Patent ID: 11861734
Assignee: INTUIT INC.
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 7:
8. A computing system, the computing system comprising a server including a memory and a processor, the server being in communication with a computer operated by a preparer over a network, the processor being configured to execute a computerized tax return preparation system, the computerized tax return preparation system comprising:
a calculation engine executable by the processor;
a calculation graph executable by the calculation engine, the calculation graph representing a calculation graph data structure and comprising a plurality of nodes, each node representing a tax data input, a tax concept, a function or a tax calculation, where at least one node of the calculation graph is interconnected to another node of the calculation graph by a tax gist function, and a plurality of calculation paths connecting respective nodes, respective calculation paths defining respective data dependencies between respective nodes, a first node having a data dependency on another node based on a determination at the first node depends on a value of the another node;
a shared data store in communication with the calculation engine;
a user interface controller executable by the processor and being in communication with the shared data store;
a rule-based logic agent executable by the processor and being in communication with the shared data store and the user interface controller;
a decision table derived from a completeness graph, the decision table comprising a plurality of rows defining respective rules and a plurality of columns defining respective topic questions, the computerized tax return preparation system being stored as computer-executable instructions in the memory of the server, the instructions being executed by the processor that:
by executing the calculation engine being configured or programmed according to the computer-executable instructions that:
read first stored taxpayer-specific data stored in the shared data store, determine first calculated data based at least in part upon calculations performed using the first stored taxpayer-specific data and the calculation graph, and write the first calculated data to the shared data store resulting in second stored taxpayer-specific data comprising the first calculated data;
by executing the rule-based logic agent being configured or programmed according to computer-executable instructions that:
read the second stored taxpayer-specific data from the shared data store, determine at least one question of at least one topic of an electronic tax return that remains unanswered based at least in part upon the second stored taxpayer-specific data and which rules and associated questions of the decision table remain after rule and question elimination based at least in part upon the second stored taxpayer-specific data, generate at least one non-binding suggestion including the at least one unanswered question that is presented to a display of the computer operated by the preparer of the electronic tax return based at least in part on the determining the at least one unanswered question, provide the at least one non-binding suggestion to a user interface controller, by executing the user interface controller being configured or programmed according to computer-executable instructions that:
present through the display of a computer generated interview screen involving the determined unanswered question of the at least one non-binding suggestion, receive through the generated interview screen a response from the computer to the determined unanswered question, and write the response to the shared data store that updates the second stored taxpayer-specific data resulting in third stored taxpayer-specific data, where a portion of the third stored taxpayer-specific data is new taxpayer-specific data that was not previously utilized to determine the first calculated data; and
by executing the calculation engine being further configured or programmed according to the computer-executable instructions that:
read at least the new taxpayer-specific data of the third stored taxpayer-specific data from the shared data store, determining the second calculated data by only performing those calculations at nodes in the calculation graph having a direct or indirect data dependency on a node that changed as a result of the new taxpayer-specific data, writing the second calculated data to the shared data store resulting in fourth stored taxpayer-specific data; using the tax gist function to determine a reason why there is, or is not, a difference between the first calculated data and the second calculated data; and presenting, through the display of the computer, the reason why there is, or is not, a difference to the preparer.