Patent ID: 7203695

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of adding a new audit object to an audit framework comprising a plurality of audit objects, each audit object representing an entity to be audited, each audit object containing data on the entity, each audit object having a plurality of links to requirement object associated therewith, a plurality of the requirement objects, each requirement object representing an audit requirement to be satisfied, each requirement object having a plurality of links to sub-requirement objects, and a plurality of the sub-requirement objects, each sub-requirement object representing an audit condition to be satisfied, wherein the audit framework possesses a generally many-to-many relationship among audit objects and requirement objects and a generally many-to-many relationship among requirement objects and sub-requirement objects, and wherein each audit object further comprises a plurality of types, each type having a plurality of links to requirement objects associated therewith, the method comprising: if an audit type to be performed on an entity represented by the new audit object is already defined: identifying a first set of the requirement objects associated with the audit type, storing links of the identified set of requirement objects in a definition of the new audit object, otherwise: creating the audit type to be performed on the entity, selecting a second set of the requirement objects to be associated with the audit type, storing links of the selected set of requirement objects in a definition of the new audit object; and generating new requirement objects for any other audit provisions not represented by the first or second set of requirement objects and storing links of the new requirement objects in the definition of the new audit object.