Method and electronic apparatus for the classification of combinatorial data for the summarization and/or tabulation thereof

A method for electronically summarizing accounting journal entries each having at least two lines based upon a chart of accounts comprising the steps of:

• a. reading a predetermined chart of accounts associated with a plurality of journal entries including an accout number associated with each said account;
• b. creating separate account-section numbers for debit and credit for each said account number;
• c. reading one of said plurality of journal entries and assigning one of said account-section numbers to each account number in an associated line of said one journal entry to reflect debits and credits;
• d. sorting said assigned account-section numbers into ascending account-section numerical order;
• e. selecting a sparse matrix corresponding to the number of account-section numbers associated with said one journal entry;
• f. creating a new design record from said sparse matrix if a record of the design of said account-section numbers associated with said one journal entry does not exist;
• g. adding a dollar amount from said one journal entry to a total for an associated account-section number in a design record corresponding to said one journal entry and storing an entry number related to said one journal entry in a chain;
• and
• h. repeating steps c through g for each said journal entry of said parental set to create a summary of said journal entries.

An apparatus for classifying a plurality of data entries, each data entry having at least one item with an item number and an associated quantity, the items defining a parental set of items, comprising:

• a data processing means having a data input adapted to be connected to a source of data including a plurality of data entries forming a parental set of items;
• means for storing item indicators including at least one different item indicator for each item number in a list of items in said parental set connected to said data processing means;
• said data processing means including means for reading said data entries from said source of data and assigning a corresponding one of said item indicators to each item in each of said data entries;
• means connected to said data processing means for storing a plurality of design records, each said record being associated with a different design data entry, said data processing means adding quantities from each of said data entries into one of said design records corresponding to the design of each said data entry;
• and
• means for storing a chain connected to said data processing means for storing an entry number for each said data entry read in a chain to create a summary of said data entries.

An apparatus for summarizing a plurality of accounting journal entries, each journal entry having at least two lines with an account number and an associated dollar amount, the lines defining a parental set of lines, comprising:

• a data processing means having a data input adapted to be connected to a source of information including a plurality of journal entries forming a parental set of lines;
• means for storing account-section numbers for debit and credit dollar amounts for each account number in a chart of accounts in said parental set connected to said data processing means;
• said data processing means including means for reading said journal entries from said source of information and assigning a corresponding one of said account-section numbers to each line in each of said journal entries;
• and
• means connected to said data processing means for storing a plurality of design records, each said record being associated with a different design journal entry, said data processing means adding dollar amounts from each of said journal entries into one of said design records corresponding to the design of each said journal entry.