Sarat Chandran Sankaran

7657471, Feb 2, 2010

Oct 1, 2001

09/969134

Sarat C. Sankaran - San Carlos CA, US
Prashant Fuloria - Mountain View CA, US
Rajesh Chandran - San Mateo CA, US

Lawson Software, Inc. - St. Paul MN

G06Q 40/00
G07B 17/00

705 35, 705 30

Techniques providing automatic control of a distributed electronic financial plan are disclosed. A set of financial statements is created and populated with planned data values that are stored in a database. In certain embodiments, statements in the set are logically linked to facilitate automatic updating as changes occur. The P&L, balance sheet and statement of cash flow are all automatically configured with certain calculated lines and standard lines that maintain proper accounting relationships among the electronic financial plan documents. Spending lines of the P&L are linked meaningfully to constrain spending plans of the corresponding underlying departments so that the P&L becomes conservative in terms of spending. One or more organizational hierarchies may be created and stored, based on departmental organization or revenue flows, and sets of P&Ls, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows are associated with nodes in these hierarchies. A roll-up statement may be created based on any of the hierarchies, enabling a user to rapidly obtain alternative views of lower-level plan data.

7966235, Jun 21, 2011

Oct 1, 2001

09/969140

Nancy B. Capelli - Woodside CA, US
Rajesh Chandran - San Mateo CA, US
Prashant Fuloria - Mountain View CA, US
Sarat C. Sankaran - San Carlos CA, US

Lawson Software, Inc. - St. Paul MN

G06Q 40/00

705 35, 705 36 R, 705 37, 705 38, 705 39, 705 40, 705 41, 705 42

A method providing automatic allocation of a spending limit value among a plurality of recipient departments is disclosed. A spending plan, comprising a plurality of spending limit values, is created. Each spending limit value is associated with a department from among a plurality of departments. A first selected department is identified as a source for allocation of a first spending value. One or more recipient departments are identified as recipients of an allocation of the first spending value. The first spending value is then automatically allocated among the recipients under a specified allocation model, resulting in creating a plurality of allocated spending limit values that are associated with one of the recipient departments. As a result, delay in preparing spending plans is reduced because allocations are rapidly, automatically computed and distributed to department plans. Further, visibility of allocations is improved, enhancing management awareness of allocation values that are beyond the control of a recipient department.

8433632, Apr 30, 2013

Mar 13, 2001

09/804851

Sarat C. Sankaran - San Carlos CA, US
Vineet Jain - Milpitas CA, US
Nancy B. Capelli - Woodside CA, US

Lawson Software, Inc. - St. Paul MN

G60Q 40/00

705 36R

A method and apparatus for financial planning and control are disclosed that are capable of real-time response to changing market conditions. The disclosed method provides financial management and control tools that allow an organization to rapidly (on weekly or monthly frequencies, for example) realign financial resources throughout the organization in response to changing market and business conditions. The method links critical external information directly to company decision-making activities to allow a business to better align resources to capitalize upon opportunities or minimize the impact of adverse business conditions. The disclosed embodiment of the invention comprises several modules, including the TopLine Planner™ module, BizPlan™ module, and SpendCap Manager™ module. The TopLine Planner™ module receives inputs from and provides information to sales, marketing and manufacturing, and is coupled to the BizPlan™ module. The TopLine Planner™ module dynamically revises topline forecast information by capturing current outlook information from front line sources.

7516084, Apr 7, 2009

Jul 12, 2001

09/905258

Sarat C. Sankaran - San Carlos CA, US
Paul V. Carmody - Round Rock TX, US
Navneet Singh - W. Pembroke Pines FL, US
Shivraj K. Ahluwalia - Sunnyvale CA, US

Lawson Software, Inc. - St. Paul MN

G06F 17/30

705 10

An approach for managing forecast data involving the use of a hierarchical data model to manage forecast data. Each user has forecast data and access is determined based upon the relationships between user and the hierarchical data model. Each relationship is defined by user attributes including a node assignment and primary and secondary forecasting depths for primary and secondary data hierarchies. Access to forecast data is provided by first identifying the user's assigned node in the user's primary data hierarchy and traversing to the relative primary forecasting depth with respect to the user's assigned node. Then the user's secondary data hierarchy is traversed to the absolute secondary forecasting depth. Generally, users are only permitted to change data only at their lowest level, although some users may be given privileges to override forecast data at other levels. A consensus mechanism is also provided for resolving conflict or inconsistencies in forecast data.