JP2000020620A - Electronic document approval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform verification of an approval signature of a document, in which an approval is generated intermediately for an electronic document which is being prepared. SOLUTION: In an electronic document approval device, which outputs an approval signature to a prepared or updated electronic document and performs approval, the device is equipped with an input means for performing executing input of an approval of the electronic document, an output means for outputting the approval signature, an approval data and time management table 21 for managing an execute date and time of the approval signature, an approval signature generation means 21 which adopts the date and time for executing the approval, generates an approval signature on the basis of the date and time, a name of a person who approves and stores the date and time of execution of the approved signature, the name of the person who approves and information by the document kind in the approval date and time management table, and a verification means 22 for verifying authenticity of the approval signature.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic document approval apparatus for approving an electronic document, and more particularly to an electronic document approval apparatus for approving an electronic document requiring an intermediate approval. Technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the technology for digitizing documents has been advanced, and devices for checking changes in documents using time stamps at the time of document creation have also been developed. As such a method, for example, a document determination method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-271465 is cited.
Whether or not the content of the stored document has been changed since the time of document creation can be determined using a code using the time stamp of the document.

[0003]

In the prior art, it is determined whether or not the content of a stored document has been changed since the time of document creation. However, there is a problem that the method cannot be applied to a document for which approval is required because the document is periodically updated.

For example, in a document such as a work report that requires the approval of a superior every week, it is not possible to verify an intermediate (every week) approval sign.

Although the above-described document determination method uses approval image data such as a seal and a signature, the approval image data can be easily imitated on an electronic document. Not suitable for verification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an approval signature even for a document in which approval is generated in the middle of an electronic document being created. It is to provide a technology that can be verified.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Among the inventions disclosed in the present application, the outline of a representative one will be briefly described.
It is as follows.

[0008] An electronic document approval device that outputs an approval signature to a created or updated electronic document to approve the electronic document,
Input means for inputting the execution of the approval of the electronic document, output means for outputting the approval signature, an approval date and time management table for managing the execution date and time of the approval signature, and numbering the date and time for executing the approval. Means for generating an approval signature based on the date and time and the name of the approver, and executing the date and time of execution of the approval sign, the name of the approver, and storing information of the document type in the approval date and time management table; Verification means for verifying the validity of the approval signature based on the approval date and time management table.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic document approval device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, an electronic document approval device 1 according to the present embodiment includes a storage device 2 for storing a document to be approved (hereinafter referred to as a document) and a means for approval, and an input device 3 for inputting execution of an approval signature. And a CPU 4 for executing means for approval, and an output device 5 for outputting an approval signature.

In the storage device 2, an approval date and time management table 20 for managing the approval signature based on the approval date and time, an approval date and time when the approval is executed, and an approval signature including the date and the name of the approver are stored. The approval date and time, the name of the approver, and the information of the document type are generated and the approval date / time management table 20 is generated.
, An approval signature generating unit 21, a verification unit 22 for verifying the validity of the approval signature, and document data 23 for approval.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the above-mentioned approval date and time management table 20. As shown in FIG. 2, the approval date and time management table 20 of the present embodiment includes an
01, a document type 202 to be approved,
The approval date / time 203 (in seconds) for each item number is stored.

Next, the approval sign generation processing of the approval sign generation means 21 and the verification processing of the verification means 22 will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an approval signature generation process according to this embodiment. In the approval signature generation process, as shown in FIG.
An approval date management table 20 is created for each (step 30).
1) The approval date and time are numbered from the date and time of execution of the approval signature (step 302), and an approval signature is generated (step 303).

Then, information of the approval signature (approver name 201, document type 202, approval date and time 203) is stored in the approval date and time management table 20 (step 304), and the approval signature is output to the document (step 305).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a verification process according to this embodiment. The verification process, as shown in FIG.
The approver name and approval date and time are extracted from the target document (step 401), and it is determined whether the approval date and time are the same as those registered in the approver name 201 and the approval date and time 203 of the approval date and time management table 20 (step 401). 402) If not the same, proceed to step 405.

If there is the same one, then it is determined whether or not the approval date and time is not an improper duplication of another approval signature (approval date and time) based on the presence or absence of the approval date and time 203 (step 403). If there is no overlap, it is regarded as valid, and O
K is displayed (step 404), and if the approval date and time is not the same as that registered in the approval date and time management table 20 in step 402, or if there is a duplication in step 403, it is regarded as invalid and NG is displayed. (Step 405). Thereby, it is verified whether the approval signature (approver name / approval date and time) is a registered one and is the only valid one.

Next, as an operation example of the approval signature described in the present embodiment, a case where a person in charge submits a work report to have the worker approve will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an operation example of the work report approval sign. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of approval of the work report.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 501 denotes a person in charge of approval, reference numeral 502 denotes an approver who performs intermediate approval of the person in charge 501, and reference numeral 503 denotes a final approver who performs final approval. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 601 denotes a document type (work report, September 1997); 602, a person in charge (Hitachi Jiro);
3 is the approval sign of the intermediate approver (Taro Hitachi) for each week, 6
Reference numeral 04 denotes the end-of-month approval stamp imprinted on the paper output at the end of the month by the intermediate approver, reference numeral 605 denotes the end of the month by the final approver (Hanako Hitachi), and reference numeral 606 denotes the contents of the work report.

As shown in FIG. 5, the operation of the approval sign in the work report is first performed. When the person in charge 501 prepares the work report, the content 60 of the work report is sent to the intermediate approver 502.
6 is requested (flow 510), and the intermediate approver 50
2 is an approval date / time management table 20 by the approval signature generation means 21
, And electronically approve the work report and return to the person in charge 501 (flow 511).

Thereafter, every time the person in charge 501 updates the information (weekly), the intermediate approver 502 is similarly requested to approve the updated contents 606 of the work report (flow 512, flow 514). Each time the data is updated, a number is assigned to the approval date and time management table 20, the work report is electronically approved, and the work report is returned to the person in charge 501 (flow 513, flow 515).
This electronic approval is performed with an approval signature 603 including an approver name and an approval date and time as shown in FIG.

When the person in charge 501 makes the final update (end of the month), he requests the interim approver 502 to approve the end of the month 606 of the contents of the work update that has been finally updated (flow 516).
The intermediate approver 502 assigns a number to the approval date / time management table 20 by the approval signature generating means 21 and performs electronic approval at the end of the month on the work report.

After the electronic approval at the end of the month, the intermediate authenticator 502 verifies the approval signature 603 for each document of each person 501 of the work report by the verification means 22, and obtains each approval signature (approver name, approval date and time). ) Is properly registered and is the only valid one (Flow 517). If the result of this verification shows an incorrect approval signature 603, it is returned to the person in charge as "NG" (Flow 517). 518) If “OK”, the end-of-month approval mark 604 shown in FIG. 6 is stamped. The approval verification result at this time is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the document type (work report September 1997) 701, the approver (Hitachi Taro) 702,
And the verification result 703 of each document. The example illustrated in FIG. 7 indicates that the document 7 has “NG”, and the approval of the document 7 is returned to the person in charge as invalid.

Finally, when the end-of-month approval mark 604 is stamped by the intermediate approver 502, the end-of-month end mark 605 is stamped by the final approver 603. Thereby, all the approvals are completed.

Therefore, in an electronic document approval apparatus for approving an electronic document, when the approver signs the approval, the date and time at which the approval is executed is numbered, and the approval is performed based on the date and the name of the approver. Approval signature generation means for generating a signature, storing the execution date and time of the approval signature, the name of the approver, and the document type in the approval date management table, and the approval signature is valid based on the approval date management table. Verification means for verifying that the approver uses the approver name and approval date and time as an approval signature, and checks whether the approval signature matches the approval date and time management table, and performs multiple approvals at the same time among multiple documents By examining the uniqueness of the approval signature to determine whether or not there is no signature, it is possible to verify whether the signature is not a copy that is imitated. Also you can verify the approval sign the document approval occurs.

The approval signature generation means 21 and the verification means 22 described in the present embodiment may be realized by a computer-executable program, and the program at that time may be a floppy disk, a CD / ROM, or the like. It is provided to general users on a storage medium. In this case, in addition to these processes, the program may be provided to the user in combination with another program such as a GUI program.

As an alternative means provided by the above-mentioned storage medium, it may be provided through a network such as the Internet for a fee.

As described above, the invention made by the present inventor is:
Although specifically described based on the embodiment, the present invention
It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0028]

The effects obtained by the representative ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows. The approver name and approval date and time are used as the approval signature, and the only approval signature that indicates whether the approval signature matches the approval date management table and whether there are multiple approvals at the same time between multiple documents By verifying the signature, it is possible to verify whether or not the signature is not the imitation signature, so verify the approval signature for the document that is approved in the middle of the electronic document being created. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic document approval device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an approval date management table.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an approval signature generation process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a verification process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an operation example of a work report approval sign.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of work report approval.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an approval verification result.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Electronic document approval device 2. Storage device 3. Input device
4 CPU, 5 output device, 20 approval date and time management table, 2
1. Approval signature generation means, 22 verification means, 23 document data.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic document approval device that outputs an approval signature to a created or updated electronic document to perform approval, and an input unit that inputs execution of approval of the electronic document, and outputs the approval signature. Output means, an approval date and time management table for managing the date and time of execution of the approval signature, numbering the date and time of execution of the approval, and generating an approval signature based on the date and time and the name of the approver; A signature execution date and time, an approver's name, an approval signature generation unit that stores information of a document type in the approval date and time management table, and a verification unit that verifies the validity of the approval signature based on the approval date and time management table. An electronic document approval device comprising: 2. The electronic document approval apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the verification unit determines whether or not the information of the approval signature matches information of an approval date and time management table, and determines whether the information is the same among a plurality of documents. An electronic document approval device comprising means for verifying whether or not there is a plurality of approvals at time.