System and method for associating identifiers with transactions

• US 20050187867A1
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CashEdge Incorporated (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: CashEdge Incorporated (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Inventors: Singh, Sarabjeet, Parial, Amitava, Dheer, Sanjeev, Sokolic, Jeremy N., Suneja, Balraj, Sinha, Gautam
• Application Number:
  US11/047,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20050187867A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/22 Payment schemes or models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Financial transaction data is retrieved from a financial institution. The financial transaction data includes a transaction value. The transaction value is compared to multiple pre-defined transaction identifiers and associated with one of the transaction identifiers. The financial transaction data and the associated transaction identifier are then stored in a storage mechanism.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

retrieving financial transaction data from a financial institution, wherein the financial transaction data includes a transaction value;

comparing the transaction value to a plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers;

associating the transaction with one of the transaction identifiers; and

storing the financial transaction data and the associated transaction identifier.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein retrieving financial transaction data from a financial institution includes retrieving data from a web site associated with a financial institution.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the transaction identifiers are applied to a plurality of transaction values to normalize the plurality of transaction values.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein comparing the transaction value to a plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers includes comparing the transaction value to the plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers in a pre-defined order.

5. A method as recited in claim 4 further comprising manually associating transaction identifiers with each flagged financial transactions.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising retrieving additional information regarding the financial transaction data from the financial institution.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein comparing the transaction value to a plurality of transaction identifiers includes:

comparing specific seed data to the transaction value; and

if a match is not indicated with the specific seed data, comparing general seed data to the transaction value.

8. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 1.

9. A method comprising:

accessing a web page associated with a financial institution;

retrieving data from the web page using a data harvesting script;

identifying financial transaction data contained in the data retrieved from the web page, wherein the financial transaction data includes a transaction value; and

associating the financial transaction data with one of a plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers.

10. A method as recited in claim 9 further comprising storing the financial transaction data and the associated transaction identifier.

11. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein retrieving data from the web page using a data harvesting script utilizes a screen scraping process.

12. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein associating the financial transaction data with one of a plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers includes:

attempting to automatically associate the financial transaction data with a transaction identifier based on seed data;

if the financial transaction data is not automatically associated with a transaction identifier, manually associating the financial transaction with a proper transaction identifier.

13. A method as recited in claim 12 further comprising updating the seed data to subsequently associate the financial transaction data with the proper transaction identifier.

14. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 9.

15. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

harvesting first financial transaction data associated with a first financial institution, wherein the first financial transaction data is harvested from a web page associated with the first financial institution;

retrieving second financial transaction data associated with a second financial institution, wherein the second financial transaction data is retrieved from a data file associated with the second financial institution;

associating the first financial transaction data with one of a plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers; and

associating the second financial transaction data with one of the plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers.

16. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein associating the first financial transaction data with one of a plurality of pre-defined transaction identifiers includes:

comparing specific seed data to the first financial transaction data; and

if a match is not indicated with the specific seed data, comparing general seed data to the first financial transaction data.

17. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising flagging the first financial transaction data if a match is not indicated with the general seed data.

18. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising if a match is not indicated with the general seed data, manually associating one of the plurality of transaction identifiers with the first financial transaction data.

19. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 18, further comprising updating the specific seed data if a match is not indicated with the general seed data and a match is not indicated with the specific seed data.

20. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

storing the first financial transaction data and the associated transaction identifier in a storage device; and

storing the second financial transaction data and the associated transaction identifier in the storage device.