AU2019100978A4 - A Computer Implemented Tool for Document Verification - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer implemented tool for verifying statements within a document which can be opened by a document processor, 5 comprising: a software add-in executable by the word processor and programmable to: (a) determine that a portion of content within the document has been selected by a user using a content selection tool, the portion of content being representative of a statement or image within the document; (b) responsive to making 10 the determination, create a document object that contains the selected portion of content and associate the document object with a unique statement number; (c) create an entry in a database associated with a unique document identifier; and (d) link the entry in the database to the selected portion of 15 content in the document utilising the document object. (FIGURE 5) S1 Login and Start Box S2 Boxing Numbering S3 Document Boxes S4 create Portal and Sync Open Portal S6 Assign statements S7 Verify I statements Re-Verify Apply changes L------ I----------------- Finalise Figure 5

Description

A COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED TOOL FOR DOCUMENT VERIFICATION

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a tool for facilitating verification of content in an electronic document by one or more document reviewers. The tool is particularly, but by no means exclusively, suited for use in verifying statements in a draft prospectus prior to the prospectus being finalised and printed (i.e. as part of an initial public offering IPO).

Background of Invention

As part of an IPO it is necessary to engage a lawyer (and typically a team of lawyers) to prepare a prospectus. In broad terms, the prospectus is a legal document that provides factual information to potential investors about the investment offering. In Australia, the prospectus is required to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A prospectus will typically include information such as the primary business activity of the company, a background and qualification of principal officers, the current financial position, projected financial statements, foreseeable risks, etc. It is not uncommon for a prospectus to be in excess of 100 pages for a typical IPO.

Each and every statement made in the prospectus must be verified by a relevant party (e.g. Director, CFO, etc.) before the prospectus can be finalised and provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Typically, the first step in verifying a prospectus involves printing out the prospectus and physically drawing a box around each of the statements found in the document using a ruler and pencil (this is commonly referred to in the industry as boxing up a prospectus, for obvious reasons). Each boxed statement is then assigned a unique number (typically the numbering of boxes is sequential, starting with 1.1). As will be appreciated, this is a very labour intensive task and accordingly is typically carried out by one or more junior lawyers to minimise cost. An example of a manually boxed up prospectus can be seen in Figure la.

Once the prospectus has been boxed up, a master verification table is prepared. The table includes a row for each boxed statement. Within each row are various fields that need to be manually populated either by the junior lawyer or, at a later time, by the party assigned to review the statement. As shown in the example of Figure lb, the fields include: statement number, responsibility, verification (including details of attached supporting documentation) and comment. In some cases, there is no master verification table prepared, and the process is run using the comments feature in Microsoft® Office® Word, where verification details are added to the comments themselves.

A senior lawyer will typically review both the verification table and boxed up prospectus before copies are mailed or emailed to the assigned parties. It is not uncommon for the senior lawyer to find that one of the boxed statements or charts or images should be split into two separate boxed statements (which may, for example, need to be reviewed by different parties), or, vice versa, that two separate statements should be combined. Accordingly, the original boxes will need to be erased and re-drawn as appropriate, or a mark-up of an image or chart to be made. This also requires the statement numbers to be manually adjusted to reflect the changes. As will be readily appreciated, depending on the size of the prospectus, this task can be particularly time consuming and thus costly for the client.

Once the review has been carried out by the senior lawyer, copies of the boxed up prospectus and verification table are sent to the assigned parties for verification. Their marked up copies are then returned, collated and reviewed by the senior lawyer. This will often be repeated numerous times until each of the statements have been verified and the prospectus is in a form ready for printing and sending to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It would be advantageous if there was provided an alternative approach to preparing and verifying a prospectus that was less labour intensive and time consuming than the current approach outlined above.

Summary of Invention

In accordance with a first aspect there is provided a computer implemented tool for verifying statements within a document which can be opened by a document processor, comprising: a software add-in executable by the word processor and programmable to: (a) determine that a portion of content within the document has been selected by a user using a content selection tool, the portion of content being representative of a statement or image within the document; (b) responsive to making the determination, create a document object that contains the selected portion of content and associate the document object with a unique statement number; (c) create an entry in a database associated with a unique document identifier; and (d) link the entry in the database to the selected portion of content in the document utilising the document object.

In an embodiment the software add-in is further programmed to upload the document and corresponding document object (s) to a web application communicable with the database.

In accordance with a second aspect there is provided a computer implemented portal for facilitating the verification of statements within a document, comprising: an application executable by a processor and programmable to: communicate with the database according to the first aspect; provide an interface allowing one or more reviewers to: (a) review the portion(s) of content corresponding to statement number(s) they have been assigned and provide a comment and/or suggest changes in respect thereto; and (b) view comments and/or suggested changes made by other document reviewers.

In an embodiment the portal is further configured to allow the document reviewer(s) to upload documents supporting the comment, the uploaded document being stored in the database in association with the unique document identifier.

In an embodiment the portal is further configured to allow a user to assign selected image content to one or more document reviewer(s) and wherein the image can be modified using the portal prior to assigning the image.

In accordance with a third aspect there is provided a computer implemented tool for verifying statements within a document which can be opened by a word processor, comprising: an application executable by the word processor and programmable to: (a) associate the document with a statement verification table; (b) determine that a portion of content within the document has been selected using a content selection tool, the portion of content being representative of a statement within the document; (c) responsive to making the determination, create a document object that contains the selected portion of content and associate the document object with a unique statement number; (d) create an entry in the verification table associated with the selected portion of content; and (e) link the entry in the verification table to the selected portion of content in the document utilising the document object.

In an embodiment the verification table is created within a spreadsheet.

In an embodiment the entry comprises a row or column within the verification table and wherein the application is further programmed to enter the statement number into a cell in the row/column.

In an embodiment the application is further programmed to include a first additional cell in the row/column for receiving an annotation by a document reviewer.

In an embodiment the application is further programmed to create a comment in the document including the corresponding statement number and/or document reviewer annotation.

In an embodiment, where the selected portion of content comprises text, the application is further programmed to: copy the text into a second additional cell in the row/column.

In an embodiment, where the selected portion of content comprises an image, the application is further programmed to: create a new tab or sheet or page within the verification table which includes the image; and provide a reference to the tab/sheet/page in a second additional cell in the row.

In an embodiment, where the selected portion of content comprises a table, the application is further programmed to: create a new tab or sheet or page within the verification table in which the table is embedded, the table being embedded such that it retains the same formatting properties as provided by the word processor; and provide a reference to the tab/sheet/page in a second additional cell in the row.

In an embodiment the verification table is linked to the document such that when both the document and verification table are open the selection by a user of any cell within the row of the verification table will result in the corresponding selection of text within the document being highlighted.

In an embodiment the step of linking further comprises the application creating an application object within the spreadsheet for linking to the document object.

In an embodiment the document and application objects are Microsoft® Office® Interop objects.

In an embodiment the application is further programmed to repeat steps (b) to (e) for subsequent portions of content selected in the document, such that a new unique statement number is generated for each selected portion of content.

In an embodiment the document is a prospectus.

In accordance with a fourth aspect there is provided a computer implemented portal for facilitating the verification of statements within a document, comprising: an application executable by a processor and programmable to: upload the document and verification table as described in accordance with the first aspect; assign each unique statement number to one or more document reviewers; provide access to the one or more reviewers to a web interface which allows them to: (a) review the portion (s) of content corresponding to their assigned statement number(s) and provide a comment and/or suggest changes in respect thereto; and (b) view comments and/or suggested changes made by other document reviewers.

In accordance with a fifth aspect there is provided a computer implemented tool for verifying statements within a document which can be opened by a document processor, comprising: a software add-in executable by the word processor and programmable to: (a) determine that a portion of content within the document has been selected by a user using a content selection tool, the portion of content being representative of a statement within the document; (b) responsive to making the determination, create a document object that contains the selected portion of content and associate the document object with a unique statement number; (c) create an entry in a verification table associated with the selected portion of content; and (d) link the entry in the verification table to the selected portion of content in the document utilising the document object.

In an embodiment the add-in is further programmed to repeat steps (a) to (d) for subsequent portions of content selected in the document, such that a new unique statement number is generated for each selected portion of content.

In an embodiment the software add-in is further programmed to upload the document and corresponding document object (s) to a cloud based application prior to step (c) and wherein one or more other users can modify content selections via the cloud based application.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure la is a picture of a draft prospectus that has been manually boxed up for subsequent verification using a conventional approach;

Figure lb is a picture of a verification table that has been drawn up by a user for verifying the manually boxed up statements of Figure la.

Figure 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a system in which an embodiment of the invention can be implemented;

Figure 3 is a screen shot of an example tool bar implemented by a computer program, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figures 4a and 4b are schematics showing various technological functions implemented by computer apparatus and programs, as described herein;

Figure 5 is a process flow diagram for boxing up and verifying statements, in accordance with an embodiment;

Figures 6a to 6c are example screen shot of a task pane, in accordance with an embodiment;

Figure 7 is an example screen shot of a prospectus document that has been boxed up in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figures 8 to 13 are example screen shots of a portable webpage in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 14 is an example portal task pane, in accordance with an embodiment.

Detailed Description

The present invention relates to a computer implemented tool (hereafter verification tool) for facilitating the verification of content within a document. Embodiments described herein advantageously make use of document and application objects (that form part of the Microsoft® Office® environment) to generate and link boxed up content within the document to a database entry accessible by a portal which is utilised by document reviewers for verifying the content. As used herein, the term boxed up content will be understood as referring to any form of content within a document (e.g. text, tables, pictures, graphs) that has been marked for verification.

Embodiments are particularly suited for facilitating the verification of statements made in a prospectus and accordingly will be described in that context below. It will be understood, however, that embodiments are not so limited and the verification tool could be used for generating and facilitating the verification of any type of content within any type of document.

With reference to Figure 2 there is shown a system for implementing an embodiment of the present invention.

The system comprises a verification tool 10 that is implemented by a document processor of a user computer 100. The tool 10 takes the form of a computer program and according to the illustrated embodiment is an executable Word add-in that can be implemented by the document processor (in this instance Microsoft Word 2017, which can be downloaded at URL: https ://www.microsoft. com/en-us/download/office .aspx?q=office) .

According to the illustrated embodiment, the add-in 10 is written in Visual Studio 2017 (see URL:

https ://msdn.microsoft. com/enus/library/dd831853(v=vs.110).aspx) using C# programming language (see URL: https://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/aa903378(v=vs.71).aspx).

In more detail, the add-in 10 is programmed to display a tool bar in a menu or ribbon of the document processor which includes various user selectable icons for facilitating the boxing up of statements within a prospectus document (i.e. which a user has opened within the document processor). The add-in 10 additionally allows the user to create an online portal 12 that facilitates the assigning of statements to various document reviewers, and the subsequent reviewing and verification of the statements by the assigned reviewers. Figure 3 shows an example implementation of the add-in tool bar 200 appearing under the verification tab 201 of the document processor menu.

In order to create the online portal, the add-in 10 is communicable with a web server 102 implementing a web application programmed to provide an online portal 12. More particularly, the add-in 10 is configured to interface with a backend database 13 implemented by the web server 102.

According to the illustrated embodiment, the backend database 13 is a relational database, such as Microsoft SQL SERVER 2017.

As will be described in more detail in subsequent paragraphs, the add-in 10 is programmed to link text, footnotes and images that have been boxed up in the document to a C#(.Net) class collection object which can be stored in a backend relation database in connection with a unique document identifier. The entries in the database 13 essentially form a verification table, through use of application and document objects (in this case using the Microsoft Office Interop COM, which can be downloaded at URL: https://www.microsoft.com/enau/download/details.aspx?id=3508). This linking enables cross communication between the word processor, database and portal for synchronisation of comments, edits to statements, etc.

According to the illustrated embodiment, the communication between the add-in 10 and database 13 is facilitated using Microsoft Technology Stacks. Additional technology pieces and their workflow are depicted schematically in Figure 4a. As shown, according to the illustrated embodiment, ASP.Net Web API framework is implemented by the web application 12 for creating the portal. Figure 4b lists various boxing up, tasking and review functions that are implemented by the respective addin 10 and online portal 12 technologies.

As will be described in more detail in subsequent paragraphs, the online portal 12 has access to the backend relational database 13 and can be used to create tasks which are assigned to the document reviewers, where each task includes a particular statement in the webpage/portal to be reviewed.

Document owner and reviewers access the online web portal 12 via a browser on their network-enabled computing device 100/104. Communication between the server 102 and reviewer computing devices 104 is made over the network 106. The network 106 may be any suitable fixed and/or mobile communications network,

e.g., the Internet or a private intranet, and may use any suitable protocol for the exchange of electronic data, e.g., TCP/IP, NNTP, HTTP, HTTPS etc. In an alternative embodiment, users can access the portal via a native application installed on a personal user computer device (e.g. mobile phone, tablet, etc.), as will be well understood by persons skilled in the art.

A method for boxing up a prospectus document and subsequently verifying statements therein will now be described, with reference to the flow chart of Figure 5. Typically, the initial boxing up will be carried out by a junior lawyer or paralegal.

At step Si (Figure 5), the method involves opening or creating a new document (in this case a prospectus) and navigating to the verification tab 201. The user then clicks the Portal Login and Show Task Pane icon 202, which in turn causes a task pane to be displayed in Word program screen. As shown in Figure 6, the task pane 500 prompts the user to log in to the web application (which can be achieved using any standard log in techniques) . Once successfully logged in, the add-in 10 creates a Word.Document object for the prospectus 400.

At step S2, the user reviews the document and selects content that is representative of a statement to be verified (i.e. boxed up) within the prospectus document. The statement may take the form of text (whether in the body of the document or as a footnote), a table, or an image embedded within the document.

2019100978 30 Aug 2019

According to the illustrated embodiment, the user selects the content to be verified by highlighting the desired content (using the Microsoft Word text or hand selection tool) and then selects the Box Up icon 203 on the toolbar 200.

Alternatively, the user may select the Auto Boxing icon 204 which boxes up each paragraph, footnote, table and image or graphs automatically (excluding where there is rich text).

Responsive to the auto boxing icon 204 being selected, the addin 10 automatically boxes the content. According to the illustrated embodiment, this involves adding a content control item (see URL: https://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/office/ff821684.aspx) to the prospectus document including a title (which in this case is the statement number) and selected content. This effectively turns the statement for verification into a document object for subsequently linking to an entry in the backend relation database stored by the Microsoft's SQL Server database 13 (e.g. to sync edits and comments, highlight the corresponding statement when selected in the verification data C#(.Net) class collection object, etc.). The add-in 10 additionally reviews the selected content and adds a tag to indicate a type of content (i.e. text, cell, row, table, graph or image). The selected content and content control item will hereafter be referred to as verification data.

At step S3, the add-inlO calculates a unique statement number to be associated with the selected content (hereafter statement for verification). It will be understood by persons skilled in the art that the add-in 10 is not able to calculate the statement number by reference to the current page of the prospectus (since the notion of a page in Word is an arbitrary one that is not able to be consistently used for page generation) . In other words, the add-in 10 cannot communicate with Word® using code such as: get page 2, increment count for each content control count on page 2. To work around this problem, the add-in 10 implements an algorithm which calculates the statement number based on a determined page number output determined using the printer driver. Specifically, for each content control item, the algorithm determines x (x.l), where x is the current rendered page number and then increments the count n += 1 for each subsequent control item on the page (i.e. such that the next statement number is x.n+1).

When adding boxes manually (i.e. by selecting manual box up icon 202), the user must subsequently select the Update Numbering icon 206 and Update Highlighting in order for step S3 to be triggered.

Now, when the user hovers over a boxed statement or image in the document, the corresponding statement number will be displayed in a tag next to the statement or image.

The user can readily delete one or more previously boxed up statements by selecting the statement to be deleted and selecting the Remove Box icon 208 (which causes the add-in 10 to delete the corresponding content control item). Again, the user selects the Update Numbering icon 206 and Update Highlighting which instructs the add-in 10 to update the content control count for all content control items following the deleted item.

An example screenshot of a prospectus document 400 that has been boxed up using the add-in 10 is shown in Figure 7. In this instance the user has boxed up two items of content, namely a section of text 401 and an image 402. Since the user has selected the boxed-up image, the add-in 10 is controlled to display the corresponding statement number in tag 403.

Once the boxing up has been completed, at step S4, the user navigates to the task pane 500 and enters a unique document identifier for the document and clicks the create portal icon 504 (see Figure 6b). This in turn causes the web application to create a new portal using techniques as aforedescribed. In addition, the add-in 10 is instructed to send the verification data and corresponding content control items to the backend database 13 for populating data in the relation database associated with the newly created document identifier.

According to the illustrated embodiment, a WebApi within the add-in 10 is used for sending this data to the database 13.

Once the new portal has been created, the user can select the Sync Document icon 506 in the task pane 500 (see Figure 6c) to sync any changes made to the document (e.g. adding or removing boxes, etc.) to the database 13. Similarly, as will be described in more detail in subsequent paragraphs, any changes made to the relational data in the portal can be synced back to the document by selecting the Sync WebPortal Changes icon 508.

According to a particular embodiment, the verification related relational data in the database 13 comprises the following information for each boxed up statement (i.e. content control item) in the prospectus document:

(a) the statement number, (b) who the statement is to be verified by, (c) the content for verifying, (d) verification status, (e) any verification notes by a document reviewer, (f) any supporting documents uploaded by a document reviewer, (g) any footnotes in the document, noting where these relate to a boxed up statement, (h) the statement type, namely if the statement is:

• factual • an honestly and reasonably held opinion • part factual and part opinion • a heading • a cross reference • N/A.

Where the user has boxed up content other than text (as determined from an evaluation of the tag that was placed on the content control item in step 2), the add-in 10 performs a slightly different procedure to that described above depending on the nature of the object being selected, as will now be described.

Where the boxed content is an image or graph, the add-in 10 is programmed to recognise it as such and, in addition to carrying out the sub steps discussed above, creates a new statement number and row for the image or graph. Images and graphs are converted into a byte array when successfully boxed up. The byte array is subsequently communicated via webapi for storing in backed database 13 when creating or syncing with the portal.

When the images and graphs are to be displayed in the portal, they are pulled from the database 13 and loaded as part of a web page with the help of the following technologies - HTML, CSS and angular .

Word tables, on the other hand, are first converted to images by the add-in 10 and subsequently stored in the form of byte array during the box up process. During syncing, the byte array is sent to the portal via webapi for storing into the backend database .

Verification

Once the boxing up step has been completed, at step S5, opens the web portal 12 by selecting the Open Web Portal icon 510 in the task pane 500 (see particularly Figure 6c).

In response to receiving an open web portal command from the add-in 10, the web application sends code to the user computer 100 causing it to open a browser and navigate to the newly created portal. The portal displays a table of all the statements in the document 400. An example table is shown in Figure 8. As shown, for each boxed statement, the table 600 shows the corresponding statement number, the status, the statement type and the party or parties to which the statement, image, graph or table has been assigned.

At step S6, the user assigns statements to document reviewers. Reviewers can be added individually by clicking on the relevant statement, and typing the name of the reviewer in the Assigned To field 602. If the reviewer already has an account with the portal, the portal will automatically enter their name in the assigned to field. If the reviewer does not have an account, the portal will prompt the user to enter the necessary details for the reviewer (including digital contact information, such as an e-mail address).

The user can also enter a statement type for assisting the reviewer in their review of the statement. For example, the statement type may be selectable from a drop-down list with the following selections:

a) Cross reference

b) Factual

c) Heading

d) Honestly and reasonably held opinion

e) N/A

f) Part factual and part opinion

It will be understood that any desired statement type may be manually entered by the reviewer and that it need not be selected from a drop-down list. An example screen shot is shown in Figure 9 (see item 604).

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Still at step S6, images, graphs or tables can be marked up and assigned to different users. According to the illustrated embodiment, this is achieved by navigating to a statement details screen by clicking on the relevant image in the statement table 600. Images can be assigned to multiple reviewers using the Image verifications tab - assign to a new reviewer by clicking Add new (see item 606 of Figure 10).

The user can edit the image for providing review instructions,

e.g. for highlighting certain parts of the image that are to be reviewed. According to the illustrated embodiment (see Figure 11), the user can crop the image and add lines or text to the image. The edited image is then saved in the database 13.

According to the illustrated embodiment, the image editor is a programmed using HTML, Cascading Stylesheets and an angular2 based interactive component. The image is rendered on the user's browser using HTML 5 canvas. CSS, images and HTML are used in combination to enable users to interact with the editor, and to also create shapes which are used for different functions. A widget (i.e. computer programmable code) is provided that allows users to select the various functions like crop, draw line and add text. Based on user's selection from the widget, the corresponding tool is enabled inside the canvas where the image is rendered. For example, selecting the cropping tool causes a (+) shaped cursor to appear inside the canvas. The user can manipulate the cursor to create a rectangular cropping window, for cropping parts of the image that are not relevant for consideration by the reviewer. The user can then select the save image option, causing the newly cropped image to be saved (as a new version) in the database 13 for review by the assigned reviewer. In a particular embodiment, one image, or different marked up versions thereof, can be assigned to multiple users.

For example, the user may mark up and save a first version of the image to be reviewed by a first document reviewer and mark up a second version of the image for a second document reviewer.

As previously stated, the add-in 10 allows footnotes (i.e. associated with selected text forming part of a statement in the document 400) to be captured in the relational database. According to the illustrated embodiment, the footnotes are displayed in the statement details view when a statement is viewed in the portal. The user may add additional notes that can be seen by the reviewer(s).

The data stored in relational database 13 can also be searched, using the search options to look for specific text in a statement wording, a statement number, the status of the statement, and the name of the user the statement is assigned to .

The data stored in relational database can be bulk-edited, to allow easily editing of the different rows (note that the statement text or image may not be directly edited in this mode) by selecting the bulk edit function and clicking Save.

Once the statements have been assigned, the user instructs the online portal to communicate the assigned tasks to the respective document reviewers. The application 12 then sends out an email (or other suitable electronic communication using a suitable communication channel, e.g. SMS, via native mobile application, etc.) to the assigned parties notifying them of the verification task (step S7). According to the illustrated embodiment, an internal SMTP server and email scheduler is used to send emails to the parties (see Figure 4a).

According to the illustrated embodiment, the online web portal (website) is created using Microsoft technologies C#, webapi, backend database SQL Server and HTML, CSS, angular2. The step of uploading the verification data C# (.Net) class collection object (boxed up statements and word doc) comprises the application 12 transferring the collection through the webapi's HTTP request object to the backend relational database (SQL SERVER) and creating a new task for boxed up statement in the class object. The application 12 then retrieves every object (text, image, graph, table) and stores them in the SQL Server database 13. The application 12 then creates an account for each party that has not already saved on a database maintained by the web server 102. The document and its statements created in the database are identified by a unique user name (where Users are added in the system prior to the verification process). Account creation can take many forms, as will be understood by persons skilled in the art, but at a minimum will require an identifier for the part as well as information used to communicate with that party (e.g. an email address, telephone no., etc.). Once the account has been created, the application 12 adds that party to the portal and grants them access thereto.

The review process then involves the relevant parties logging in to the portal, where they are greeted with an overview screen of the prospectus.

According to the illustrated embodiment, the portal shows all tasks/statements assigned to the reviewer, all documents uploaded to the portal, as well as a graph which displays the current status of the verification. The reviewer can also view or download a read-only copy of the Word document 400 (either through the portal, or by downloading the document for opening in the Word program).

When in the portal, the user can then navigate to a task screen where are presented with a listing of the statements that they need to verify. Selecting an individual one of the statements takes them to a statement screen (see example screenshot of Figure 12), where they can update the verification notes section and status (mark the statement as verified). The reviewer can also upload files to support the verification of the statement. With reference to the example screen shot of Figure 13, this is achieved by selecting the reference files tab 610 (which causes a file explorer window to open), selecting the document(s) to upload, adding a description for each file and stating particulars (e.g. page numbers in the file that support the verification). Files uploaded by user are stored in the database 13 in association with the document identifier.

If a reviewer has a query, they can update the status to Flag and assign to the relevant lawyer, or other suitable party. The reviewer can also add a comment to the statement in the comments tab 612 and modify the statement text. The flagged party can respond to the query and update the status to Re-verify (which causes the statement to be re-assigned to the document reviewer).

The online portal advantageously stores each modified version of a statement in an audit log. A full version history and an audit of all changes made to the statement (and associated verification data) is available by selecting the history tab 614.

Once they have entered the relevant information, the document owner selects a sync from webportal icon (not shown). This causes the web application (and more specifically the webapi) to read each item from the backend database 13 of the document's associated statements. Once read it fetches the updated record on the document's PortalTaskPane. The application 12 then reads every row from the master table and applies the changes to the content control item using the Microsoft Office Interop com interface (i.e. such that the master prospectus document is also kept up to date, whereby statements within the content control items are evaluated to determine if any changes have been applied and if so the corresponding statement is updated, highlighted and a corresponding comment added.

2019100978 30 Aug 2019

In an alternative embodiment to that described above, the portal may be accessed directly from Microsoft Word (i.e. such that the portal is opened in the task pane 500 within Microsoft Word).

According to such an embodiment, after having connected to the portal the add-in 10 will download the relevant information from the portal for storing as an object array. This information may include: Box ID, Statement ID, Statement, Status, Assigned To (responsibility), Comments, Verification Details, Attachments, 10 Footnotes, Last Modified By, Last Modified At.

Thus, the add-in 10 allows the user to directly (i.e. within Word) read, update and delete items from the portal. To do this, the user selects the Show Portal Task Pane icon (see 213) which causes the items in the object array to be displayed in a task pane. An example task pain 500 is shown in Figure 14.

In this example, the statement (in this case statement no 1.001) is shown in text box 702. At any time, the user can sync any changes (i.e. made by other parties) from the portal by clicking Sync updates from portal 712. This will update the boxed up statement (i.e. shown in text box 702) with the text received from the portal. Similarly, the user can make changes to the portal item. To save changes to the portal the user selects the

Push updates to portal icon 714. In both instances, a connection to the portal is establish using a Microsoft RESTful Api service for updating the relevant item.

Once all the statements have been verified by the various parties, the final reviewer accesses the portal and reviews each of the verified statements (step S8). According to a particular embodiment, a lawyer may update the status for all statements to Finalised. A final version of the table can then be created for exporting, and supporting documents can be downloaded with an index (indicating the relevant statement number) into a zip file .

It will be understood that the above workflow advantageously happens in real time, such that each document reviewer (or the initial the user) can instantaneously see other reviewer updates by way of the overview screen.

Further Detail of System Configuration

The web server 102 can be any form of suitable server computer that is capable of communicating with user computing devices 104 via network 106. The server 102 may include typical web server hardware including a processor, motherboard, memory, hard disk and a power supply. The server 102 includes an operating system which co-operates with the hardware to provide an environment in which software applications can be executed. In this regard, the hard disk of the server 102 is loaded with a processing module which, under the control of the processor, is operable to implement the web application 12 for carrying out the aforementioned functions. In an alternative embodiment, the computer platform may be implemented as a cloud based application (i.e. in a secure web based cloud environment), using techniques which will be well understood by persons skilled in the art.

According to the illustrated embodiment, the user computing devices take the form of general purpose network enabled computers equipped with a browser and Microsoft Word and Excel applications. It will be appreciated, however, that the devices could be any suitable form of network-enabled computing device. For example, the devices may take the form of a special purpose device including a smart phone, tablet, or the like. Details of such devices (e.g. processor, memory, displays, data storage devices) are omitted for the sake of clarity.

The various aspects discussed herein may be implemented via any appropriate number and/or type of computer platform, modules, processors, memory, etc. each of which may be embodied in hardware, software, firmware, middleware and the like.

While the invention has been described with reference to the present embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that alterations, changes and improvements may be made and equivalents may be substituted for the elements thereof and steps thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt the invention to a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the central scope thereof. Such alterations, changes, modifications and improvements, though not expressly described above, are nevertheless intended and implied to be within the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment described herein and will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the independent claims.

In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word comprise or variations such as comprises or comprising is used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Claims (5)

1. THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

   1. A computer implemented tool for verifying statements within a document which can be opened by a document processor, comprising:

   a software add-in executable by the word processor and programmable to:

   (a) determine that a portion of content within the document has been selected by a user using a content selection tool, the portion of content being representative of a statement or image within the document;

   (b) responsive to making the determination, create a document object that contains the selected portion of content and associate the document object with a unique statement number;

   (c) create an entry in a database associated with a unique document identifier; and (d) link the entry in the database to the selected portion of content in the document utilising the document object.
2. 2. A computer implemented tool in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein the software add-in is further programmed to upload the document and corresponding document object(s) to a web application communicable with the database.
3. 3. A computer implemented portal for facilitating the verification of statements within a document, comprising:

   an application executable by a processor and programmable to :

   communicate with the database according to claim 1; provide an interface allowing one or more reviewers to :

   (a) review the portion (s) of content corresponding to statement number(s) they have been

   2019100978 30 Aug 2019 assigned and provide a comment and/or suggest changes in respect thereto; and (b) view comments and/or suggested changes made by other document reviewers.
4. 4. A computer implemented portal in accordance with claim 3, wherein the portal is further configured to allow the document reviewer(s) to upload documents supporting the comment, the uploaded document being stored in the database in association

   10 with the unique document identifier.
5. 5. A computer implemented portal in accordance with claim 3 or 4, wherein the portal is further configured to allow a user to assign selected image content to one or more document

   15 reviewer(s) and wherein the image can be modified using the portal prior to assigning the image.