Transaction Accounting Auditing Approach and System Therefor

• US 20090292630A1
• Filed: 08/04/2009
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Syncada LLC (US Bancorp)
• Original Assignee: Syncada LLC (US Bancorp)
• Inventors: Hahn-Carlson, Dean W., Suits, David A., Beck, Elizabeth A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,266,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Accounting data is classified to facilitate transaction processing and management. According to an example embodiment, data based rules are implemented for classifying transaction-related data into accounting categories. Accounting information is processed as a function of the data based rules and accordingly automatically classified. This processing involves, for example, the identification of particular data based rules to apply to the accounting information, applying the rules and processing the information accordingly.

Claims

1. A transaction payment system to audit transaction data for a multitude of different transaction parties as a function of contract terms agreed to by a buyer of merchant offerings and a seller of the merchant offerings for each transaction, the system comprising:

a data-storing memory circuit storing the agreed-to contract terms and data element specific classification rules,

a software-programmed circuit configured, for each of a multitude of sets of transaction data, to

respond to activity involving a transaction for at least two of the parties, by accessing the memory circuit and retrieving stored data therein for the transaction;

execute an identification process, using the retrieved transaction data, to identify selected ones of the data element-specific classification rules pertaining to the transaction parties;

select one of a plurality of data-auditing processes respectively programmed on behalf of disparate entities;

execute the selected data-auditing process to audit individual data elements within the transaction data set using the retrieved transaction data and the identified data element-specific classification rules as inputs to the process to determine a condition of electronic payment data validation for each data element.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to

generate payment authorization data for the transaction as a function of the retrieved transaction data and the contract terms;

and

generate payment validation data to validate the payment authorization data as applied to each data element in the transaction data set.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to, prior to authorizing payment for the transaction,

associate the transaction data set with at least one of a buyer and a seller involved in the transaction,

in response to the associating, select the contract terms used in authorizing payment, and

electronically record the transaction data set on behalf of and in electronic association with said at least one of the buyer and the seller.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to

electronically record the transaction data set on behalf of and in association with at least one of the buyer and seller involved in the transaction, by recording transaction data from a transaction-based document under a general accounting code associated with at least one of the buyer and the seller, and

audit individual data elements to classify transaction data including line-item transaction data by associating said line-item transaction data from the transaction data set with a line-item accounting classification.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to audit individual data elements against line-item-accounting-classification rules provided by said one of the buyer and the seller by, for each line item in said transaction data set, classifying line-item transaction data under a line-item accounting classification as a function of the data element-specific classification rules and a type of accounting data in the line item.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to audit individual data elements against line-item-accounting-classification rules provided by one of the buyer and the seller involved in the transaction by, for each line item in said transaction data set, classifying line-item transaction data under a line-item accounting classification as a function of the data element-specific classification rules and the type of accounting data in the line item.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to classify the line-item transaction data under a line-item accounting classification as a function of the data element-specific classification rules and the type of accounting data in the line item by processing alphanumeric-type line item identification in accordance with the line-item classification rules to identify the type of accounting data in the line item.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to classify the line-item transaction data under a line-item accounting classification as a function of the data element-specific classification rules and the type of accounting data in the line item by processing a merchant offerings code in the line item transaction data in accordance with the line-item classification rules to identify the type of accounting data in the line item.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to process a merchant offerings code in the line item transaction data in accordance with the line-item classification rules to identify the type of accounting data in the line item.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to classify the line-item transaction data under a line-item accounting classification as a function of the data element-specific classification rules and the type of accounting data in the line item by processing a universal product code (UPC) in the line item transaction data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to monitor a user ID associated with a user implementing changes to the data element-specific classification rules.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the memory circuit further stores user profiles including user ID'"'"'s for each of the transactions, and wherein the software-programmed circuit is further configured to monitor a user ID associated with a user implementing changes to the data element-specific classification rules.