Receipt handling systems, print drivers and methods thereof

• US 8,643,875 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2010
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eCeipt LLC (IPValuation Partners, LLC)
• Original Assignee: TransactionTree, Inc.
• Inventors: Shapiro, Jason Louis, Jimenez, Jose Angel, Wilson, James Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Poon, King
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cruz, Iriana
• Application Number:
  US12/654,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20100177343A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,488 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.1, 705/21, 705/24, 705/206
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/209 Specified transaction journal output feature, e.g. printed receipt or voice output
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0009 Details of the software in the checkout register, electronic cash register [ECR] or point of sale terminal [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/12 electronically operated digital data processing aspects G06Q20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 5/00 Receipt-giving machines cash registers giving receipts G07G1/00

Abstract

A method of processing receipts, including: obtaining transaction data including a plurality of categories of information necessary to describe a purchasing transaction of a customer at a store location; obtaining image data representing a receipt corresponding to the purchasing transaction of the customer at the store location; obtaining an e-mail address of the customer; providing an option to print the receipt at the store location and an option to e-mail the receipt to the customer; obtaining a selection of at least one of the provided options; if the option to print is selected, initiating printing of the image at the store location; and if the option to e-mail is selected, sending an e-mail to the e-mail address of the customer, the e-mail including providing at least one of the image data and the transaction data.

Claims

1. A method of processing receipts, comprising:

obtaining transaction data from a point-of-sale (POS) computer system at a store location, the transaction data including a plurality of categories of information necessary to describe a purchasing transaction of a customer at the store location;

obtaining image data from the POS system at a store location, the image data representing a receipt corresponding to the purchasing transaction of the customer at the store location;

obtaining an e-mail address of the customer from a customer information database persistently associated with the POS system;

providing, to a display device at the store location, an option to print the receipt at the store location and an option to e-mail the receipt to the customer;

obtaining a selection of at least one of the provided options;

if the option to print is selected, initiating printing of the image data at the store location; and

if the option to e-mail is selected, e-mailing the receipt to the customer, including;

providing the e-mail address obtained from the customer information database to a display device at the store location;

obtaining customer confirmation whether the e-mail address is correct;

if the e-mail address is not correct, obtaining a corrected e-mail address of the customer;

transmitting the image data and the transaction data to a server in communication with one or more POS systems at one or more store locations, including generating a data file, the data file including the transaction data, the correct e-mail address of the customer and a file name corresponding to the image data;

assigning an e-mail template based on the data file transmitted to the server; and

sending an e-mail to the correct customer e-mail address, wherein the content of the email is based on the assigned e-mail template, where the e-mail provides the image data obtained by the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining image data from the POS system includes generating the image data using a print driver.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the categories of information of transaction data includes at least one of a name of the store, a location of the store, a contact information of the store, a date and time of the transaction, a description of an item purchased, and a price of an item purchased.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the e-mail template is assigned based on the name of the store, based on the location of the store, based on the contact information of the store, based on the date and time of the transaction, based on the item purchased or based on a price of the item.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the e-mail template includes a customized graphic, a customized advertisement, a customized coupon or a customized survey based on the e-mail template assigned.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of obtaining transaction data from the POS system at the store location, obtaining image data from the POS system and obtaining the e-mail address of the customer from the customer information database associated with the POS system occur after the option to e-mail is selected.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein image data is included as an attachment in the e-mail sent to the customer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the image data is stored separately from the e-mail to the customer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the e-mail includes a link directing the customer to the stored image data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting the image data and the transaction data to the server in communication with one or more POS systems includes transmitting the image data and the transaction data via the Internet to the server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the POS system includes:

a plurality of POS subsystems for handling purchasing transactions of a plurality of customers; and

a central data system in communication with the plurality of POS subsystems for storing the processing information of the purchasing transactions of the plurality of customers.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a selection of at least one of the provided options includes obtaining a selection to print and email.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating XML data and transmitting the XML data to the server, wherein the XML data includes the transaction data, the correct e-mail address of the customer and a file name corresponding to the image data.