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Universal system for enabling dynamically discounted buyer-vendor payments

  • US 10,607,236 B2
  • Filed: 07/11/2012
  • Issued: 03/31/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for enabling dynamically discounted payment automated payment system, comprising:

  • receiving or accessing data from a first plurality of invoices associated with multiple vendors that are registered with a universal payment system, wherein a sub-set of the first plurality of invoices comprises a second plurality of the invoices associated with a given one of the vendors registered with the universal payment system and a second plurality of the buyers registered with the universal payment system, wherein each of the second plurality of the invoices is associated with a different respective one of the second plurality of the buyers and comprises an invoice amount to be paid by a deadline, wherein the step is performed by one or more processors of the universal payment system receiving or accessing the data from a data repository, wherein the data repository comprises;

    vendor financial account data and vendor financial institutions for a first plurality of vendors;

    buyer financial account data and buyer financial institutions for a first plurality of buyers;

    historical buyer early payment data; and

    information on a network of financial institutions that can receive image cash letters directly from the universal payment system;

    receiving, by the one or more processors via synchronization with respective buyer accounting systems or via a web interface of the universal payment system, electronic notification of payment information comprising dates associated with payments for the respective second plurality of the invoices;

    obtaining, by the one or more processors, an amount of funds needed for vendor cash flow;

    accessing in the data repository by the one or more processors, the historical buyer early payment data for multiple of the second plurality of the buyers;

    calculating, by the one or more processors, early payment prediction data indicating a probability for early payment for the second plurality of the invoices based at least on the historical buyer early payment data comprising historical behavior patterns for one or more of the buyers associated with the second plurality of the invoices;

    selecting, by the one or more processors, invoices for early payment based at least in part on the early payment prediction data calculated for the second plurality of the invoices, the respective amounts of the invoices, and the amount of funds needed;

    making, by the one or more processors, the invoices selected and the early payment prediction data available to the given vendor;

    determining, by the one or more processors, a first set of the invoices from the second plurality of invoices based at least in part on data received from the given vendor;

    sending, via the universal payment system, a request to a first set of the buyers associated with the first set of the invoices to make an early payment of the invoices for a respective discount;

    receiving data, via the universal payment system, from one or more of the buyers associated with the first set of the one or more invoices indicating agreement to make the early payment of the one or more invoices;

    determining, by the one or more processors via accessing the data repository, a vendor financial institution and a vendor account associated with the given vendor;

    determining, by the one or more processors via accessing the data repository, one or more buyer financial institutions and one or more buyer accounts associated with the one or more buyers indicating agreement, wherein the given vendor is not required to know the buyer financial institutions and the buyer accounts;

    calculating, by the one or more processors, for each of the one or more buyers that has indicated agreement for an early payment, a reduced invoice amount based upon the respective discount of the agreed early payment of invoices;

    facilitating transfer, via the universal payment system, of a credit from the each of the one or more buyer accounts at the one or more buyer financial institutions to the vendor account at the vendor financial institution, wherein the credit is based at least in part upon the one or more reduced invoice amounts calculated for the one or more of the early payment invoices, wherein the facilitating transfer step comprises;

    determining, by the one or more processors, whether the vendor financial institution of the given vendor can receive image cash letters directly from the universal payment system;

    creating, by the one or more processors, for each of the one or more buyer accounts an image of a check drawn on the respective buyer account and affixing a signature of the respective buyer to the check, or receiving, by the one or more processors an image of a check with a signature of the respective buyer;

    creating, by the one or more processors, an image cash letter based in part on the one or more of the checks;

    creating, by the one or more processors, an image cash file including the image cash letter;

    uploading, by the one or more processors, the image cash file periodically to the vendor financial institution;

    processing, by the one or more processors, payment to the vendor financial institution using the image cash letter;

    sending, by the universal payment system, an image cash letter to the vendor financial institution for the credit to the vendor account at the vendor financial institution; and

    sending or making accessible, by the one or more processors, information about the image cash letter to an accounting system of the given vendor or via a web interface of the universal payment system, to allow the credit to be applied,the method further comprising;

    indicating, by the one or more processors in a synchronization queue, that data changes are available to be synchronized into an accounting system of the respective buyer;

    integrating the data changes indicated as available into the accounting system of the respective buyer when the respective buyer approves the synchronization or turns on auto synchronizing capabilities;

    computing, by the one or more processors, a hash of material fields in new data;

    comparing, by the one or more processors, the computed hash with a hash of material fields in data of the accounting system of the respective buyer;

    determining, by the one or more processors, based on a result of the comparison, whether changes between the new data and the accounting system data are material;

    indicating, by the one or more processors, in the synchronization queue, data changes determined to be material; and

    integrating the data changes determined to be material into the accounting system of the respective buyer.

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