Automated aggregation and comparison of business spending relative to similar businesses

• US 8,177,121 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2006
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Zimmerman, Jeffrey P., Cook, Scott D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, TAE W
• Application Number:
  US11/432,193
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168267A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,197 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A system and method compares aggregated spending transactions of a target entity with those of a collection of entities. The system and method aggregates spending transactions of the target entity, and compares with the corresponding aggregated spending transactions of the collection of entities.

Claims

1. A system for comparing spending information of a target entity with spending information of other entities, the system comprising:

a target entity computing system having stored therein financial transaction data representing spending transactions of the target entity, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount, the target entity computing system comprising;

a processor; and

a memory having stored therein instructions for executing a process for comparing spending information of a target entity with spending information of other entities, the process comprising;

aggregating, on the target entity computing system, the spending transactions of the target entity with respect to at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity to obtain an aggregated spending amount of the target entity;

transmitting the aggregated spending amount of the target entity together with the at least one attribute and selective criteria to a central server communicatively coupled to the target entity computing system;

receiving, at the target entity computing system from the central server, a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and aggregated spending amounts of at least one entity of a collection of entities other than the target entity, the entities of the collection meeting the selective criteria, the aggregated spending amounts of the at least one entity of the collection sharing the at least one attribute;

displaying a report on the target entity computer that comprises the comparison received from the central server.

2. The system of claim 1, the process for comparing spending transactions of a target entity with spending transactions of other entities further comprising saving the spending transactions of the target entity persistently in a database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity comprises aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity based on time period to obtain the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein aggregating the spending transactions of the target entity comprises:

generating categorized spending transactions based on the spending transactions of the target entity and categorization mapping data on a categorization server coupled to the target entity computing system, the categorization mapping data comprising payees and corresponding categories; and

aggregating the categorized spending transactions based on category to obtain the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

5. The system of claim 1, the process for comparing spending transactions of a target entity with spending transactions of a collection of entities further comprising receiving data of the target entity at the central server, the central server being geographically separated from the target entity computing system, the data comprising a profile of the target entity and spending transactions of the target entity.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein receiving the data of the target entity comprises periodically receiving the data of the target entity.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein an identifier is associated with the profile of the target entity, and wherein receiving the data of the target entity comprises receiving the profile of the target entity once and periodically receiving the spending transactions of the target entity and the identifier.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the selective criteria requires the profile of each entity used in the comparison to match the profile of the target entity.

9. A system for comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with other entity aggregated spending amounts, the system comprising:

a processor at a central server for executing a process for comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with an other entity aggregated spending amount, the process for comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with an other entity aggregated spending amount comprising;

receiving from a target entity computing system an aggregated spending amount of the target entity together with selective criteria;

determining an other entity aggregated spending amount based on the spending transactions of an entity other than the target entity meeting the selective criteria, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount, each spending transaction sharing a same attribute; and

generating a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and the other entity aggregated spending amount;

transmitting the comparison to the target entity computing system.

10. The system of claim 9, the process for comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with an other entity aggregated spending amount further comprising receiving data of the target entity at the central server, the central server being geographically separated from the target entity, the data comprising the profile of the target entity.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein receiving the data of the target entity is performed periodically.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein an identifier is associated with the profile of the target entity, and wherein receiving the data comprises receiving the profile of the target entity once and receiving the aggregated spending amount and the identifier periodically.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the data further comprise at least one aggregative criterion, and wherein determining the other entity aggregated spending amount comprises:

determining the corresponding collective aggregated spending amount based on the aggregative criterion.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the selective criterion comprises a qualification of profile of an entity based on the profile of the target entity.

15. The system of claim 9, the process for comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with an other entity aggregated spending amount further comprising saving the aggregated spending amount of the target entity persistently in a database.

16. The system of claim 9, the process for comparing an aggregated spending amount of a target entity with corresponding collective aggregated spending amount further comprising:

sending central categorization mapping data by a categorization server, or portion thereof to the target entity computing system, the central categorization mapping data comprising payees and corresponding categories, the categorization server being geographically separated from the client computer, the sent central categorization mapping data being used to generate the aggregated spending amount of the target entity.

17. A computer program product for comparing spending information of a target entity with spending information of other entities comprising:

a tangible computer readable medium;

and computer program code, encoded on the computer readable medium, comprising computer readable instructions for;

storing financial transaction data representing spending transactions of a target entity, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount;

aggregating, on a target entity computing system, spending transactions of the target entity with respect to at least one attribute of the spending transactions of the target entity to obtain an aggregated spending amount of the target entity;

transmitting the aggregated spending amount of the target entity together with the at least one attribute and selective criteria to a central server communicatively coupled to the target entity computing system;

receiving, at the target entity computing system from the central server, a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and aggregated spending amounts of entities within a collection of entities other than the target entity, the entities within the collection meeting the selective criteria, the aggregated spending amounts of the entities sharing the at least one attribute; and

displaying a report on the target entity computer that comprises the comparison received from the central server.

18. A computer program product for comparing spending information of a target entity with spending information of other entities comprising:

a tangible computer readable medium;

and computer program code, encoded on the computer readable medium, comprising computer readable instructions for;

receiving from a target entity computing system an aggregated spending amount of the target entity together with selective criteria;

determining an entity aggregated spending amount based on the spending transactions of an entity meeting the selective criteria, each spending transaction having a payee, a date, and an amount, each spending transaction sharing a same attribute; and

generating a comparison of the aggregated spending amount of the target entity and the entity aggregated spending amount;

transmitting the comparison to the target entity computing system.