Automated expense reports systems and methods

• US 10,210,579 B1
• Filed: 09/22/2014
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emburse, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Certify, Inc. (Emburse, Inc.)
• Inventors: Neveu, Alan, Neveu, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Mansfield, Thomas L
• Application Number:
  US14/493,159
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

According to another aspect, a computer system is provided. The computer system includes a memory; at least one processor in data communication with the memory; and a reporting component executable by the at least processor and configured to execute a user interface component configured to receive schedule information, the schedule information including a company-wide schedule specifying an expense report generation date and at least one reminder; store the schedule information in a data store; send the at least one reminder to a plurality of users prior to the expense report generation date; and generate, on the expense report generation date, a plurality of expense reports respectively corresponding to the plurality of users.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory;

at least one processor in data communication with the memory; and

a reporting component executable by the at least one processor and configured to;

generate a user interface configured to receive schedule information, the schedule information including a company-wide schedule associated with a plurality of users specifying a trigger date and at least one reminder, wherein the reporting component is configured to;

store the schedule information in a data store; and

generate, on the expense report generation date, a plurality of expense reports respectively corresponding to the plurality of users;

wherein the user interface generated by the reporting component is configured to limit entry of expenses in the user interface for a plurality of expense reports to those expenses that have a transaction date that precedes the trigger date by at least a buffer time period, wherein the user interface is configured to evaluate an input received and deny the input responsive to failing buffer period validation; and

a receipt parsing component executable by at least one processor and configured to;

access a plurality of regular expressions associated with a plurality of vendor elements;

identify a string of characters in received text generated by optical character recognition (OCR) executed on a receipt that matches a character pattern specified by at least one regular expression of the plurality of regular expressions, wherein the at least one regular expression includes metacharacters;

capture a value of a vendor element from the received text, wherein the value of the vendor element comprises the string of characters that match the character pattern;

access reference data specifying additional elements associated with the value of the vendor element and information to identify values of the additional elements;

capture the values of the additional elements in the text based on the reference data, wherein capturing the values of the additional elements includes;

searching the text for regular expressions associated with the additional elements; and

locating the values of the additional elements using receipt format information associated with the additional elements that specifies locations for the values relative to the regular expressions;

automatically assign a category for a transaction described by the receipt and received OCR text using at least one of the value of the vendor element and at least one values of the additional elements; and

input, automatically, the value of the vendor element, the values of the additional elements, and the category in a data store responsive to buffer period validation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to:

accept, from the user interface, a user input specifying a period of time prior to the trigger date having a date different than the trigger date to send at least one reminder; and

store the period of time prior to the trigger date in the data store, wherein the at least one reminder includes customized text.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the period of time prior to the trigger date specifies a date relative to the trigger date and the reporting component is configured to send the at least one reminder on the date relative to the trigger date.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the reporting component is configured to send one or more reminders after the trigger date.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the schedule information includes schedule information specifying a date relative to the trigger date and the reporting component is configured to send the one or more reminders on the date relative to the trigger date.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the schedule information includes at least one employee-specific schedule specifying an employee-specific trigger date for at least one employee user and the reporting component is further configured to generate, on the employee-specific trigger date, at least one expense report corresponding to the at least one employee user.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein limiting the entry of expenses into the plurality of expense reports includes:

setting an end date of at least one date range associated with the plurality of expense reports to a date that precedes the trigger date by the buffer time period; and

generating the plurality of expense reports to include transactions dated prior to or on the end date and no transactions dated after the end date.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reporting component is further configured to synchronize generation of the plurality of expense reports based on the trigger date.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a merging component executable by the at least one processor and configured to:

evaluate expense report information data from a plurality of data sources, wherein the expense report information data includes a first data set received from a first data source and a second data set received from a second data source;

identify a first element of a plurality of elements in the first data set, the first element being descriptive of a first characteristic of a transaction;

identify a second element of a plurality of elements in the second data set, the second element being descriptive of the first characteristic of the transaction;

identify a respective expense element type and data source of each of the first and second elements;

determine a presence of at least one additional expense element within each of the first and second data sets, the at least one additional expense element being descriptive of a second characteristic of the transaction;

store cross-reference data in the memory, the cross-reference data mapping a plurality of element types and data sources to a plurality of weight values;

dynamically assign a first weight to the first element based at least on the respective expense element type, the respective data source, and the presence of the at least one additional expense element within the first set of data, the dynamically assigning of the first weight comprising;

identifying a mapping in the cross-reference data of the respective element type and the respective data source to a first weight value;

adjusting the first weight value responsive to determining that the first data set includes the at least one additional expense element; and

setting the adjusted first weight value as the first weight;

dynamically assign a second weight to the second element based at least on the respective expense element type, the respective data source, and the presence of the at least one additional expense element within the second set of data, the dynamically assigning of the second weight comprising;

identifying a mapping in the cross-reference data of the respective element type and the respective data source to a second weight value;

adjusting the second weight value responsive to determining that the second data set includes the at least one additional expense element; and

setting the adjusted second weight value as the second weight;

compare the first weight to the second weight;

select, based at least on the comparison of the first and second weights, one of the first element and the second element; and

generate automatically a set of expense report information including the selected one of the first and second elements as input to the reporting component.

8. A method for managing automatic generation of expense reports using a computer system, the method comprising:

generating, by the computer system, a user interface configured to receive schedule information the schedule information including a company-wide schedule associated with a plurality of users specifying a trigger date and at least one reminder;

storing, by the computer system, the schedule information in a data store;

generating, by the computer system, on the expense report generation date, a plurality of expense reports respectively corresponding to the plurality of users;

limiting, by the computer system, entry of expenses in a user interface for a plurality of expense reports to those expenses that have a transaction date that precedes the trigger date by at least a buffer time period, wherein the user interface is configured to evaluate an input received and deny the input responsive to failing buffer period validation;

identifying, by a receipt parsing component, a string of characters in received text generated by optical character recognition (OCR) executed on a receipt that matches a character pattern specified by at least one regular expression of a plurality of regular expressions, wherein the at least one regular expression includes metacharacters;

accessing, by the receipt parsing component, a plurality of regular expressions associated with a plurality of vendor elements;

capturing, by the receipt parsing component, a value of a vendor element from the received text, wherein the value of the vendor element comprises the string of characters that match the character pattern;

accessing, by the receipt parsing component, reference data specifying additional elements associated with the value of the vendor element and information to identify values of the additional elements;

capturing, by the receipt parsing component, the values of the additional elements in the text based on the reference data, wherein capturing the values of the additional elements includes;

searching the text for regular expressions associated with the additional elements; and

locating the values of the additional elements using receipt format information associated with the additional elements that specifies locations for the values relative to the regular expressions;

automatically assign a category for a transaction described by the receipt and received OCR text using at least one of the value of the vendor element and at least one values of the additional elements; and

inputting automatically, by the computer system, the value of the vendor element, the values of the additional elements, and the category in a data store responsive to buffer period validation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

accepting, from the user interface, a user input specifying a period of time prior to the trigger date having a date different than the trigger date to send the least one reminder;

sending, at the stored period of time prior to the trigger date, the at least one reminder to a the plurality of users;

wherein sending the at least one reminder includes sending customized text.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the period of time prior to the trigger date specifies a date relative to the trigger date and sending the at least one reminder includes sending the at least one reminder on the date relative to the trigger date.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further includes sending one or more reminders after the trigger date.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, accepting, from the user interface, a date relative to the trigger date and sending the one or more reminders on the date relative to the trigger date.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising specifying an employee-specific trigger date for at least one employee user and generating, on the employee-specific trigger date, at least one expense report corresponding to the at least one employee user.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein limiting the entry of expenses into the plurality of expense reports includes:

setting an end date of at least one date range associated with the plurality of expense reports to a date that precedes the trigger date by the buffer time period; and

generating the plurality of expense reports to include transactions dated prior to or on the end date and no transactions dated after the end date.