Front counter and back counter workflow integration

• US 7,252,224 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2005
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alogent Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Alogent Corp.
• Inventors: Verma, Amar K
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Michael G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Haupt; Kristy A.
• Application Number:
  US11/210,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20070045394A1
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 705/35, 705/45
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/00 Complete banking systems; Coded card-freed arrangements adapted for dispensing or receiving monies or the like and posting such transactions to existing accounts, e.g. automatic teller machines data processing equipment for bank accounting G06Q40/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/201 Accessories of ATMs
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/207 Surveillance aspects at ATMs

Abstract

A system and method for processing financial transactions includes an input receptive of cash and a plurality of images of physical items of the transaction, wherein the images contain a visual record of the transaction data such as an amount of monetary value. A front, counter transaction processor processes the cash and a first item image and generates front counter transaction data. A back counter transaction processor processes item images of the transaction and generates back counter transaction data. A match module matches back counter transaction data to front counter transaction data. An output is adapted to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to at least one of form fields and a temporary transaction datastore.

Claims

1. A system for processing financial transactions, comprising:

an input receptive of a plurality of images of physical items of a transaction, wherein the images contain a visual record of transaction data;

a front counter transaction processor at a point of presentment that processes at least a first item image and generates an incomplete transaction record including front counter transaction data, the front counter transaction processor including a conditional receipt module that inputs data including a transaction number, credit slip data, a cash total, and a conditional receipt total, determines a conditional balance and generates conditional receipt data from the input data;

a back counter transaction processor at the point of presentment that processes the plurality of images of the transaction and generates back counter transaction data;

a match module that matches back counter transaction data to front counter transaction data to generate a completed transaction record; and

an output adapted to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to at least one of form fields and a local transaction datastore.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the input is receptive of business rules that dictate a process for validating the transaction.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising a posting module that withholds the option to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data until the transaction is in balance as defined by the business rules.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a posting module that transmits front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to a central location having a transaction datastore storing records of the transaction.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the match module generates report data including at least one of a list of front counter transaction data that is not matched to back counter data and a list of back counter data that is not matched to front counter data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the match module matches the front counter transaction data to back counter transaction data using credit image data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the front counter transaction processor further comprises a check module that inputs an electronic entry of a check total and marks the check total as conditional.

7. A system for processing financial transactions, comprising:

an input receptive of a plurality of images of physical items of a transaction, wherein the images contain a visual record of transaction data;

a front counter transaction processor at a point of presentment that processes at least a first item image and generates an incomplete transaction record including front counter transaction data, the front counter transaction processor including a cash module that inputs an electronic entry of a cash total, creates a substitute cash ticket image, and assigns a document identification number to the cash ticket image;

a back counter transacton processor at the point of presentment that processes the plurality of images of the transaction and generates back counter transaction data;

a match module that matches back counter transaction data to front counter transaction data to generate a completed transaction record; and

an output adapted to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to at least one of form fields and a local transaction datastore.

9. A system for processing financial transactions, comprising:

an input receptive of a plurality of images of physical items of a transaction, wherein the images contain a visual record of transaction data;

a front counter transaction processor at a point of presentment that processes at least a first item image and generates an incomplete transaction record including front counter transaction data, the front counter transaction processor includes a credit module that inputs a credit slip image, extracts credit slip image data, assigns a document identification number and creates a transaction number;

a back counter transaction processor at the point of presentment that processes the plurality of images of the transaction and generates back counter transaction data;

a match module that matches back counter transaction data to front counter transaction data to generate a completed transaction record; and

an output adapted to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to at least one of form fields and a local transaction datastore.

10. A system for processing financial transactions, comprising:

an input receptive of a plurality of images of physical items of a transaction, wherein the images contain a visual record of transaction data;

a front counter transaction processor at a point of presentment that processes at least a first item image and generates an incomplete transaction record including front counter transaction data;

a back counter transaction processor at the point of presentment that processes the plurality of images of the transaction and generates back counter transaction data, the back counter transaction processor including;

a recognition module that extracts data from the plurality of images including a monetary amount using character recognition;

a validation module that determines whether the image and extracted image data is valid based on validation characteristics of an item;

a balancing module that determines whether the transaction is balanced based on the monetary amount; and

an output that transmits data indicating whether the transaction is at least one of valid and balanced;

a match module that matches back counter transaction data to front counter transaction data to generate a completed transaction record; and

an output adapted to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to at least one of form fields and a local transaction datastore.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising an input receptive of correction data.

12. A system for processing financial transactions, comprising:

an input receptive of a plurality of images of physical items of a transaction, wherein the images contain a visual record of transaction data;

a front counter transaction processor that processes a first item image and generates front counter transaction data;

a back counter transaction processor that processes the plurality of images of the transaction and generates back counter transaction data;

a match module that matches back counter transaction data to front counter transaction data; and

an output adapted to transmit front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data to at least one of form fields and a local transaction datastore,

wherein the back counter transaction processor further comprises;

a recognition module that extracts data from the plurality of images including a monetary amount using character recognition;

a validation module that determines whether the image and extracted image data is valid based on validation characteristics of an item;

a balancing module that determines whether the transaction is balanced based on the monetary amount; and

an output that transmits data indicating whether the transaction is at least one of valid and balanced; and

wherein the recognition module prevents duplication of the item image by recognizing if the item image has already been processed and wherein a document identification number is assigned to a non-duplicate item image.

13. A method of integrating front counter processing and back counter processing of a financial transaction at a point of presentment, comprising:

initiating communication with a party to a transaction at a point of presentment by accepting a plurality of physical items embodying the transaction;

processing at least one of the plurality of physical items of the transaction at a front counter of the point of presentment to generate an incomplete transaction record including front counter transaction data;

storing front counter transaction data in a datastore;

processing a remainder of the plurality of physical items of the transaction at a back counter of the point of presentment to generate back counter transaction data;

matching the front counter transaction data from the local datastore to back counter transaction data to generate a completed transaction record; and

storing the completed transaction record to the datastore.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein processing physical items at the front counter comprises:

a receiving cash at the front counter;

determining a cash total; and

generating a substitute cash ticket image.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein processing physical items at the front counter comprises:

receiving a credit slip at the front counter;

generating image data of the credit slip;

recognizing the image data;

validating the recognized image data by comparing the image data to a validation characteristic stored in a datastore; and

generating credit slip data.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein processing physical items at the front counter comprises:

receiving a plurality of checks at the front counter;

accepting a check total without validating each of the plurality of checks; and

marking the check total data as conditional.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein processing physical items at the front counter comprises balancing the transaction.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein processing physical items at the front counter comprises generating a conditional receipt from front counter transaction data.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein processing physical items at the back counter transaction comprises:

reading item images to generating an image record of each of the physical items and storing the image records;

validating the transaction by comparing a validation characteristic of at least one item to a validation characteristic defined by a set of business rules;

recognizing a monetary amount recorded on each of the image records by extracting the monetary amount from the image records;

balancing the transaction based on the monetary amount.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

identifying invalid data as a result of validating the transactions;

correcting invalid data before balancing the transaction.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein correcting invalid data is done at a location other than the point of presentment.

22. The method of claim 13 further comprising generating a report that includes at least one of a list of front counter transaction data that is not matched to back counter data and a list of back counter data that is not matched to front counter data.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein matching the front counter transaction data and the back counter transaction data is defined by matching credit image data to credit image data stored in local transaction datastore.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the credit image data are configurable and can be at least one of codeline data, cash-in and cash-out data, and a transaction number.

25. A method of integrating front counter processing and back counter processing of a financial transaction at a point of presentment, comprising:

initiating communication with a party to a transaction at a point of presentment by accepting physical items embodying the transaction;

processing physical items of the transaction at a front counter to generate front counter transaction data;

storing front counter transaction data in a datastore;

processing physical items of the transaction at a back counter to generate back counter transaction data;

matching the front counter transaction data from the local datastore to back counter transaction data to generate completed transaction data;

storing completed transaction data to the datastore; and

populating form fields with generated front counter transaction data and back counter transaction data.

26. A method of integrating front counter processing and back counter processing of a financial transaction at a point of presentment, comprising:

initiating communication with a party to a transaction at a point of presentment by accepting physical items embodying the transaction;

processing physical items of the transaction at a front counter to generate front counter transaction data;

storing front counter transaction data in a datastore;

processing physical items of the transaction at a back counter to generate back counter transaction data;

matching the front counter transaction data from the local datastore to back counter transaction data to generate completed transaction data; and

storing completed transaction data to the datastore,

wherein processing physical items at the back counter further comprises recognizing whether the item images have already been processed and preventing duplicate document identification numbers.