Methods and systems for automatic tracking and balancing billing data

• US 20040073500A1
• Filed: 12/01/2000
• Published: 04/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Owen, Eugene Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,146,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/50 for cross-charging network operators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/51 for resellers, retailers or service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0164 Billing record, e.g. Call Data Record [CDR], Toll Ticket[TT], Automatic Message Accounting [AMA], Call Line Identifier [CLI], details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/52 Interconnection, inter-exchange, reseller billing, billing agreements between different operators, e.g. billing identifier added on the CDR in order to cross charge the other operator, inter-operator accounting, reconciliation, bill directly resellers customers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/54 Resellers-retail or service providers billing, e.g. agreements with telephone service operator, activation, charging/recharging of accounts

Abstract

The present invention is a method and system of automatically tracking and balancing account receivable data transmitted to a processing entity by a service provider. A service provider submits to a processing entity a billing data file. The billing data file includes the service provider'"'"'s customer account records which represent the service provider'"'"'s accounts receivable. The processing entity tracks the accounts receivable data transmitted by the service provider and processed by the processing entity by separating individual customer account records into tracking data sets based on pre-defined criteria. To ensure that the processing entity has properly tracked all the accounts receivable submitted to and processed by the processing entity, the processing entity computes the total amount of accounts receivable located in each tracking data set related to a given service provider. The invention further comprises comparing the total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable related to a given service provider, to the total amount of processed accounts receivable related to the service provider. When the comparison reveals a discrepancy between total pre-processed and processed accounts receivable, the processing entity creates a discrepancy report. The discrepancy report is routed to the processing entity'"'"'s personnel alerting them that an error has occurred. If there is not discrepancy, a settlement report is created which list the total about of accounts receivable located in the tracking data sets of the processing entity.

Claims

1. A method of automatically tracking and balancing account receivable data comprising:

a) submitting a billing data file to a processing entity said billing data file comprising customer account records representing accounts receivable for a given Carrier;

b) separating said customer account records into at least two tracking data sets based on pre-defined criteria;

c) computing the total amount of accounts receivable located in each tracking data set related to a given Carrier;

d) comparing the total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable related to a given Carrier to the total amount of processed accounts receivable related to said Carrier;

e) creating a discrepancy report comprising Carriers whose total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable do not equal the total amount of processed accounts receivables; and

f) creating a settlement report for each Carrier whose total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable submitted equals the total amount of processed accounts receivable.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising routing said discrepancy report to at least one location accessible to at least one discrepancy source-identifier.

3. The method of claims 1 further comprising routing said settlement report to at least one location accessible to at least one end-user of said settlement report.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3 wherein said at least one location is a workstation connected to the processing entities system by a local network.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said customer account records comprise a unique means to identify the Carrier that generated the customer account record.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said customer account records further comprise a customer account number.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said customer account records further comprise the amount payable for services rendered by said Carrier.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein said customer account records further comprises the billing cycle in which the customer account is payable.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the billing cycle is the criteria used to separate the customer account records into said tracking data sets.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the tracking data sets include a Billed data set wherein said Billed data set comprises customer account records with accounts payable in the current billing cycle.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the tracking data sets include an Unbilled data set wherein said Unbilled data set comprises customer account records with accounts payable in a future billing cycle.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the tracking data sets include an Error data set wherein said Error data set comprises invalid customer account records.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the discrepancy report comprises:

a) the total amount of account receivable data submitted to the processing entity relating to a given Carrier; and

b) the total amount of account receivable data located in each tracking data set relating to said Carrier.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the settlement report comprises the amount of accounts receivable located in each tracking data set relating said Carrier.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing an agreement between a plurality of Carriers and a processing entity, said Carriers agreeing to submit billing data files to the processing entity and said processing entity agreeing to process said billing data files and remit payment to Carriers.

16. A system for automatically tracking and balancing account receivable data comprising:

a) submitting a billing data file to a processing entity said billing data file comprising customer account records representing accounts receivable for a given Carrier;

b) separating said customer account records into at least two tracking data sets based on pre-defined criteria;

c) computing the total amount of accounts receivable located in each tracking data set related to a given Carrier;

d) comparing the total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable related to a given Carrier to the total amount of processed accounts receivable related to said Carrier;

e) creating a discrepancy report comprising Carriers whose total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable do not equal the total amount of processed accounts receivables; and

f) creating a settlement report for each Carrier whose total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable submitted equals the total amount of processed accounts receivable.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising routing said discrepancy reports to at least one location accessible to at least one discrepancy source-identifier.

18. The system of claim 16 further comprising routing settlement reports to at least one location accessible to at least one end-user of said settlement report.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein a data storage device stores billing data files submitted to the processing entity and stores tracking data sets.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein a tracking device separates said customer account records into at least two tracking data sets based on pre-defined criteria.

21. The system of claim 16 wherein a reconciliation device

a) copies a given Carrier'"'"'s accounts receivable from said tracking data sets based on pre-defined criteria;

b) computes the total amount of processed accounts receivable for said Carrier;

c) compares the total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable with the total amount of processed accounts receivable submitted for said Carrier;

d) creates a discrepancy report if the total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable does not equal the total amount of processed accounts receivable submitted for said Carrier; and

e) creates a settlement report if the total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable equals the total amount of processed accounts receivable submitted for said Carrier.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein said discrepancy report contains a list of Carriers whose total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable did not equal the total amount of processed accounts receivable submitted for said Carrier.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein said settlement report contains the total accounts receivable computed in each tracking data set for a Carrier whose total amount of pre-processed accounts receivable equals the total amount of processed accounts receivable submitted for said Carrier.