Accounts payable process

• US 8,429,037 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2010
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
• Inventors: Stone, James S., Domaracki, Greg
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Haider, Fawaad
• Application Number:
  US12/850,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20100299234A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: 705/30
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Techniques for performing an accounts payable process may include receiving transaction data including at least one of invoice data, purchase order data, and vendor data; and verifying a transaction by matching a dynamic data set of client-specified multi-dimensional criteria to the transaction data. An accounts payable system may include a host system in communication with one or more client systems. The host system may include a matching database configured to receive an accounts payable file including at least one of invoice data, purchase order data, and vendor data; and verify a transaction by matching a dynamic data set of client-specified multi-dimensional records to attributes of the accounts payable file.

Claims

1. An accounts payable system comprising:

a host system in electronic communication with one or more client systems, wherein the host system comprises at least one processor and an electronic memory in communication with the at least one processor, wherein the electronic memory comprises instructions that when executed by the at least one processor causes the at least one processor to;

receive invoice data describing a first invoice and vendor data comprising a plurality of vendor profiles, wherein each vendor profile describes a vendor;

determine whether the invoice data describes a purchase order;

match a first vendor identified by the first invoice to at least one vendor described by the vendor data, wherein the matching of the first vendor to the at least one vendor comprises;

comparing data identified by the first invoice and describing the first vendor to at least a portion of the plurality of vendor profiles;

conditioned upon finding a first vendor profile selected from the plurality of vendor profiles that exactly matches the first vendor, associating the first vendor with the first vendor profile;

conditioned upon a failure to find a vendor profile selected from the plurality of vendor profiles that exactly matches the first vendor, for each of the plurality of vendor profiles;

conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor number with less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor number identified by the first invoice, labeling the vendor profile as a near match;

conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor number with more than the predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor number, but a vendor name identified by the first invoice with less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor name, labeling the vendor profile as a near match;

conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor name with more than the predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor name, but a remit address identified by the first invoice having less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s remit address, labeling the vendor profile as a near match;

retrieve a vendor profile from the vendor data, wherein the vendor profile describes the first vendor;

when the invoice data does not describe a purchase order and the vendor profile indicates that the vendor does not use purchase orders, match the first invoice to a recurring invoice type, wherein the matching the first invoice comprises comparing a second set of multi-dimensional criteria describing the at least one recurring invoice type to the first invoice;

conditioned upon successfully matching the first vendor to the at least one vendor and upon successfully matching the first invoice to a recurring invoice type, transmit payment of the invoice to the first vendor;

conditioned upon unsuccessfully matching the first vendor to the at least one vendor, transmitting to a client system data describing at least one near match.

2. The accounts payable system of claim 1, wherein the host system is accessible by at least one client system across a network.

3. The accounts payable system of claim 2, wherein the network comprises a wireless communications network.

4. The accounts payable system of claim 2, wherein the network comprises at least one of the Internet and World Wide Web.

5. The accounts payable system of claim 1, wherein a matching database stores the invoice data and the vendor data for a customer.

6. The accounts payable system of claim 1, wherein the invoice data and the vendor data are associated with a particular customer.

7. The accounts payable system of claim 1, wherein a matching database is configured to perform matching according to client-specific matching rules.

8. The accounts payable system of claim 1, wherein a matching database is configured to communicate probable matches to at least one client system.

9. The accounts payable system of claim 8, wherein a matching database is configured to allow the client system to manually select at least one probable match.

10. The accounts payable system of claim 1, further comprising a data transmission input device configured to communicate transaction information to the matching database.

11. The accounts payable system of claim 1, further comprising an unmatched processor configured to receive accounts payable files that are not successfully matched to at least one of the at least one vendor described by the vendor data and the recurring invoice type.

12. The accounts payable system of claim 1, further comprising a matched file processor configured to receive and process accounts payable files that are successfully matched to at least one of the at least one vendor described by the vendor data and the recurring invoice type.

13. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to:

receive invoice data describing a first invoice and vendor data comprising a plurality of vendor profiles, wherein each vendor profile describes a vendor;

determine whether the invoice data describes a purchase order;

match a first vendor identified by the first invoice to at least one vendor described by the vendor data, wherein the matching of the first vendor to the at least one vendor comprises;

comparing data identified by the first invoice and describing the first vendor to at least a portion of the plurality of vendor profiles;

conditioned upon finding a first vendor profile selected from the plurality of vendor profiles that exactly matches the first vendor, associating the first vendor with the first vendor profile;

conditioned upon a failure to find a vendor profile selected from the plurality of vendor profiles that exactly matches the first vendor, for each of the plurality of vendor profiles conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor number with less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor number identified by the first invoice, labeling the vendor profile as a near match;

conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor number with more than the predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor number, but a vendor name identified by the first invoice with less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor name, labeling the vendor profile as a near match;

conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor name with more than the predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s vendor name, but a remit address identified by the first invoice having less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor'"'"'s remit address, labeling the vendor profile as a near match;

retrieve a vendor profile from the vendor data, wherein the vendor profile describes the first vendor;

when the invoice data does not describe a purchase order and the vendor profile indicates that the vendor does not use purchase orders, match the first invoice to a recurring invoice type, wherein the matching the first invoice comprises comparing a second set of multi-dimensional criteria describing the at least one recurring invoice type to the first invoice;

conditioned upon successfully matching the first vendor to the at least one vendor and upon successfully matching the first invoice to a recurring invoice type, transmit payment of the invoice to the first vendor;

conditioned upon unsuccessfully matching the first vendor to the at least one vendor, transmitting to a client system data describing at least one near match.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises at least one of a disk and a device.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions that when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to initiate the electronic scanning of a paper invoice document.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to initiate the electronic scanning of a paper invoice document.