Interactive Online Spending Analysis Tool

• US 20100153242A1
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mastercard International Incorporated (MasterCard Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mastercard International Incorporated (MasterCard Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bernacki, Janet L., Preston, Patricia
• Granted Patent: US 8,027,891 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to interactively displaying account activity. An analysis of financial transactions associated with a financial unit can be performed by a spending analysis tool, which can display the analysis via a website. The analysis can include, for example, a spending analysis and a budget analysis. The financial transactions are associated with merchants. At least one of the financial transactions is associated with first merchant, a first merchant category, and a member of the financial unit. The spending analysis tool changes the merchant category associated with the at least one of the financial transactions to another merchant category based on a selection of a user.

Claims

1. A method for interactively displaying account activity comprising:

displaying, via a website, an analysis of financial transactions associated with a financial unit, the financial transactions being associated with merchants, at least one of the financial transactions being associated with a first merchant, a first merchant category, and a member of the financial unit; and

changing the first merchant category associated with the at least a first one of the financial transactions to a second merchant category based on a selection by a user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating the first merchant with the second merchant category for a subsequent financial transaction involving the first merchant.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating the second merchant category with a specific location of the first merchant so that other locations of the first merchant remain associated with the first merchant category.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising changing the member associated with the at least a second one of the financial transactions to a different member of the financial unit based on a selection of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial transactions are at least one of a signature transaction and a pin transaction.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising applying a filter to the financial transactions, the filter limits the financial transactions being used in the analysis to a subset of the financial transactions that are associated with at least one of a member of the financial unit, a selected merchant, and a card number associated with the account.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving budget information from the user, the budget information identifying a desired amount of spending by at least one of the financial unit, at least one member of the financial unit, and categories of merchants.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising determining whether spending is over or under the budget.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

exporting the financial transactions to at least one of a financial management application, spread sheet application, word processor application, and document viewer application.

11. The medium of claim 9, wherein execution of the instructions facilitates interactively displaying account activity by associating the first merchant with the second merchant category for a subsequent financial transaction involving the first merchant.

12. The medium of claim 9, wherein execution of the instructions facilitates interactively displaying account activity by associating the second merchant category with a specific location of the first merchant so that other locations of the first merchant remain associated with the first merchant category.

13. The medium of claim 9, wherein execution of the instructions facilitates interactively displaying account activity by changing the member associated with the at least a second one of the financial transactions to a different member of the financial unit based on a selection of the user.

14. The medium of claim 9, wherein execution of the instructions facilitates interactively displaying account activity by applying a filter to the financial transactions, the filter limits the financial transactions being used in the analysis to a subset of the financial transactions that are associated with at least one of a member of the financial unit, a selected merchant, and a card number associated with the account.

15. The medium of claim 9, wherein execution of the instructions facilitates interactively displaying account activity by receiving budget information from the user, the budget information identifying a desired amount of spending by at least one of the financial unit, at least one member of the financial unit, and categories of merchants.

10. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by at least one computing device facilitates interactively displaying account activity by:

displaying, via a website, an analysis of financial transactions associated with a financial unit, the financial transactions being associated with merchants, at least one of the financial transactions being associated with first merchant, a first merchant category, and a member of the financial unit; and

changing the first merchant category associated with the at least one of the financial transactions to a second merchant category based on a selection of a user.

16. A system for interactively displaying account activity comprising:

one or more graphical user interfaces generated by one or more computing devices for displaying, via a website, an analysis of financial transactions associated with a financial unit, the financial transactions being associated with merchants, at least one of the financial transactions being associated with first merchant, a first merchant category, and a member of the financial unit; and

a mapping unit configured to change the first merchant category associated with the at least one of the financial transactions to a second merchant category based on a selection of a user,

wherein the one or more graphical user interfaces display the change to the user.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the mapping unit associates the first merchant with the second merchant category for a subsequent financial transaction involving the first merchant.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the mapping unit changes the member associated with the at least a second one of the financial transactions to a different member of the financial unit based on a selection of the user.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising an analysis unit for performing a spending analysis and a budget analysis, the analysis unit configured to apply a filter to the financial transactions, the filter limiting the financial transactions being used in the analysis to a subset of the financial transactions that are associated with at least one of a member of the financial unit, a selected merchant, and a card number associated with the account.

20. The system of claim 16 further comprising a budgeting unit configured to receive budget information from the user and to generate a budget based on the budget information, the budget information identifying a desired amount of spending by at least one of the financial unit, at least one member of the financial unit, and categories of merchants.