Patent ID: 7318200

Claim:
An apparatus for organizing data, comprising: a template library comprising a plurality of modifiable templates adapted to describe financial transactions; a set of fields, each of the fields selectable by a user to apply to a particular modifiable template, wherein the set of fields defines each type of business data; a processor adapted to: respond to receiving business data corresponding to a business transaction, creating an object based on a customized template for the business transaction, the customized template including a plurality of selected fields for the business data, and defining relationships among the business data, and wherein the customized template has a first version, and wherein the business data defining a business date for the business transaction; store the object in a financial database, wherein the object includes a reference to the customized template, and wherein the object is stored with a first system timestamp, and wherein the object is stored with the business date; respond to receiving alternative business data for the business transaction, creating a modified object based on the customized template and the alternative business data; store the customized object in the financial database, wherein the customized object is stored with a second system timestamp, wherein the second system timestamp is chronologically later than the first system timestamp.