Merchant cash advance payment deferrals

• US 10,628,816 B1
• Filed: 03/05/2018
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Scott, John Bryan, Boates, Brian, Fern, Adam Jeremy, Kimball, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawley, Talia F
• Application Number:
  US15/911,221
• Time in Patent Office: 778 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

In some examples, a payment processing system may receive, from merchant devices of a plurality of merchants, transaction data of transactions performed between the merchants and customers. The system may provide financing to an account of a first merchant with repayment terms based on one or more attributes of the first merchant determined from the received transaction data. The system may receive service information from at least one service performed for a business of the first merchant and may determine a state of the business of the first merchant. Based on the received transaction data and the state of the business of the first merchant, the system may determine that the first merchant is expected to have a decrease in sales. The system may determine a deferral period based on the expected decrease in sales and may refrain from taking repayment of the financing for the deferral period.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a payment processing system, from a plurality of merchant computing devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction data of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of customers;

providing, by the payment processing system, financing to an account of a first merchant, wherein repayment terms of the financing are based at least in part on one or more attributes of the first merchant determined from the received transaction data;

receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant;

receiving, by the payment processing system, service information for at least one additional service provided to the first merchant by a payment processing service provider who operates the payment processing system as a service, wherein the service information is indicative of at least one state of a business of the first merchant;

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the received transaction data and the received service information, that the first merchant is expected to have a decrease in sales;

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the expected decrease in sales, a deferral period for repayment of the financing from the first merchant; and

refraining, by the payment processing system, from taking repayment of the financing for the deferral period.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one additional service includes at least of:

an invoicing service;

an inventory service;

a payroll service;

an appointment service;

a feedback service;

a business analytics service;

a pickup service;

or a delivery service.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant comprises receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant by withholding a portion of funds from transactions conducted using a first point-of-sale terminal associated with the first merchant and processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system, wherein the portion of funds withheld is determined according to the repayment terms for the financing determined from the received transaction data.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first merchant is expected to have the decrease in sales further comprises:

retrieving, by the payment processing system, from the transaction data, merchant account information for the first merchant and merchant account information for a plurality of other merchants determined by the payment processing system to be similar to the first merchant; and

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the service information from the at least one service, the merchant account information for the first merchant, and the merchant account information for the plurality of other merchants, that the first merchant is expected to have the decrease in sales for an upcoming time period.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the merchant computing devices include respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant computing devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, respectively, the respective instances of the merchant application configuring the respective POS terminals to communicate the transaction data over a network to the payment processing system, the respective instances of the merchant application further configuring the POS terminals to present a financing interface to enable a respective merchant to receive an offer for financing and the repayment terms of the financing.

6. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a payment processing system, from a plurality of merchant computing devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction data of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of customers;

providing, by the payment processing system, financing to an account of a first merchant, wherein repayment terms of the financing are based at least in part on one or more attributes of the first merchant determined from the received transaction data;

receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant;

receiving, by the payment processing system, service information from at least one service performed for a business of the first merchant;

determining, by the payment processing system, at least one state of the business of the first merchant based on the received service information;

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the received transaction data and the at least one state of the business of the first merchant, that the first merchant is expected to have a decrease in sales;

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the expected decrease in sales, a deferral period for repayment of the financing from the first merchant; and

refraining, by the payment processing system, from taking repayment of the financing for the deferral period.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the at least one service from which the service information is received includes at least one of:

an invoicing service;

an inventory service;

a payroll service;

an appointment service;

a feedback service;

a business analytics service;

a pickup service;

or a delivery service.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant comprises receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant by withholding a portion of funds from transactions conducted using a first point-of-sale terminal associated with the first merchant and processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system, wherein the portion of funds withheld is determined according to the repayment terms for the financing determined from the received transaction data.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein refraining from taking repayment of the financing for the deferral period comprises:

determining whether a threshold amount of transactions have been processed; and

withholding funds for repayment only on transactions above the threshold.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the merchant computing devices include respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant computing devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, respectively, the respective instances of the merchant application configuring the respective POS terminals to communicate the transaction data over a network to the payment processing system, the respective instances of the merchant application further configuring the POS terminals to present a financing interface to enable a respective merchant to receive an offer for financing and the repayment terms of the financing.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, the method further comprising:

sending, by the payment processing system, an offer for the financing including the repayment terms to a first POS terminal associated with the first merchant for presentation in the financing interface on the first POS terminal; and

receiving, by the payment processing system, from the first POS terminal, via the financing interface, one of;

an acceptance of the offer for the financing;

or

a request for financing of a different amount.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the one or more attributes of the first merchant determined from the received transaction data include one or more of:

a historical performance of the first merchant;

a number of payments accepted by the first merchant;

a number of payment card swipes through a first POS terminal associated with the first merchant;

an amount of held funds associated with the account of the first merchant;

or

a status of the account of the first merchant.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining that the first merchant is expected to have the decrease in sales further comprises:

retrieving, by the payment processing system, from the transaction data, merchant account information for the first merchant and merchant account information for a plurality of other merchants determined by the payment processing system to be similar to the first merchant; and

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the service information from the at least one service, the merchant account information for the first merchant, and the merchant account information for the plurality of other merchants, that the first merchant is expected to have the decrease in sales for an upcoming time period.

14. A payment processing system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory storing instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a plurality of merchant computing devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction data of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of customers;

providing financing to an account of a first merchant, wherein repayment terms of the financing are based at least in part on one or more attributes of the first merchant determined from the received transaction data;

receiving repayment of the financing from the first merchant;

receiving service information from at least one service performed for a business of the first merchant;

determining at least one state of the business of the first merchant based on the received service information;

determining based on the received transaction data and the at least one state of the business of the first merchant, that the first merchant is expected to have a decrease in sales;

determining based on the expected decrease in sales, a deferral period for repayment of the financing from the first merchant; and

refraining from taking repayment of the financing for the deferral period.

15. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the at least one service from which the service information is received includes at least one of:

an invoicing service;

an inventory service;

a payroll service;

an appointment service;

a feedback service;

a business analytics service;

a pickup service;

or a delivery service.

16. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the operation of receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant comprises receiving, by the payment processing system, repayment of the financing from the first merchant by withholding a portion of funds from transactions conducted using a first point-of-sale terminal associated with the first merchant and processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system, wherein the portion of funds withheld is determined according to the repayment terms for the financing determined from the received transaction data.

17. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the merchant computing devices include respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant computing devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, respectively, the respective instances of the merchant application configuring the respective POS terminals to communicate the transaction data over a network to the payment processing system, the respective instances of the merchant application further configuring the POS terminals to present a financing interface to enable a respective merchant to receive an offer for financing and the repayment terms of the financing.

18. The payment processing system of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

sending, by the payment processing system, an offer for the financing including the repayment terms to a first POS terminal associated with the first merchant for presentation in the financing interface on the first POS terminal; and

receiving, by the payment processing system, from the first POS terminal, via the financing interface, one of;

an acceptance of the offer for the financing;

or

a request for financing of a different amount.

19. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the one or more attributes of the first merchant determined from the received transaction data include one or more of:

a historical performance of the first merchant;

a number of payments accepted by the first merchant;

a number of payment card swipes through a first POS terminal associated with the first merchant;

an amount of held funds associated with the account of the first merchant;

or

a status of the account of the first merchant.

20. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the operation of determining that the first merchant is expected to have the decrease in sales further comprises:

retrieving, by the payment processing system, from the transaction data, merchant account information for the first merchant and merchant account information for a plurality of other merchants determined by the payment processing system to be similar to the first merchant; and

determining, by the payment processing system, based on the service information from the at least one service, the merchant account information for the first merchant, and the merchant account information for the plurality of other merchants, that the first merchant is expected to have the decrease in sales for an upcoming time period.