Patent ID: 7933791

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, with a user interface within an enterprise planning system, a plurality of variable definitions, each of the variable definitions specifying a plurality of variables to be used during the enterprise planning session, wherein receiving the plurality of variable definitions comprises: receiving, via a first input area of the user interface a default mathematical formula for each of the variables of the plurality of variables to be used during the enterprise planning session, receiving, via a second input area of the user interface, an optional override mathematical formula for each of the variables of the plurality of variables to be used during the enterprise planning session; and receiving, via a third in put area of the user interface one or more dimensions for each of the variables of the plurality of variables to he used during the enterprise planning session and respective dimension types associated with each of the one or more dimensions, wherein the method further comprises: generating, with a processor, model data that defines an enterprise planning model based on the plurality of variable definitions received via the user interface, wherein the enterprise planning model is used within the enterprise planning session, and wherein generating the model data comprises generating the model data to include one or more multidimensional data structures based on the variable definitions, the one or more multidimensional data structures having dimensionality based on the dimensions and the dimension types received with respect to, each of the variables; and executing the enterprise planning session, wherein executing the enterprise planning session comprises: collecting planning data relevant to one or more of the plurality of variables from a set of contributors; aggregating the collected planning data in accordance with the enterprise planning model to form aggregated enterprise planning data for the enterprise planning session; applying the default mathematical formula of each variable to the planning data to compute a value for each of the variables for future periods within a forecast, wherein each of the variables is used during the enterprise planning session; when the optional override mathematical formula is specified, applying the optional override mathematical formula of each of the variables to the planning data to compute a value for the respective variable for historical periods within the forecast; and outputting the forecast to the user interface.