Method and system for reconciling advertising invoices and for providing prompt payment therefor
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of reconciling media property invoice data for advertising services with advertising agency final buy data, the media property invoice data comprising a plurality of invoice items, each invoice item corresponding to an advertisement spot for which the media property requests payment, the method comprising:
- receiving the invoice data, the invoice data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of a plurality of advertisement spots for which the media property requests payment;
receiving final buy data in a plurality of different formats from a plurality of advertising agencies, the received final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, each final buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by an advertising agency with the media property;
generating commonly formatted data by converting the received final buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the plurality of final buy items;
comparing the invoice data with the commonly formatted data representative of the final buy items;
generating data indicative of an extent to which a plurality of the fields of the invoice data match up with a plurality of the fields of the commonly formatted data based on the comparing step; and
generating report data based on the generated data resulting from the comparing step, the generated report data being indicative of an extent to which the invoiced advertisement spots correspond to the advertisement spot requests that were placed by the advertising agencies with the media property; and
wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.
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Abstract
A computer-implemented method of reconciling media property invoice data for advertising services with advertising agency final buy data, the media property invoice data comprising a plurality of invoice items, each invoice item corresponding to an actual advertisement spot that was run by the media property, the final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, each final buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by the advertising agency with the media property, the method comprising: (a) comparing the invoice items with the final buy items; and (b) responsive to the comparing step, identifying the invoice items for which a payment to the media property is authorized. Based on this comparison, an electronic fund transfer of the appropriate amount of money can be made from a financial account to the media property. Further still, GUIs for exception handling can be presented to a user to identifying any actions that should be taken on invoice items that trigger an exception handling condition. Corresponding systems and software are also disclosed herein.
64 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of reconciling media property invoice data for advertising services with advertising agency final buy data, the media property invoice data comprising a plurality of invoice items, each invoice item corresponding to an advertisement spot for which the media property requests payment, the method comprising:
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receiving the invoice data, the invoice data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of a plurality of advertisement spots for which the media property requests payment; receiving final buy data in a plurality of different formats from a plurality of advertising agencies, the received final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, each final buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by an advertising agency with the media property; generating commonly formatted data by converting the received final buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the plurality of final buy items; comparing the invoice data with the commonly formatted data representative of the final buy items; generating data indicative of an extent to which a plurality of the fields of the invoice data match up with a plurality of the fields of the commonly formatted data based on the comparing step; and generating report data based on the generated data resulting from the comparing step, the generated report data being indicative of an extent to which the invoiced advertisement spots correspond to the advertisement spot requests that were placed by the advertising agencies with the media property; and wherein the method steps are performed by a processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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3. A nontransitory computer-readable storage medium for reconciling media property invoice data for advertising services with advertising agency final buy data, the media property invoice data comprising a plurality of invoice items, each invoice item corresponding to an advertisement spot for which the media property requests payment, the nontransitory computer-readable storage medium comprising:
encoded executable program code resident on the nontransitory computer-readable storage medium, the executable program code comprising a plurality of code segments executable by a processor, the code segments configured to; receive the invoice data, the invoice data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of a plurality of advertisement spots for which the media property requests payment; receive final buy data in a plurality of different formats from a plurality of advertising agencies, the received final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, each final buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by the advertising agency with the media property; generate commonly formatted data by converting the received final buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the plurality of final buy items; compare the invoice data with the commonly formatted data representative of the final buy items; generate data indicative of an extent to which a plurality of the fields of the invoice data match up with a plurality of the fields of the commonly formatted data based on the comparison; and generate report data based on the generated data resulting from the comparison, the generated report data being indicative of an extent to which the invoiced advertisement spots correspond to the advertisement spot requests that were placed by the advertising agencies with the media property. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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4. A system for reconciling media property invoice data for advertising services with advertising agency final buy data, the media property invoice data comprising a plurality of invoice items, each invoice item corresponding to an advertisement spot for which the media property requests payment, the system comprising:
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a processor; and a memory; and wherein the processor and memory are configured to; receive the invoice data, the invoice data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of a plurality of advertisement spots for which the media property requests payment; receive final buy data in a plurality of different formats from a plurality of advertising agencies, the final buy data comprising a plurality of final buy items, each final buy item corresponding to an advertisement spot request that was placed by the advertising agency with the media property; generate commonly formatted data by converting the received final buy data to a common format, the commonly formatted data comprising a plurality of data fields representative of the final buy items; compare the invoice data with the commonly formatted data representative of the final buy items; generate data indicative of an extent to which a plurality of the fields of the invoice data match up with a plurality of the fields of the commonly formatted data based on the comparison operation; and generate report data based on the generated data resulting from the comparison operation, the generated report data being indicative of an extent to which the invoiced advertisement spots correspond to the advertisement spot requests that were placed by the advertising agencies with the media property. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification