Patent ID: 7062479

Claim:
A method for calculating and back-solving of complex relationships in a planning data repository system comprising the steps of: a) generating a sub-cube from the planning data repository system using a Calculation Engine, said planning data repository system residing separately from the Calculation Engine; b) inputting from a user for at least one specified cell within the sub-cube, a required value, or a required value and one or more constraints, the required value and the constraints being taken into account by the Calculation Engine in calculations; c) where more than one calculation may affect a cell within the sub-cube, selecting a calculation for the affected cell in accordance with a set of prioritisation rules; d) creating one or more parent/child tables giving the relationships and dependencies between one or more target cells and other cells in the sub-cube, using the Calculation Engine; e) determining from the one or more parent/child tables the one or more target cells, each requiring a back-solving calculation to set a value of the specified cell to the required value; f) for each target cell: i) performing the back-solving calculation for the target cell using the Calculation Engine and recording that a change has taken place; ii) remembering the one or more parent cells of the target cell to ensure they are recalculated; iii) recalculating the value for each remembered parent cell using the Calculation Engine and recording that a change has taken place; iv) repeating the i) performing, ii) remembering, and iii) recalculating steps until all changes to the target cells and their parent cells are complete; v) repeating the i) performing, ii) remembering, iii) recalculating, and iv) first repeating steps until no changes are recorded; and g) reporting the results of the foregoing steps to the user.