Expense tracking, electronic ordering, invoice presentment, and payment system and method

• US 8,548,877 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Altisource Holdings, S.A.R.L. (Altisource Portfolio Solutions SA), Andrei Iancu, Ashley Moody Florida Office of The Attorney General and Successors Thereto, Jeanette Nunez Lieutenant Governor of Florida and Successors Thereto, Joan D. Heuer, Laurel M Lee Florida Secretary of State and Successors Thereto, Steven Mnuchin United States Secretary of The Treasury and Successors Thereto, Timothy E Gribben Commissioner For Bureau of The Fiscal Service Agency of The United States Department of The Treasury and Successors and Assigns Thereto
• Original Assignee: Altisource Solutions S.A R.L. (Altisource Portfolio Solutions SA)
• Inventors: Bulman, Russell G., Blum, Sandra R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US13/608,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20130006854A1
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/26.8, 705/26.81, 705/37, 705/34, 705/40
• US Class Current: 705/26.81
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for electronic invoice presentment and payment processing. Requestors may place an order to purchase goods or services from one or more vendors. Invoice processing includes approval routing and dispute resolution.

Claims

1. A system for processing an invoice comprising:

at least one processor;

an invoice receiving module for receiving, with the at least one processor, the invoice for an item ordered by a requester;

an approval module for processing, with the at least one processor, the invoice through an approval and payment process, the approval module processing the invoice based on a plurality of approval rules that are based on the item ordered and defined by the requester;

and

a payment module for submitting, with the at least one processor, payment in response to approved invoices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a service.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the approval rules comprise a rule based on at least one of a price of the item ordered or a delivery date of the item.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a rejection module for rejecting, with the at least one processor, the invoice in response to a determination by the decision module that the invoice total does not match the purchase order total indicated on the purchase order associated with the invoice.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment module submits payment of the invoice in response to receiving an indication from the approval module that the invoice has been approved.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the approval module comprises an interface for a requester to accept or reject the invoice.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a data repository in communication with the approval module and a dispute resolution module, the dispute resolution module comprising an interface for the requester to enter comments to a vendor associated with a rejected invoice indicating the reasons for rejection, the comments being stored in the data repository.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an invoice matching module for determining, with the at least one processor, whether an invoice total on the invoice matches a purchase order total indicated on a purchase order associated with the invoice.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein for resolving a dispute associated with an invoice, the computer-readable program code comprising:

computer-readable instructions for receiving an invoice for an item from a vendor;

computer-readable instructions for determining whether an invoice total associated with the invoice matches a purchase order total associated with a purchase order associated with the invoice;

computer-readable instructions for determining whether to approve the invoice based on two or more requester-defined rules customized for the item ordered, in response to a determination that the invoice total does not match the purchase order total;

computer-readable instructions for submitting the invoice for payment in response to an approved invoice;

computer-readable instructions for providing an interface for the requester to enter comments to the vendor indicating the reasons rejecting a rejected invoice, in response to a determination that the invoice was not approved based on the two or more requester-defined rules; and

computer-readable instructions for providing an interface for the vendor to respond to a rejected invoice or submit a new invoice upon receiving notification of a rejected invoice.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the requester-defined rules comprise a rule based on a price of the item.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the invoice identifies at least one item, wherein the purchase order identifies at least one item, and wherein the computer-readable program code further comprises computer-readable instructions for determining whether an invoice amount for each item on the invoice matches a corresponding amount for each item on the purchase order.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code further comprises computer-readable instructions for rejecting the invoice in response to a determination that any invoice amount for an item in the invoice exceeds the corresponding amount for the item on the purchase order.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the requester-defined rules comprise a rule based on a delivery date of the item.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the interface for the vendor to respond to a rejected invoice or submit a new invoice upon receiving notification of a rejected invoice comprises an interface for the vendor to view comments received from a requester relating to a rejected invoice.

15. An electronic invoice presentment and payment system, comprising:

at least one processor;

an invoice receiving module for receiving, with the at least one processor, an invoice for an item ordered by a requester; and

an invoice processing module for routing and approving, with the at least one processor, the invoice;

wherein the invoice processing module comprises a plurality of custom invoice approval rules defined by the requester and based on the item ordered.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the invoice processing module comprises:

an invoice approval routing module for electronically routing, with the at least one processor, an invoice to one or more approvers.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the invoice processing module comprises:

a dispute resolution module for electronically reviewing, with the at least one processor, one or more problems associated with the invoice, the invoice being rejected by the requester.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the dispute resolution module provides notification to a vendor submitting the invoice that the invoice has been rejected and provides means for responding to the rejection.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the requester comprises one of:

a real estate owner, a property holder, a corporation, or a bank.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the invoice processing module is further configured to initiate, with the at least one processor, the automatic payment of an invoice upon approval.