SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PAYER (BUYER) DEFINED ELECTRONIC INVOICE EXCHANGE

• US 20100145839A1
• Filed: 02/11/2010
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Duc Lam, Immanuel Kan, Ramnath Shanbhogue, Robert Moore, Xuan Mcrae
• Original Assignee: Duc Lam, Immanuel Kan, Ramnath Shanbhogue, Robert Moore, Xuan Mcrae
• Inventors: Moore, Robert, Shanbhogue, Ramnath, Kan, Immanuel, McRae, Xuan (Sunny), Lam, Duc
• Granted Patent: US 8,401,939 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A method of implementing buyer and seller transactions is provided. A set of rules for accepting information into a document is received from the buyer. Also defined is the form of the presentation of an interface to the seller for creating the seller'"'"'s invoice. The seller also receives address information from the buyer. The rules for accepting information, the rules regarding presentation and the address information are stored in a storage resource. The rules regarding presentation are accessed from the storage resource, and an interface is presented to the seller based on those rules. The rules for accepting information are accessed from the storage resource, and information for the document based on those rules is accepted through the interface. The address information is accessed from the storage resource, and the document with the accepted information is sent to the buyer.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for effecting an electronic payment to a seller comprising:

receiving a set of fields for an invoice from a computer database;

selecting an invoice format based on a subset of the set of fields;

defining a set of rules for accepting information into respective fields of the invoice, wherein one of the rules determines whether the seller is able to input information into the invoice;

accepting information from the seller for field of the invoice based on the rules;

notifying the seller if information provided by the seller is not acceptable based on the rules; and

effecting the electronic payment to the seller based on the invoice.

2. The method of claim 1, the rules including whether the information is within a particular range of values from corresponding fields in a purchase order under which items associated with the invoice were ordered.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the range includes a price tolerance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the certain information that is provided by the seller is not acceptable is not included in the invoice.

5. The method of claim 1, including selectably allowing for information that is not acceptable to be (a) included in the invoice upon providing a warning to the seller, or (b) not included in the invoice.

6. The method of claim 1, the rules including whether the information for at least a particular field conforms to a particular format.

7. The method of claim 1, including selecting the rules from among validation rules of:

whether a field has legal or illegal characters;

whether a field has an integer value;

whether a field has a zero value;

the number of decimal places in a field;

the range of number in a field;

whether a field has a currency amount;

whether a field has a negative value;

whether a value of a field is within a particular range;

whether a field has a representation of a date value;

whether a date in a field is in a particular range;

whether a field has a representation of a state;

whether a field has a representation of a particular set of states;

whether a field has a representation of a postal code;

whether a field has a representation of an e-mail address;

whether a field has a representation of a telephone number;

whether a field has a representation of a payment term code;

whether a field has a representation of a SKU catalog number;

whether a field has a representation of a cost center; and

whether a field has a representation of a department.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one rule among the set of rules has a first requirement depending on a first condition and a second requirement depending on a second condition.

9. The method of claim 1, including defining the invoice format based on a purchase order.

10. The method of claim 1, including accepting the information from the seller through a web form.

11. The method of claim 1, including accepting the information from the seller through a file.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the file comprises a comma separated value (CSV) file.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the file comprises an electronic data interchange (EDI) formatted file.

14. The method of claim 1, including differently displaying the invoice format to different sellers based on membership of the sellers in groups.

15. A data structure comprising:

a set of invoice fields;

for each field in the set, a rule regarding whether information is acceptable for inclusion in the field of the invoice; and

an indication of whether violation of the rule results in a rejection of the submitted information or only a warning.

16. The data structure of claim 15, the rules including whether the information is within a particular range of values from corresponding fields in a purchase order under which items associated with the invoice were ordered.

17. The data structure of claim 15, wherein the ranges include a price tolerance.

18. The data structure of claim 15, wherein certain information that is not acceptable is not included in the invoice.

19. The data structure of claim 15, including a field that selectably allows for information that is not acceptable to be (a) included in the invoice upon providing a warning to the seller or (b) not included in the invoice.

20. A computer implemented method for accepting information from a seller comprising:

receiving a set of fields for an invoice from a computer database;

selecting an invoice format including a subset of the set of fields;

defining a set of rules for accepting information into the subset of the set of fields of the invoice, wherein one of the rules determines whether the seller may input information into a field within the subset of the set of fields; and

accepting information from the seller for fields of the invoice based on the rules.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 20, further comprising notifying the seller if information provided by the seller violates one of the rule.

22. The computer implemented method of claim 21, further comprising effecting the electronic payment to the seller based on the invoice.