Multi-party reporting system and method

• US 7,426,486 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2001
• Issued: 09/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Interface IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Call-Tell LLC
• Inventors: Gollom, David Alan, Treibach-Heck, Varda, Johnson, Bruce, Caldwell, Byron G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sheikh, Asfand M
• Application Number:
  US10/003,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20030083966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,512 Days
• Field of Search: 705/30, 705/32
• US Class Current: 705/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes

Abstract

One or more parameters such as time is reported to a center using a form. The center then automatically extracts data from the form and converts it for storage and subsequent processing or review. The invention allows other parties, upon proper authentication, to annotate received data, to indicate acceptance or rejection of the reported data. Depending on the relationship of the various parties and business rules stored with the center, parties other than the sender and center may also download reported data for subsequent processing, even where they have different hardware and software platforms. The invention is particularly suitable for senders such as employees who need to submit time sheets, expense reports, and the like to an employer, or for automatic analysis of submitted inventory reports, product orders, etc. In one embodiment, the center acts as an automatic data collecting and reporting intermediary between the sender and an employment agency, on one hand, and between the agency and a client, on the other hand, where the sender is associated with the agency but performs tasks on behalf of the client.

Claims

1. A data collection and reporting method comprising, in a central computer system,

automatically, that is, independent of any required human intervention:

i) receiving, directly from a device for converting a physical form into a transmittable, electronic representation of the physical form, over a transmission channel, the electronic representation of the physical form, which embodies a report concerning at least one parameter from at least one sender, the form having a plurality of data fields, each corresponding to an indicator of at least a partial value of at least one of the parameters;

ii) identifying the location of the data fields in the received electronic representation of the form; and

iii) both extracting report data from the report and storing the extracted report data in a predetermined common format in a memory for subsequent processing;

for at least one third party, storing a set of party-specific rules in the memory;

associating the received report with the corresponding third party; and

associating at least one fourth party with the sender and with at least one of the third parties;

in which;

the third party is an agency that communicates with the central computer system using an agency computer system;

the fourth party is a client of the agency and communicates with the central bomputer system using a client computer system, the agency and client being contractually related entities;

the sender is a person referred by the agency to the client and performs work tasks for the client;

the at least one parameter includes time worked by the sender on behalf of the client; and

further comprising, within the central computer system;

via a publicly accessible transmission network, receiving access requests from the agency and the client sent through their respective computer systems for portions of the extracted report data defined according to the respective party-specific rules, and responding to the access requests by returning the requested report data to the agency and client, respectively, including automatically, that is, independent of any required human intervention, completing any requests for interactive and iterative review, modification or annotation, inclusive, of the report data by the agency and client according to each party'"'"'s respective party-specific rules, whereby the central computer system is an intermediary system between the sender on the one hand and the agency and client on the other hand and exposes different interfaces to the sender, agency and client;

converting the extracted report data into a format specified by the rules associated with that third party, whereby third parties operating different hardware platforms and processing software may receive and process extracted report data from the same memory within the central computer system; and

transferring a copy of the extracted report data to the third party via the network, whereby the transferred data resides at and is available for processing by the third party.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the following steps:

storing the extracted report data in the memory in a predetermined common format;

before transferring the extracted report data to any third party, converting the extracted data into a format specified by the rules associated with that third party, whereby third parties operating different hardware platforms and processing soft are may receive and process extracted report data from the same memory within the central computer system.

3. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the step of storing in the memoly third-party indicated annotations associated with the extracted report data.

4. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the following steps:

receiving, from the third party, a confirmation or rejection indication relating to at least a portion of the extracted, stored report data; and

upon receipt of the rejection indication, directing the sender to resubmit a corrected report.

5. A method as in claim 1,further comprising the following steps:

storing an image of the report as received; and

via the network, allowing access by the third party to the image, whereby the third party is able to confirm the accuracy of the extracted report data.