Patent ID: 8712880

Claim:
A method of using a formula to execute periodic transfers in a hierarchal accounting structure, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer system, a transfer formula comprising: a source account; a target account; an offset account; an account characteristic; and a formula for determining a first amount of the source account based on the account characteristic; populating, by the computer system, from one or more financial ledgers in a relational database system, at least a portion of a multidimensional data cube with data associated with the transfer formula, the multidimensional data cube comprising: a hierarchal arrangement comprising at least the source account and the target account; and aggregated balances for each level of the hierarchal arrangement; generating, by the computer system, using data in the multidimensional data cube, a transfer scenario, wherein: the transfer scenario queries the multidimensional data cube for the aggregated balances; the transfer scenario executes the transfer formula by calculating the first amount and transferring the first amount to the aggregated balance for the target account according to the transfer formula; and the transfer scenario generates result values for each account affected by the transfer scenario; generating, by the computer system, one or more accounting journal entries that update each account affected by the transfer scenario with the result values; posting, by the computer system, the one or more accounting journal entries to the one or more financial ledgers in the relational database system; and updating, by the computer system, the multidimensional data cube to reflect changes affecting the aggregated balances resulting from the one or more accounting journal entries posted to the one or more financial ledgers in the relational database system.