Patent ID: 7328179

Claim:
A method for determining a useful life of balance sheet items, comprising the steps of: (A) receiving data for each of a plurality of balance sheet items, the data including a sample of account balances, a size of the sample being n=4k 2 s 2 /d 2 wherein s is an estimated yearly retention rate, d is in the range of 0.01 to 0.03 and k corresponds to a level of significance; (B) performing, in a computerized system, a dynamic calculation of a first retention rate for each of a plurality of balance sheet items using the data received in step (A); (C) performing, in the computerized system, a steady-state calculation of a second retention rate for the plurality of balance sheet items using the data received in step (A); (D) combining said first and second retention rate to determine a predicted useful life of the combined plurality of balance sheet items; and (E) outputting the predicted useful life.