Patent ID: 7103835

Claim:
In a computer system comprising multiple distributed enduser workstations, a method for controlling the routing of electronic documents, said method residing in a computer readable medium comprising the computer implemented steps of: receiving an electronic document; wherein receiving an electronic document comprises: receiving a scanned version of a paper document; and creating an electronic document from the scanned version; building a reverse cone of logic from each possible routing approval signature for an electronic document to every input that would affect it; toggling between boolean-AND and boolean-OR functions graphically represented by a label to join every datum field or groups of data fields; selecting data fields; connecting the data fields with the boolean functions: adding as many data elements as necessary; grouping data elements by drawing a bounding box to represent the function of parentheses; creating programmatic elements equivalent to the boolean group; inserting the programmatic elements into the electronic document; determining if a routing approval signature for a role or level of approval is required or not required for each possible routing approval signature given the values of the data fields; setting the visibility of each signature form field if it is determined to be required; and routing the electronic document to a required approving enduser for signature signifying approval.