Patent ID: 7533118

Claim:
A system for processing data comprising: a client system comprising a computer-readable storage disk; a spreadsheet application installed on the client system; and an investment database application installed on the client system and in communication with the spreadsheet application; wherein the investment database application comprises a download option accessible from the spreadsheet application for downloading a snapshot of data generated by a server system without a user leaving the spreadsheet application; wherein the investment database application presents a list of selectable spreadsheet templates, each spreadsheet template having a corresponding business process associated therewith, and said each spreadsheet template comprising named ranges that are parsed by the investment database application; wherein the investment database application presents selectable information available for download by the client system, the selectable information relating to the business process of a selected spreadsheet template; wherein the investment database application automatically creates an electronic spreadsheet based on the selected spreadsheet template, the electronic spreadsheet rendered by the spreadsheet application; wherein the investment database application downloads Extensible Markup Language (XML) formatted data associated with a selected portion of the selectable information from the server system and converts the XML formatted data into spreadsheet formatted data; wherein the investment database application automatically populates the electronic spreadsheet with the converted XML formatted data; wherein the investment database application converts spreadsheet formatted data from the populated electronic spreadsheet into XML formatted data and transmits the converted spreadsheet formatted data to the server system, the transmitted data to be uploaded to a database of the server system subsequent to validation of the transmitted data by a business controller of the server system, the validation based on a specification of the business process of the selected spreadsheet template; and wherein the investment database application provides an indication when the upload is successful based on a confirmation response received from the server system.