Automated aggregation and comparison of business spending relative to similar businesses

• US 20070168267A1
• Filed: 05/10/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Cook, Scott, Zimmerman, Jeffey
• Granted Patent: US 8,177,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• 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 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A system and method compares aggregated spending transactions of a target entity with those of a collection of entities. The system and method aggregates spending transactions of the target entity, and compares with the corresponding aggregated spending transactions of the collection of entities.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of comparing spending transactions of a target entity with spending transactions of a collection of entities, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount, the method comprising:

aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity with respect to at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity to obtain an aggregated spending amount of the target entity;

determining a collective aggregated spending amount corresponding to the aggregated spending amount of the target entity, the collective aggregated spending amount derived from spending transactions of entities of the collection and having attributes that correspond to the at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity; and

generating a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and the collective aggregated spending amount.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising saving the spending transactions of the target entity persistently in a database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity comprises aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity based on time period to obtain the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity comprises:

generating categorized spending transactions based on the spending transactions of the target entity and central categorization mapping data, the central categorization mapping data comprising payees and corresponding categories; and

aggregating the categorized spending transactions based on category to obtain the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving data of the target entity at a server, the server being geographically separated from the target entity, the data comprising a profile of the target entity and the spending transactions of the target entity.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data further comprise at least one selective criterion, and wherein determining a collective aggregated spending amount comprises:

identifying qualified entities of the collection, each qualified entity meeting the selective criterion; and

determining a collective aggregated spending amount corresponding to the aggregated spending amount of the target entity, the collective aggregated spending amount derived from spending transactions of the qualified entities and having attributes that correspond to the at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the selective criterion requires the profile of each qualified entity to match the profile of the target entity, and wherein identifying qualified entities of the collection comprises:

identifying entities with profiles matching the profile of the target entity as the qualified entities.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein receiving the data of the target entity comprises periodically receiving the data of the target entity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein an identifier is associated with the profile of the target entity, and wherein receiving the data of the target entity comprises receiving the profile of the target entity once and periodically receiving the spending transactions of the target entity and the identifier.

10. A computer-implemented method of comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with corresponding collective aggregated spending amount, the method comprising:

determining the corresponding collective aggregated spending amount based on the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and spending transactions of a collection of entities, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount; and

generating a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and the corresponding collective aggregated spending amount.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving data of the target entity at a server, the server being geographically separated from the target entity, the data comprising the profile of the target entity and the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data further comprise at least one selective criterion and at least one aggregative criterion, and wherein determining the corresponding collective aggregated spending amount comprises:

identifying qualified entities of the collection, each qualified entity meeting the selective criterion; and

determining the corresponding collective aggregated spending amount based on spending transactions of the qualified entities and the aggregative criterion.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the selective criterion comprises a qualification of profile of an entity of the collection based on the profile of the target entity, and wherein identifying qualified entities of the collection comprises identifying qualified entities based on the profiles of the qualified entities.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving the data of the target entity is performed periodically.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein an identifier is associated with the profile of the target entity, and wherein receiving the data comprises receiving the profile of the target entity once and receiving the aggregated spending amount and the identifier periodically.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising saving the aggregated spending amount of the target entity persistently in a database.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

sending central categorization mapping data by a server, or portion thereof to a client computer, the central categorization mapping data comprising payees and corresponding categories, the server being geographically separated from the client computer, the sent central categorization mapping data being used to generate the aggregated spending amount of the target entity; and

receiving the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

18. A system for comparing spending transactions of a target entity with spending transactions of a collection of entities, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount, comprising:

a processor for executing programs; and

a central server executable by the processor, the server including;

instructions for aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity with respect to at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity to obtain an aggregated spending amount of the target entity;

instructions for determining a collective aggregated spending amount corresponding to the aggregated spending amount of the target entity, the collective aggregated spending amount derived from spending transactions of entities of the collection and having attributes that correspond to the at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity; and

instructions for generating a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and the collective aggregated spending amount.

19. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism including:

instructions for aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity with respect to at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity to obtain an aggregated spending amount of the target entity;

instructions for determining a collective aggregated spending amount corresponding to the aggregated spending amount of the target entity, the collective aggregated spending amount derived from spending transactions of entities of the collection and having attributes that correspond to the at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity; and

instructions for generating a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and the collective aggregated spending amount.