Patent ID: 8095436

Claim:
A method for categorizing financial records of a business, comprising: identifying, from a plurality of business industries, a business industry of the business, wherein each of the plurality business industries has a distinct corresponding pre-determined list comprising a plurality of industry specific categories; selecting, by a software application using a processor, the plurality of industry specific categories corresponding to the business industry; obtaining, using the processor, a plurality of uncategorized financial records of the business from a plurality of financial institutions; for each uncategorized financial record in the plurality of uncategorized financial records, automatically categorizing, by the software application using the processor, the uncategorized financial record using a category selected from a plurality of categories to create a plurality of categorized financial records, wherein the plurality of categories comprises a plurality of business-related categories comprising the plurality of industry specific categories and at least one non-business-related category, and wherein, for at least one uncategorized financial record, the automatic categorization is based on a trend observed in previously categorized financial records, wherein the trend comprises characteristics of the at least one financial record being categorized that is in common with characteristics of previously categorized financial records; for each categorized financial record automatically categorized using a business-related category selected from the plurality of business-related categories, automatically mapping, by the software application using the processor, the categorized financial record to a tax category selected from a plurality of tax categories based upon a predetermined association between the business-related category and the tax category, wherein the tax category is associated with the business-related category, wherein at least two of the plurality of industry specific categories map to the same tax category; grouping the plurality of categorized financial records according to the plurality of tax categories to obtain a plurality of financial record tax category groups; and generating, using the processor and based upon the mapping, a financial report comprising the plurality of financial record tax category groups, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of uncategorized financial transaction records categorized according to the plurality of industry specific categories are expense transactions.