Apparatus and method for consolidating reporting formulas

1 . A computer readable medium comprising executable instructions to:

consolidate formulas from a report;

display said formulas;

process edits to said formulas to identify valid and invalid edits; and

present revised formulas.

2 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said executable instructions to display include executable instructions to display said formulas as a text string.

3 . The computer readable medium of claim 2 wherein said executable instructions further comprise executable instructions to create a mapping between said formulas and said text string.

4 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said executable instructions to present include executable instructions to visually display valid and invalid edits.

5 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to apply said revised formulas to said report.

6 . The computer readable medium of claim 5 wherein said executable instructions to apply include executable instructions to apply said revised formulas to said report by saving said report.

7 . A computer readable medium, comprising:

a formula consolidation module to consolidate formulas from a report;

a graphical user interface module to display said formulas; and

a report engine with a syntax module to process edits to said formulas to identify valid and invalid edits, wherein the graphical user interface module presents revised formulas.

8 . The computer readable medium of claim 7 wherein the graphical user interface module displays said formulas as a text string.

9 . The computer readable medium of claim 8 further comprising executable instructions to create a mapping between said formulas and said text string.

10 . The computer readable medium of claim 7 wherein the graphical user interface module visually displays valid and invalid edits.