Methods and Systems for Account Management of Group Accounts
First Claim
1. A group account management system configured to provide financial transaction-related controls, privileges, tracking, and/or reporting for one or more users, members, and/or sub-groups, the group account management system comprising:
- a payments manager for receiving and/or responding to a transaction request associated with a group financial account;
a rules manager for determining whether the transaction request can be authorized, restricted, and/or rejected according to user-managed one or more account-related rules for a transaction-related action by a user, a member, and/or a sub-group associated with the group financial account, wherein the user-managed one or more account-related rules may be created, managed, and/or enforced based on a type of a merchant, a particular name of the merchant, a particular location of the merchant, a type of a transaction initiator, a time-based rolling parameter, and/or other relevant parameters; and
a rules and accounts information data storage for storing the user-managed one or more account-related rules and one or more user-related privileges, wherein the one or more user-related privileges can define who or which entity is authorized to modify the user-managed one or more account-related rules for the group financial account.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Account management methods and systems are presented for managing and administering group accounts. A group may establish a financial group account using a novel group account management system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The novel group account management system can provide financial transaction-related controls, privileges, tracking, and/or reporting for one or more users, members, and/or sub-group within the group account. A concept of user-specific, member-specific, and/or sub-group-specific privileges is integrated into the novel group account management system to assign a particular user, member, and/or sub-group to an account management level within the group account. Furthermore, a novel concept of user-managed group account-related rules is also integrated into the novel group account management system to empower, restrict, and/or control certain transaction-related actions for at least some users, members, and/or sub-groups.
42 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A group account management system configured to provide financial transaction-related controls, privileges, tracking, and/or reporting for one or more users, members, and/or sub-groups, the group account management system comprising:
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a payments manager for receiving and/or responding to a transaction request associated with a group financial account; a rules manager for determining whether the transaction request can be authorized, restricted, and/or rejected according to user-managed one or more account-related rules for a transaction-related action by a user, a member, and/or a sub-group associated with the group financial account, wherein the user-managed one or more account-related rules may be created, managed, and/or enforced based on a type of a merchant, a particular name of the merchant, a particular location of the merchant, a type of a transaction initiator, a time-based rolling parameter, and/or other relevant parameters; and a rules and accounts information data storage for storing the user-managed one or more account-related rules and one or more user-related privileges, wherein the one or more user-related privileges can define who or which entity is authorized to modify the user-managed one or more account-related rules for the group financial account. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for managing and administering a group financial account, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a transaction request for the group financial account in a group account management system, wherein the transaction request is typically initiated by a group member, a group financial account user, and/or an entity associated with the group financial account; determining whether the transaction request can be authorized, restricted, and/or rejected according to user-managed one or more account-related rules for a transaction-related action associated with the transaction request, wherein the user-managed one or more account-related rules may be created, managed, and/or enforced based on a type of a merchant, a particular name of the merchant, a particular location of the merchant, a type of a transaction initiator, a time-based rolling parameter, and/or other relevant parameters; authorizing or rejecting the transaction request based on the user-managed one or more account-related rules; processing the transaction request at least in part by using a payment network, a payments processor, and/or a payments manager which may be contained or operatively connected to the group account management system; and debiting or crediting the group financial account if the transaction request is authorized and/or processed successfully. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A group account management system comprising:
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a rules engine operatively connected to a payments processor and a payment network, wherein the rules engine is configured to determine whether a transaction request can be authorized, restricted, and/or rejected according to user-managed one or more account-related rules for a transaction-related action desired by a user, a member, and/or a sub-group associated with a group financial account, and wherein the user-managed one or more account-related rules may be created, managed, and/or enforced based on a type of a merchant, a particular name of the merchant, a particular location of the merchant, a type of a transaction initiator, a time-based rolling parameter, and/or other relevant parameters; and a communication interface such as a payments manager operatively connected with the rules engine, wherein the communication interface is configured to receive and/or respond to the transaction request associated with the group financial account. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. A method for operating a user-managed group account management system, the method comprising the steps of:
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creating a user identity for one or more financial transaction activities of the group account management system; configuring user-managed account-related rules and user-managed account privilege settings; and monitoring and/or conducting the one or more financial transaction activities based on the user-managed account-related rules and the user-managed account privilege settings.
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Specification