Patent Document ID: 7813948
Application ID: 11510527
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing costs associated with cost flow models having components of relationships and entities, the method comprising: receiving, using one or more computer processors, data associated with a first cost flow model that identifies the costs associated with relationships among the entities, including resources, activities, and cost objects, wherein the first cost flow model is a multi-dimensional directed graph for depicting how money flows in an enterprise, wherein nodes of the graph represent accounts associated with the resources, activities, or cost objects, wherein an account exists at the intersection of a plurality of dimension members within a multi-dimensional database (MDDB) having dimensions, each dimension containing one or more dimension members, and wherein an edge of the multi-dimensional directed graph is associated with a percentage defining how much money flows from a source account to a destination account; receiving reduction criteria, and using the reduction criteria to reduce the number of components in the first cost flow model; using the reduction criteria to generate a reduced cost flow model, wherein the reduced cost flow model has fewer components than the number of components that are in the received first cost flow model, and wherein the reduced cost flow model is used to analyze costs associated with the entities in the reduced cost flow model; and processing and storing the reduced cost flow model, wherein computation processing and storage requirements associated with processing and storing the reduced cost flow model is less than computation processing and storage requirements associated with processing and storing the first cost flow model, wherein the storing of the reduced cost flow model includes storing the reduced cost flow model in a relational database management system (RDBMS) or an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) database, and wherein each cost flow path in the reduced cost flow model is stored in a data record row in a table in the RDBMS or the OLAP database.