Interactive bill payment center

• US 20010032182A1
• Filed: 02/16/2001
• Published: 10/18/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yodlee Incorporated (Envestnet Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Yodlee.com, Inc. (Envestnet Incorporated)
• Inventors: Scott, Jennifer Green, Kumar, Srihari, Kelley, John, Desai, Satyen, Pandurangan, Senthil Kumar, Hayward, Blake Earl
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,325 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers

Abstract

A software suite for enabling viewing and manipulation of multiple categories of aggregated data compiled from a plurality of data sources and accessible through a single interfacing node operated on a data-packet-network is provided. A bill-payment module is provided within the software suite and comprises, an interactive main interface accessible from the module for listing the bills due and payment accounts, an interactive history link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for viewing bill history, an interactive set-up link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for configuring recurring payments, an interactive transfer-funds link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for enabling automated transfer of funds between registered accounts, an interactive calendar link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for viewing calendar data, a plurality of interactive drop-down menus, each menu associated with a listed bill, the menus providing upon invocation a plurality of selectable, interactive options for treating the listed bill and an interactive refresh-all link embedded in the main interface for enabling selective or complete data refreshing of data displayed in the interface. A user operating the main interface from a remote node having access to the data-packet-network may view all aggregated bills and initiate treatment of such bills according to selected interactive options. The treatment is ordered by the operating user and performed by proxy by a service entity hosting the interface.

Claims

1. In a software suite for enabling viewing and manipulation of multiple categories of aggregated data compiled from a plurality of data sources and accessible through a single interfacing node operated on a data-packet-network, a bill-payment module comprising:

an interactive main interface accessible from the module for listing the bills due and payment accounts;

an interactive history link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for viewing bill history;

an interactive set-up link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for configuring recurring payments;

an interactive transfer-funds link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for enabling automated transfer of funds between registered accounts;

an interactive calendar link embedded in the main interface for providing access to a secondary interface for viewing calendar data;

a plurality of interactive drop-down menus, each menu associated with a listed bill, the menus providing upon invocation a plurality of selectable, interactive options for treating the listed bill; and

an interactive refresh-all link embedded in the main interface for enabling selective or complete data refreshing of data displayed in the interface, characterized in that a user operating the main interface from a remote node having access to the data-packet-network may view all aggregated bills and initiate treatment of such bills according to selected interactive options, the treatment ordered by the operating user and performed by proxy by a service entity hosting the interface.

2. The bill-payment module of

claim 1

, wherein the data-packet-network is the Internet network.

3. The bill-payment module of

claim 2

, wherein the plurality of data sources are services accessible over the Internet and subscribed to by the operating user.

4. The bill-payment module of

claim 3

, wherein the accessible services are hosted in file servers addressed on the Internet network.

5. The bill-payment module of

claim 4

, wherein the remote node is a personal computer with accessibility to the Internet.

6. The bill-payment module of

claim 5

, wherein the main and secondary interfaces are provided in the form of hyper-text-markup-language.

7. The bill-payment module of

claim 4

, wherein the remote node is a cellular telephone with accessibility to the Internet.

8. The bill-payment module of

claim 4

, wherein the remote node is a hand-held computer with accessibility to the Internet.

9. The bill-payment module of

claim 4

, wherein the interactive set-up link provides an additional secondary interface for manually adding new bills to be listed in the main interface for bill payment.

10. The bill-payment module of

claim 6

, wherein the interactive options for treating a listed bill include viewing a full account of the bill, paying the bill, marking the bill has paid, deleting the bill, obtaining advice regarding selected treatment of the bill, and receiving an alert associated with the bill.

11. The bill-payment module of

claim 10

, wherein obtaining advice regarding selected treatment of the bill includes calculated and solution-oriented results.

12. If the bill-payment module of

claim 10

, wherein selection of the option for viewing a full account of the bill causes automated navigation and log-in to a third party site hosting a full accounting of the bill.

13. An interactive bill-payment system for enabling online management and treatment of itemized bills by proxy over a data-packet-network comprising:

a first server node connected to the network, the server node providing a service-access-point for accessing users;

a second server node connected to the network and accessible to the first server node, the second server node providing automated navigation, data procurement, and data aggregation on behalf of the accessing users;

a plurality of server nodes connected to the network and accessible to the second server node, the server node functioning as data sources for the data procurement and aggregation; and

a bill-payment software interface installed on the first server node, the interface accessible to the accessing users connected to the network by respective remote computer nodes, characterized in that users accessing the first server node from the remote computer nodes interact with the bill payment interface for the purpose of paying bills and performing other treatments associated with listed bills, the payment and treatments of the listed bills performed by proxy using the functions of the first and second server nodes.

14. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 13

, wherein the data-packet-network is the Internet network.

15. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 14

, wherein the first server node is a portal server providing a personalized interfaces of the form of hyper-text-markup-language interfaces.

16. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 15

, wherein the plurality of server nodes host services accessible over the Internet and subscribed to by the accessing users.

17. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 16

, wherein the remote computer nodes are personal computers with accessibility to the Internet.

18. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 16

, wherein the remote computer nodes are cellular telephones with accessibility to Internet.

19. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 16

, wherein the remote computer nodes are hand-held computers with accessibility to the Internet.

20. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 16

, wherein the second server node stores aggregated data in a connected data repository held externally from the server.

21. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 20

, wherein the bill-payment software interface is linked to a plurality of secondary interfaces provided in the form of hyper-text-markup-language.

22. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 21

, wherein the treatments of the listed bills in addition to bill payment include viewing a full account of the bill, marking the bill has paid, deleting the bill, obtaining advice regarding selected treatment of the bill, and receiving an alert associated with the bill.

23. The interactive bill-payment system of

claim 22

, wherein obtaining advice regarding selected treatment of the bill includes calculated and solution-oriented results.

24. A method for treating personal bills presented in an interactive bill-payment interface by proxy over a data-packet-network comprising the steps of:

(a) accessing the interactive bill-payment interface from a remote node connected to the network;

(b) selecting a listed bill for a desired treatment;

(c) selecting a treatment option from a list of treatment options associated with the listed bill;

(d) populating a secondary interface presented as a result of selecting a treatment option, the secondary interface comprising an electronic order form for directing the execution of the treatment; and

(e) submitting the completed order form for proxy execution.

25. The method of

claim 24

, wherein the data-type-network is the Internet network.

26. The method of

claim 25

wherein in step (a), the interactive bill-payment interface is a personalized hyper-text-markup-language interface served by a portal server connected to the network.

27. The method of

claim 26

wherein in step (a), the remote node is a personal computer with accessibility to the network.

28. The method of

claim 26

wherein in step (a), the remote node is a cellular telephone with accessibility to the network.

29. The method of

claim 26

wherein in step (a), the remote node is a hand-held computer with accessibility to the network.

30. The method of

claim 26

wherein in step (c), the selected treatment option is one of an option for bill payment, an option for viewing a full account of the bill, and option for marking the bill has paid, and option for deleting the bill, or an option for receiving an alert associated with the bill.

31. The method of

claim 30

wherein in step (c), an additional option is presented for obtaining advice regarding the selected treatment option associated with the bill.

32. The method of

claim 31

wherein in step (c), the advice includes calculated and solution-oriented results.

33. The method of

claim 32

, wherein in step (d), the secondary interface comprises a hyper-text-markup-language interface.

34. The method of

claim 33

, wherein in step (e), proxy execution of the electronic order form is performed by a back-end software, the software capable of proxy navigation, proxy log-in, proxy data procurement, proxy form population, proxy form submission, and return of treatment execution results including calculated and solution-oriented results.