can be edited and saved under a different name. The main features of the WYSIWYG editor includes: * Allow adding, editing and deleting of characters.

* Adding tables

* Making letters bold * Underlining letters * Making letter Italic * Changing font size, font type and colour * Adding underlines

* Changing background colour

Adding bullet points * Line justification Line indent * Adding hyperlinks * Undo/Redo action * Cut/Copy/Paste * Adding special symbols These functions will essentially allow the user to edit existing templates A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 2 shows the icons relating to the above functions.

For example, we can edit the above example adding "for the current year", see Figure 3.

With the use of a WYSIWYG editor, the user can place tags anywhere within the editor as well as change the visual layout. When the user saves the template report, it is saved in a database on the server.

Figure 4 shows how our invention creates a report according to a template report. When a user makes a request to view the report, the system replaces the tags with the corresponding result of the calculation associated with the tag. When the whole report is complete, this is returned to the user via the Internet and onto the user's browser.

Figure 5 shows a form where the user can enter their own tag calculations.

They first enter a tag name to define the tag. They then need to enter SQL statements ( which are statements which query the database) and /or Regular Expressions ( which are mathematical calculations expressed in algebra). The SQL statements will allow the user to retrieve any business data held on the server.

Claims

Claims 1. A method and system for creating and producing financial

business accounting reports in real time in any format and any visual layout via the Internet 2. Based on claim 1, the real time online financial business accounting reports can be based on any visual layout as defined by the user.

3. A method and system for creating and producing financial business accounting reports via the Internet substantially as herein described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows 1. A method for producing real time business reports via the Internet.
2. Based on claim 1, the reports can be based on any visual layout as defined by the user. (C ( ( (< C (((C (((C (C C Ce CC ( C ( (CCC