Using commercial share of wallet in financial databases

• US 8,326,672 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2006
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Haggerty, Kathleen, Lyon, Charles Christopher, Okoh, Benedict O., Phelan, Robert E., Ruterman, Jon Kevin, Turner, Geraldine A., Yuan, Chao M., Biswas, Arnab
• Primary Examiner(s): CHOI, PETER H
• Application Number:
  US11/497,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192165A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,316 Days
• Field of Search: 705 7- 11, 705/38, 705/7.29
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/363 with the personal data of a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3676 Balancing accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Commercial size of spending wallet (“CSoSW”) is the total business spend of a business including cash but excluding bartered items. Commercial share of wallet (“CSoW”) is the portion of the spending wallet that is captured by a particular financial company. A modeling approach utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a company'"'"'s spend capacity. Companies which provide databases of financial information about other companies can use scores provided by this CSoW/CSoSW modeling approach to give an indication of how much the company is likely to spend in the future.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

modeling, by a computer-based system for enhancing a report pertaining to a business comprising a processor and tangible, non-transitory memory, industry spending patterns using individual corporate data and aggregate corporate data, including financial statement data;

determining, by the computer-based system, the total operating expenses of the business;

identifying, by the computer-based system, cardable operating expenses of the business from the total operating expenses of the business;

estimating, by the computer-based system, a commercial size of spending wallet of the business based on, at least, known financial statement data of the business, total known business spending of the business, and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet comprises the business'"'"'s cost of goods sold plus the cardable operating expenses of the business, wherein the payment instrument is associated with a transaction account, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in the report.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the including step comprises:

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in a report, wherein the report includes information from a subscription-based business database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the including step comprises:

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in a report, wherein the report includes information from a subscription-based financial database.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the including step comprises:

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in a report, wherein the indication is a score and wherein the score is combined with an additional score indicative of credit history.

5. A computer-based system comprising:

a processor for enhancing a report; and

a memory in communication with the processor for storing a plurality of processing instructions for directing the processor to;

model, by the processor, industry spending patterns using individual corporate data and aggregate corporate data, including financial statement data;

determine, by the processor, the total operating expenses of the business;

identify, by the processor, cardable operating expenses of the business from the total operating expenses of the business;

estimate, by the processor, a commercial size of spending wallet of the business based on, at least, known financial statement data of the business, total known business spending of the business, and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet comprises the business'"'"'s cost of goods sold plus the cardable operating expenses of the business, wherein the payment instrument is associated with a transaction account, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

include an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in the report.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processing instructions for directing the processor to include an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in the report comprise:

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in a report, wherein the report includes information from a subscription-based business database.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the processing instructions for directing the processor to include an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in the report comprise:

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in a report, wherein the report includes information from a subscription-based financial database.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the processing instructions for directing the processor to include an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in the report comprise:

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in a report, wherein the indication is a score and wherein the score is combined with an additional score indicative of credit history.

9. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

modeling, by the computing device, industry spending patterns using individual corporate data and aggregate corporate data, including financial statement data;

determining, by the computing device, the total operating expenses of the business;

identifying, by the computing device, cardable operating expenses of the business from the total operating expenses of the business;

estimating, by the computing device, a commercial size of spending wallet of the business based on, at least, known financial statement data of the business, total known business spending of the business, and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet comprises the business'"'"'s cost of goods sold plus the cardable operating expenses of the business, wherein the payment instrument is associated with a transaction account, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

including an indication of the commercial size of spending wallet of the business in the report.