SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION

• US 20070130028A1
• Filed: 01/03/2007
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Provinse, Shirley
• Granted Patent: US 7,756,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• 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 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 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/128 Check-book balancing, updating or printing arrangements

Abstract

An account reconciliation system having a particular usefulness in the reconciliation of centrally billed accounts and more specifically, in the reconciliation of centrally billed accounts in the travel industry is provided. The system and methods of the present invention expand on the traditional match/non-match techniques and provide complete transaction management for every item on a client'"'"'s account. In another sense, reconciliation is redefined to include each and every transaction on an account regardless of it'"'"'s reconciliation status, i.e., matched, unresolved, pending, etc. Consequently, the present invention reconciles the client'"'"'s account to the account balance.

Claims

1. An account reconciliation system for reconciling an account, said system comprising:

a client side computing device having a display and an input means;

a server side having a database and an account reconciliation software program stored thereon;

a communication channel linking said client side with said server side;

said database capable of receiving and storing merchant-related data and card-related data, said merchant-related data comprising a plurality of merchant records and each of said merchant records including information specific to a particular affair, said card-related data comprising a plurality of charges and each of said charges corresponding to at least one of said merchant records;

said account reconciliation software including programming to automatically match said merchant-related data and said card-related data when said merchant record information is identical, and automatically compile said merchant-related data and said card-related data which did not match on an unresolved list;

said account reconciliation software permitting a user to view said unresolved list and direct said software to search the database for a near-match between said merchant-related data and said card-related data, and further permitting said user to approve said near-match;

said account reconciliation software also permitting said user to view said unresolved list and edit said data, and further permitting said user to approve a match between the edited data and a corresponding merchant or card related data; and

said account reconciliation software further including programming to generate a reconciliation report for the user to view, said report comprising a verification to the user that said merchant account is reconciled to an account balance.

2. The account reconciliation system of claim 1 wherein said account reconciliation software further including programming to automatically manage refunds of affairs.

3. The account reconciliation system of claim 2 wherein said account reconciliation software programmed to automatically manage refunds includes programming to:

update a refund log within said accounting database with information pertaining to a refund of an affair;

identify a credit received from said plurality of card-related data corresponding to said refund of said affair;

automatically match said credit and said refund of said affair;

update said refund log with information pertaining to said credit.