The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 31, 2012
Filed:
Jan. 31, 2007
James A. Slattery, McKinney, TX (US);
Matthew E. Gerde, The Colony, TX (US);
Jeffrey M. Wolfe, Parrish, FL (US);
James A. Slattery, McKinney, TX (US);
Matthew E. Gerde, The Colony, TX (US);
Jeffrey M. Wolfe, Parrish, FL (US);
Intuit Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for return processing, including tax returns. A return calculation mechanism may partition out return preparation jobs to a plurality of return calculation nodes. A job scheduler may receive returns and distribute the returns among the calculation nodes according to a load-balancing scheme. The job scheduler may decompose a return into two or more calculation jobs. A job may be an individual return or portion of a return. In one embodiment, the calculation jobs may be prioritized according to dependency. If one job depends on results of another job, the job may be scheduled to execute after the job on which it depends. The calculation nodes may cache calculated data from jobs, and a job that depends on another job may be assigned to a node that caches data from the job on which it depends.