System and method of account reconciliation for electronic transactions

• US 8,204,824 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2008
• Issued: 06/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mtrex Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mtrex Incorporated
• Inventors: Knowles, W. Jeffrey, Matthews, David J., Day, Russell Hales
• Primary Examiner(s): Dixon, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fields, Benjamin S
• Application Number:
  US12/272,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20090076935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,310 Days
• Field of Search: 705/38, 705/40
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/381 Currency conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A transaction process system (10) provides for data transactions between parties. In a credit card transaction, the parties are the merchant (20), acquiring bank (24), card association (34), issuing bank (14), and cardholder (12). A transaction processing center (30) is positioned between the acquiring bank and the card association. The transaction processing center provides data processing channels for message-based processing (72) and filed-based processing (76). The file-based processing uses an incoming queue (80) and outgoing queue (84) to simplify the interface. The transaction processing center also provides for currency conversions and account reconciliation on a per transaction basis. The transaction processing center uses a scheduler (160) to efficiently manage the data processing resources and an account reconciliation processor (200) to identify discrepancies and initiate corrective action.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of controlling commercial transactions involving purchase of goods with a credit card, comprising:

conducting business operations related to commercial transactions between a merchant and consumer involving purchase of goods or services with a credit card, the business operations involving a financial commerce system interconnected with hard-wired or wireless communication lines;

receiving transaction data from a bank within the financial commerce system using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines, the transaction data describing executed credit-card transactions for goods or services, each transaction entry including identification information retrieved from a magnetic strip of the credit card;

storing a copy of the transaction data in a data source on a computer server;

transmitting the transaction data to a credit card association within the financial commerce system;

receiving a first statement of financial transactions generated according to a set of rules from the credit card association using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines, the first statement of financial transactions including reporting categories for sale of goods and services, credits, interchange fees, charge-backs, and representments;

retrieving the copy of the transaction data from the data source on the computer server;

generating a second statement of financial transactions from the copy of the transaction data using the set of rules, the second statement of financial transactions including reporting categories for sale of goods and services, credits, interchange fees, charge-backs, and representments;

comparing the second statement of financial transactions to the first statement of financial transactions to identify a discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions;

displaying the first or second statement of financial transactions and the discrepancy for review on a display screen by dynamically re-formatting the first or second statement of financial transactions to illustrate detail of individual transactions containing discrepancies;

identifying causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions; and

implementing corrective action to the business operations of the financial commerce system based on the causation of the discrepancy to change processing of the commercial transactions to reduce subsequent occurrences of the discrepancy.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of comparing the second statement of financial transactions to the first statement of financial transactions includes comparing a first value from the first statement of financial transactions with a second value from the second statement of financial transactions to determine a difference between the first value and the second value.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the causation of the discrepancy is identified by comparing adjacent transaction data from the first and second statements of financial transactions in terms of time or merchant.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions includes evaluating a list of possible errors.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the causation of the discrepancy is identified by comparing adjacent transaction data from the first and second statements of financial transactions in terms of exchange rates.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the causation of the discrepancy is identified from data not available to the credit card association.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second statement of financial transactions is generated by a third party service provider.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second statement of financial transactions is generated on a per transaction basis.

9. A computer-implemented method of controlling commercial transactions involving purchase of goods with a credit card, comprising:

conducting business operations related to commercial transactions between a merchant and consumer involving purchase of goods or services with a credit card, the business operations involving a financial commerce system interconnected with hard-wired or wireless communication lines;

receiving transaction data from a first financial institution within the financial commerce system using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines, the transaction data describing executed credit-card transactions for goods or services;

storing a copy of the transaction data in a data source on a computer server;

transmitting the transaction data to a second financial institution within the financial commerce system;

receiving a first statement of financial transactions generated according to a first set of rules from the second financial institution using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines;

retrieving the copy of the transaction data from the data source on the computer server;

generating a second statement of financial transactions from the copy of the transaction data using a second set of rules that is consistent with and compiled from the first set of rules;

comparing the second statement of financial transactions to the first statement of financial transactions to identify discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions, the discrepancy being selected from the group consisting of differing total transaction amounts, differing interchange fees, differing exchange rates, differing amounts of a single transaction, differing transaction dates, and differing transaction merchants;

determining causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions;

displaying the first or second statement of financial transactions and the discrepancy for review on a display screen by dynamically re-formatting the first or second statement of financial transactions to illustrate detail of individual transactions containing discrepancies; and

implementing corrective action to the business operations of the financial commerce system based on the causation of the discrepancy to change processing of the commercial transactions to reduce subsequent occurrences of the discrepancy.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the step of comparing the second statement of financial transactions to the first statement of financial transactions includes comparing a first value from the first statement of financial transactions with a second value from the second statement of financial transactions to determine a difference between the first value and the second value.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the step of determining causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions includes evaluating a list of possible errors.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the causation of the discrepancy is identified by comparing adjacent transaction data from the first and second statements of financial transactions in terms of time, merchant, or exchange rates.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the second statement of financial transactions simulates the first statement of financial transactions and generates similar results given similar data input.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the second statement of financial transactions is generated on a per transaction basis.

15. A credit card processing system, comprising a data processing center having:

a communication link to a bank to receive transaction data using a hard-wired or wireless communication lines, the transaction data describing executed credit-card transactions for goods or services;

a data source for storing a copy of the transaction data on a computer server, the data source including a hard disk drive;

a communication link to a credit card association to transmit the transaction data and to receive a first statement of credit card transactions generated using a set of rules using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines, wherein the data processing center retrieves the copy of the transaction data from the data source and generates a second statement of credit card transactions from the copy of the transaction data using the set of rules and compares the second statement of credit card transactions to the first statement of credit card transactions to identify discrepancy between the first statement of credit card transactions and the second statement of credit card transactions; and

a display screen for displaying the first or second statement of credit card transactions and the discrepancy for review on a display screen by dynamically re-formatting the first or second statement of credit card transactions to illustrate detail of individual transactions containing discrepancies;

wherein causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions is determined and corrective action to the business operations of the financial commerce system is implemented based on the causation of the discrepancy to change processing of the commercial transactions to reduce subsequent occurrences of the discrepancy.

16. The credit card processing system of claim 15, wherein causation of the discrepancy is identified by comparing adjacent transaction data from the first and second statements of financial transactions in terms of time, merchant, or exchange rates.

17. The credit card processing system of claim 15, wherein the data processing center determines causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of credit card transactions and the second statement of credit card transactions by evaluating a list of possible errors.

18. The credit card processing system of claim 15, wherein the data processing center determines causation of the discrepancy from data not available to the credit card association.

19. The credit card processing system of claim 15, wherein the second statement of credit card transactions simulates the first statement of credit card transactions and generates similar results given similar data input.

20. A computer program product, comprising computer readable program code embodied in a computer usable medium, the computer readable program code adapted to implement a method for controlling commercial transactions involving purchase of goods with a credit card, comprising:

conducting business operations related to commercial transactions between a merchant and consumer involving purchase of goods or services with a credit card, the business operations involving a financial commerce system interconnected with hard-wired or wireless communication lines;

receiving transaction data from a first financial institution within the financial commerce system using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines, the transaction data describing executed credit-card transactions for goods or services;

storing a copy of the transaction data in a data source on a computer server;

transmitting the transaction data to a second financial institution within the financial commerce system;

receiving a first statement of financial transactions generated according to a first set of rules from the second financial institution using the hard-wired or wireless communication lines;

retrieving the copy of the transaction data from the data source on the computer server;

generating a second statement of financial transactions from the copy of the transaction data using a second set of rules that is consistent with and compiled from the first set of rules;

comparing the second statement of financial transactions to the first statement of financial transactions to identify discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions;

determining causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions; and

implementing corrective action to the business operations of the financial commerce system based on the causation of the discrepancy to change processing of the commercial transactions to reduce subsequent occurrences of the discrepancy.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the step of determining causation of the discrepancy between the first statement of financial transactions and the second statement of financial transactions includes evaluating a list of possible errors.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the causation of the discrepancy is identified by comparing adjacent transaction data from the first and second statements of financial transactions in terms of time, merchant, or exchange rates.

23. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the second statement of financial transactions simulates the first statement of financial transactions and generates similar results given similar data input.

24. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the causation of the discrepancy is identified from data not available to the first financial association.