Patent ID: 7752091

Claim:
An automated accounting system comprising: a first database to store accounting objects, each accounting object including a first set of numbers representing financial information from a plurality of transactions; a second database to store financial statement items; a rule array comprising a set of rules customized for an entity; and a processor executing a financial statement item generator configured to, for a given plurality of accounting objects: identify whether the accounting objects satisfy a condition of a plurality of rules in the rule array; for a plurality of the accounting objects satisfying the condition in at least one rule: preliminarily execute a mapping operation in each of the satisfied rules, the mapping operation transitioning the first set of numbers representing financial information from the accounting object to a second set of numbers representing consolidated financial information of a plurality of transactions in a financial statement item; aggregate the second sets of numbers mapped to a same financial statement item; identify whether the aggregation violates a cardinality rule of the accounting system, the cardinality rule specifying limitations on the aggregation of the second sets of numbers in the same financial statement item based on a comparison between first sets of numbers; when the mapping operation does not violate a cardinality rule: perform the mapping operation in the rule, and otherwise, do not perform the mapping operation in the rule.