Abstract:
Systems and methods are disclosed for facilitating cash based accounting. In one exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method that includes, for example, providing a cash ledger. The cash ledger may contain at least one line item and a clearing account. The method may include posting a payment, which contains at least one line item, to a bank account and clearing a business partner account by posting the payment against the business partner account. The method may also include determining a revenue account from the cleared business partner account and clearing the at least one line item in the payment.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present invention generally relates to the field of data processing and to financial systems and methods for balancing payments. More particularly, and without limitation, the invention relates to computer systems and methods for providing a cash ledger for a retrospective projection of payments along a process chain. 
       BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
       [0002]    Cash accounting is required by most public and private sector organizations. Furthermore, most organizations have to report a full set of financial statements. 
         [0003]    Today, many corporate groups and other organizations must comply with a plurality of statutory accounting principles when preparing and publishing their annual financial statements. For example, a German group listed on a U.S. stock exchange must submit a financial statement under US-GAAP and/or IAS as well as under HGB. It is possible that further financial statements are necessary, for example, for subsidiaries in Asian countries, according to local rules. 
         [0004]    In addition to these financial statements prescribed by law, the preparation of financial statements for various organizational units of an enterprise that are as informative as possible are required for internal uses. For example, such financial statements provide management with as comprehensive a picture as possible on the development of individual projects or company segments or product groups. The organizational units of an enterprise may be cost centers, profit centers, or segments or lines of business. In the media industry, such an organizational unit may, for example, involve a single title or, in the insurance industry, a single type or line of insurance business. 
         [0005]    All company reports of a corporate entity are based on business transactions, each of which is to be recorded by a document. For example, a business transaction may be recorded by an incoming supplier invoice or the withdrawal of goods from the stores for production purposes. Large corporate entities incur thousands or hundreds of thousands of transactions each day. For that reason, accounting for a large corporate entity can be accomplished only with the use of data processing systems if related efforts are to be justifiable. 
         [0006]    In view of the foregoing, corporate entities and other organizations require improved data processing systems and methods that provide a summarized reporting of their cash flow, so that they can view money paid and money received. Such systems and methods must be capable of providing relevant balance and other accounting information, even for entities that incur a large number of daily transactions. Therefore, there is thus a need to provide an improved accounting tool to facilitate a retrospective projection of information along a process chain. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    Embodiments of the present invention encompass methods, apparatus, and computer program products for cash based accounting. Embodiments of the invention may facilitate, for example, a retrospective projection of information along a process chain. 
         [0008]    In one exemplary embodiment, there is provided a computer-readable medium containing instructions to configure a processor to perform a method for facilitating cash based accounting. The method may include, for example, providing a cash ledger. The cash ledger may contain at least one line item and a clearing account. The method may include posting a payment, which contains at least one line item, to a bank account and clearing a business partner account by posting the payment against the business partner account. The method may also include determining a revenue account from the cleared business partner account and clearing the at least one line item in the payment. 
         [0009]    In another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a computerized system for facilitating cash based accounting. The system comprises, for example, a processor and a memory, wherein the processor and the memory are configured to perform a method. The method may include, for example, providing a cash ledger. The cash ledger may contain at least one line item and a clearing account. The method may include posting a payment, which contains at least one line item, to a bank account and clearing a business partner account by posting the payment against the business partner account. The method may also include determining a revenue account from the cleared business partner account and clearing the at least one line item in the payment. 
         [0010]    In another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method for facilitating cash based accounting. The method may include, for example, providing a cash ledger. The cash ledger may contain at least one line item and a clearing account. The method may include posting a payment, which contains at least one line item, to a bank account and clearing a business partner account by posting the payment against the business partner account. The method may also include determining a revenue account from the cleared business partner account and clearing the at least one line item in the payment. 
         [0011]    It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as described. Further features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For example, the present invention may be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed features and/or combinations and subcombinations of several further features disclosed below in the detailed description. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, show certain aspects of implementations consistent with the present invention and, together with the description, help explain some of the principles associated with the invention. In the drawings, 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary system environment, consistent with certain aspects related to the present invention; 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  depicts another block diagram of an exemplary Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) system, consistent with certain aspects related to the present invention; 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  depicts an exemplary screenshot of a payment on account, consistent with certain aspects related to the present invention; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  depicts an exemplary flow diagram that illustrates clearing a payment, consistent with certain aspects related to the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0017]    The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar parts. While several exemplary embodiments and features of the invention are described herein, modifications, adaptations and other implementations are possible, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, substitutions, additions or modifications may be made to the components illustrated in the drawings, and the exemplary methods described herein may be modified by substituting, reordering or adding steps to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the invention. Instead, the proper scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims. 
         [0018]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary system environment  100 , consistent with certain aspects related to the present invention. Referring to  FIG. 1 , system  100  includes a client system  110  connected to a server system  140  by a network  130 . The client system includes a user interface  120 , and the server system  140  includes an ERP system  150 . Although the description of system  100  is made in the context of a client-server environment, other system environments and arrangements can be used instead. Further, although reference is made to ERP systems  150  in describing embodiments of the invention, other types of business or financial system applications may be employed alone or in any suitable combination. 
         [0019]    The client system  110  may include one or more processors, such as a computer, to interface with server system  140 . Server  140  may include one or more processors, such as computers. User interface  120  may provide an interface to allow a user to interact with other applications, such as allowing the user to instantiate applications on server system  140 . User interface  120  may be implemented as a graphical user interface for receiving information from ERP system  150 . By way of an example, a Web browser may be used as user interface  120 . As used herein, the term “instantiate” means, in an object oriented programming environment, an object of a particular class, and, more generally, includes deploying, customizing, running and/or executing an application. 
         [0020]    A computer suitable for use as a client or a server includes, among other things, a processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing computer program instructions and data. The computer may also receive data from and/or transfer data to one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. Furthermore, the computer may be capable of interfacing to a network, such as network  130 . 
         [0021]    Network  130  may include, alone or in any suitable combination, a telephony-based network, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a dedicated intranet, a wireless LAN, the Internet, a wireless network, a bus, and/or any other any communication mechanisms. Further, any suitable combination of wired and/or wireless components and systems may be used to provide a communication mechanism. Moreover, network  130  may be embodied using bidirectional or unidirectional communication links. Further, network  130  may utilize one or more protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and Remote Procedure Call (RPC). 
         [0022]      FIG. 2  illustrates a detailed exemplary embodiment of ERP system  150 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , ERP system  150  may include a computing infrastructure  210 , an accounting interface  220 , and one or more modules  230 . 
         [0023]    Computing infrastructure  210  may include one or more servers and storage devices. The servers and storage devices may be collocated with each other or may be distributed across multiple locations. 
         [0024]    Accounting interface  220  may reside on computing infrastructure  210  and provide the foundation for collecting accounting information. Such information may include accounts payable and accounts receivable. Accounting interface  220  may enable an organization to utilize the large amount of data amassed and needed to conduct operations by providing a centralized source for collecting, interpreting, consolidating, and redistributing data that arrives from a variety of systems. Accounting interface  220  may ensure that all accounts are balanced according to preconfigured rules. There are several ways that accounts may be balanced. They may be balanced by segment (such as a branch of an organization, including, for example, licensing, consulting, and training), profit center (such as a regional office or group within the office), business area, and fund, for example. 
         [0025]    Module  230  may comprise one or more software packages that are dedicated to specific operation tasks. For example, module  230  may include general ledger  231 , cash ledger  232 , and reporting  233 . 
         [0026]    General ledger  231  may provide the basis for external reporting of information. General ledger  231  may keep track of the income, balance sheets, and transactions that affect an income statement. General ledger  231  may provide balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow so that users can view how money is received and spent. 
         [0027]    General ledger  231  and cash ledger  232  may receive all of the information from accounting interface  220 . Cash ledger  232  may be a complete, balanced set of accounts required by and maintained for cash basis accounting. Normally, all cash relevant business processes are recorded, or posted, in cash ledger  232 . The postings may contain the cash account and the revenue/expense account. In addition, cash transfers from one revenue/expense account to another revenue/expense account (e.g., a new invoice reference for the partial payment or clearing of a payment on an account with an invoice) may be updated in cash ledger  232 . Cash ledger  232  may realize both revenue and expense at the time cash is paid or received. Most of the postings to cash ledger  232  may be cash against revenue/expense postings. 
         [0028]    Cash ledger  232  may be also be viewed as part of general ledger  231 . Cash ledger  232  may be a non-leading ledger in the general ledger environment. To enable the reporting of cash information using account assignments, a new dimension within cash ledger  232  may be defined. This dimension is referred to herein as a revenue/expense account (RE_ACCOUNT). The RE_ACCOUNT may be populated with the values of the revenue accounts and expense accounts. 
         [0029]    In addition to the RE_ACCOUNT, an additional dimension may be defined to memorize bank account information along a process chain. This dimension is referred to herein as a cash account (CASH_ACCOUNT). CASH_ACCOUNT may be populated with bank account information that may be contained in an original payment document. 
         [0030]    Reporting  233  may obtain the balanced accounts from general ledger  231  and cash ledger  232  and report those results to the user. A user may obtain and view the results at user interface  120 . 
         [0031]      FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary screenshot  300  of a payment on an account contained within a cash ledger document. The tables  310 ,  320 ,  330 ,  340  shown in  FIG. 3  may be displayed separately or in any combination on user interface  120 . Certain information within each of the tables may only be available depending on the status of the progress of the process chain. The name of the account within general ledger  231  may be shown in the “GL account” column. Further, in certain embodiments, the “Substitution for cash ledger” column is not displayed. In the embodiment of  FIG. 3 , the “Substitution for cash ledger” column is inserted to illustrate the logical replacement of the content of the “GL account” column by that of other columns, such as the “CASH_ACCOUNT” column which is explained below. 
         [0032]    The value of the payment depicted in the bank statement may be shown in the “Amount” column. The “CASH_ACCOUNT” column may represent a physical column to store “GL account” information which is to be inherited along clearing chains. In certain embodiments, the “CASH_ACCOUNT” column may remain hidden to the user and not be offered on the user interface. 
         [0033]    The variable corresponding to the RE_ACCOUNT may be shown in the “RE_ACCOUNT” column. In addition, a variable or identifier corresponding to the segment, profit center, business area, and/or fund associated with the payment may be depicted in the “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” column. 
         [0034]    In box  310 , information concerning a bank statement is provided which is related to a payment on account. In this example, the payment is EUR  10 . This is an exemplary embodiment, and many different payment values may be received and cleared as shown in  FIG. 3 . In this example, no invoice reference is available, therefore the payment cannot be directly assigned to the corresponding account (e.g., segment, profit center, business area, or fund). Because the corresponding account is not known at this time, a variable “Dummy” is placed within the “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” column. 
         [0035]    Even though the corresponding “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” account is unknown, the payment may be updated within cash ledger  232 . Therefore, variable “Bank,” which may indicate the specific bank account that received the payment, is placed within the column CASH_ACCOUNT. In addition, variable “Advance” is placed within the column RE_ACCOUNT. Variable “Advance,” which may represent a default value for the RE_ACCOUNT, is not specified at this time. 
         [0036]    In the example of  FIG. 3 , the payment amount of EUR  10  in box  310  may be viewed as a debit, therefore a debit of EUR  10  is associated with the GL account “Bank” and cash ledger account “Bank.” This results in a balance amounting to EUR  10  on the credit side of the GL account “Bank clearing” and cash ledger account “Advance.” Because a payment of EUR  10  is posted to the bank account “Bank,” the cash ledger is updated. 
         [0037]    Box  320  depicts an invoice that may be generated and sent to a business partner. This invoice may correspond to payment that a business partner owes to a particular account (e.g., segment, profit center, business area, or fund) based on goods or services that the business partner received. In box  320 , no payment is received, therefore cash ledger  232  is not updated at this time. 
         [0038]    In box  320 , the invoice may be associated with a particular business partner as shown with the GL account “Business Partner.” In this example, the invoice is for EUR  10  and may be viewed as a debit from “Business Partner” and a corresponding credit to the associated GL account “Revenue/Expense.” The invoice may contain the RE_ACCOUNT, therefore the RE_ACCOUNT column is updated to reflect this information. In this example, the RE_ACCOUNT is “Revenue/Expense.” In addition, the appropriate account (e.g., segment, profit center, business area, or fund) that is sending the invoice for payment is known. Therefore, the “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” column may reflect the appropriate account, which is account “A.” 
         [0039]    In box  330 , a payment on an account may be received from the business partner. The payment may be viewed as a credit of EUR  10  to the GL account “Business Partner” and a corresponding debit of EUR  10  to the GL account “Bank Clearing.” Consistent with box  320 , the RE_ACCOUNT and “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” may be known, and this information may be inherited from step  320 . Therefore, the RE_ACCOUNT is “Revenue/Expense” and the “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” is “A.” 
         [0040]    In box  340 , the payment on an account is cleared. In the first row, the information from the GL account “Bank Clearing” in box  310  may be inherited. However, the amount may be viewed as a debit of EUR  10  to balance the credit of EUR  10  associated with the “Bank Clearing” box step  310 . In the second row, the information from the GL account “Bank Clearing” in box  330  may also be inherited. However, the amount may be viewed as a credit of EUR  10  to balance the debit of EUR  10  associated with the “Bank Clearing” from box  330 . At this time, the EUR  10  payment may be cleared by the GL account “Bank Clearing,” and the original EUR  10  payment reflected on the bank statement is associated with the RE_ACCOUNT “revenue/expense” and “Segment/Profit Center/Business Area/Fund” “A.” 
         [0041]    In the third row, the information from the GL account “Bank” in box  310  may be inherited. However, the amount may be viewed as a credit of EUR  10  to balance the debit of EUR  10  associated with the “Bank” from box  310 . In addition, a pre-defined clearing GL account is used to store clearing items, which are created automatically to ensure a document which is overall balanced by entity (i.e. Segment, Profit Center, Business Area or Fund). In this example, the GL account is named “Zero-Balance Clearing Account.” 
         [0042]    In the fourth row, the information from the GL account “Revenue/Expense” in box  320  may be inherited. However, the amount may be viewed as a debit of EUR  10  to balance the credit of EUR  10  associated with the “Revenue/Expense” from box  320 . In addition, a different GL account may be may be used. In this example, the GL account is also “Zero-Balance Clearing Account.” The “Substitution for cash ledger” column illustrates that the values within the GL account column should be substituted. Specifically, the “Zero-Balance Clearing Account” value is substituted with the “bank” value. The RE_ACCOUNT is “revenue/expense.” At this time, the payment of EUR  10  has been cleared by GL account “Bank Clearing,” which may result in a balance in cash ledger account “Bank.” 
         [0043]      FIG. 4  depicts an exemplary flow diagram  400  that illustrates clearing a payment on an account. In step  410 , an incoming payment on an account of EUR  10  is reflected on the bank statement as a debit of EUR  10 . At this time, the corresponding account (e.g., segment, profit center, business area, or fund) is not known, therefore a variable “Dummy” is associated with the payment on account. Because the payment must balance, a corresponding credit of EUR  10  may be reflected as a credit on the bank clearing. The credit of EUR  10  may also inherit the variable “Dummy.” 
         [0044]    In step  420 , a business partner invoice may be generated for EUR  10 . At this time, the corresponding account is known, and be referred to as “A.” This may result in a debit of EUR  10  in a receivables account because the invoice has not been paid. This may also result in a credit of EUR  10  in a revenue account because payment is expected. 
         [0045]    In step  430 , a payment of EUR  10  corresponding to the invoice in step  320  may be received. Because the payment corresponds to the invoice, the corresponding account “A” may be inherited from the invoice. When payment is received, a credit of EUR  10  may be reflected in the receivables account. Because the EUR  10  payment must balance, a debit of EUR  10  may be reflected in the bank clearing. 
         [0046]    At this time, the bank clearing is balanced. The bank clearing may reflect a debit of EUR  10  corresponding to account “Dummy” and a credit of EUR  10  corresponding to account “A” as shown in step  440 . 
         [0047]    Also in step  440 , a clearing account may reflect the debit of EUR  10  corresponding to account “Dummy” as a credit and the credit of EUR  10  corresponding to account “A” as a debit. The debit side and credit side of the clearing are balanced, therefore the payment may be cleared. The clearing account, however, is replaced by the bank account (automatically or “on the fly”) by the retrospective projection mechanism explained in  FIG. 3 . Because the payment must balance, the EUR  10  payment corresponding to account “Dummy” may now be viewed as a credit on the bank account. The payment is now cleared, and the bank account may reflect the EUR  10  payment as corresponding to account “A.” 
         [0048]    The foregoing description has been presented for purposes of illustration. It is not exhaustive and does not limit the invention to the precise forms or embodiments disclosed. Modifications and adaptations of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosed embodiments of the invention. For example, the described implementations include software, but systems and methods consistent with the present invention may be implemented as a combination of hardware and software or in hardware alone. Examples of hardware include computing or processing systems, including personal computers, servers, laptops, mainframes, micro-processors and the like. Additionally, although aspects of the invention are described for being stored in memory, one skilled in the art will appreciate that these aspects can also be stored on other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, for example, hard disks, floppy disks, or CD-ROM, the Internet or other propagation medium, or other forms of RAM or ROM. 
         [0049]    Computer programs based on the written description and methods of this invention are within the skill of an experienced developer. The various programs or program modules can be created using any of the techniques known to one skilled in the art or can be designed in connection with existing software. For example, program sections or program modules can be designed in or by means of Java, C++, HTML, XML, or HTML with included Java applets or in SAP R/3 or ABAP. One or more of such software sections or modules can be integrated into a computer system or existing e-mail or browser software. 
         [0050]    Moreover, while illustrative embodiments of the invention have been described herein, the scope of the invention includes any and all embodiments having equivalent elements, modifications, omissions, combinations (e.g., of aspects across various embodiments), adaptations and/or alterations as would be appreciated by those in the art based on the present disclosure. The limitations in the claims are to be interpreted broadly based on the language employed in the claims and not limited to examples described in the present specification or during the prosecution of the application, which examples are to be construed as non-exclusive. Further, the steps of the disclosed methods may be modified in any manner, including by reordering steps and/or inserting or deleting steps, without departing from the principles of the invention. It is intended, therefore, that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims and their full scope of equivalents.