Method and system for improving automatic categorization of financial transactions

• US 8,924,393 B1
• Filed: 07/28/2011
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Channakeshava, Girish Mallenahally
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US13/193,445
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: 707/736, 707/737, 707/738, 707/950, 705/14.17, 705/35, 705/30
• US Class Current: 707/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A system and method for improving the accuracy of the automatic categorization of financial transactions provides a flexible and comprehensive approach to the automatic categorization of financial transactions whereby the payee data associated with the financial transaction and one or more of: data indicating the transaction amount, and how products and/or services of various kinds are typically priced; data indicating the time associated with the transaction; data indicating the time intervals between related transactions; and data indicating the transaction amount as compared to pricing data associated with the payee of the transaction, is analyzed to determine a financial category to automatically apply to the financial transactions.

Claims

1. A computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions comprising the following which, when executed individually or collectively by any set of one or more processors, perform a process comprising:

defining one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters to apply to automatic categorization of financial transactions;

storing the defined one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters in a database associated with the party computing system;

obtaining party financial transaction data associated with a party financial transaction involving a party, the party financial transaction data including data indicating a payee and an amount associated with the party financial transaction;

identifying merchant payee data indicating products and/or services provided by a merchant payee indicated by the payee data associated with the party financial transaction and merchant pricing information provided by the merchant payee;

analyzing the payee data, the merchant payee data, and at least part of the party financial transaction data associated with the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters, the secondary financial transaction categorization parameters at least including the time of day when a given transaction occurred and the merchant pricing information provided by the merchant payee;

determining a first financial category and a second financial category, each of the first and second financial categories being associated with different products available from the payee;

excluding the first financial category from further consideration as a possible category to be associated with the party financial transaction by determining that the first financial category doesn'"'"'t include any products and/or services offered by the merchant that are associated with prices that are evenly divisible into the amount of the party financial transaction; and

determining a financial category to apply to the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the exclusion of the first financial category from consideration and further based on the analysis of the payee data associated with the party financial transaction, the merchant payee data associated with the payee, and at least part of the party financial transaction data associated with the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters including the time of day when a given transaction occurred and the merchant pricing information provided by the merchant payee, wherein the determined financial category is at least partly determined by correlating one or more items included in the pricing information with an amount of the party financial transaction;

storing the determined financial category at the party computing system.

2. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the merchant data is stored in a merchant database.

3. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization generalized pricing parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and the amount of the party financial transaction as compared to how products and/or services of various kinds in various categories are typically priced.

4. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization occurrence frequency parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and the number of party financial transactions having the same payee in a defined timeframe and/or the amounts of the party financial transactions.

5. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization known services parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and on known services associated the payee associated with the party financial transaction as indicated by the merchant payee data.

6. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization known pricing parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and on known pricing associated with the payee associated with the party financial transaction as indicated by the merchant payee data.

7. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

one or more of the secondary financial transaction categorization parameters are defined by a provider of the process for improving the accuracy of the automatic categorization of financial transactions.

8. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

one or more of the secondary financial transaction categorization parameters are defined by a party of the process for improving the accuracy of the automatic categorization of financial transactions.

9. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the party financial transaction data is obtained from a financial institution.

10. The computing system implemented process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 1, wherein

the party financial transaction data is obtained from a financial management system.

11. A system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions comprising:

a party computing system;

a provider computing system;

a merchant database, the merchant database including data indicating the products and/or services provided by one or more merchants and/or pricing of the products and/or services provided by one or more merchants; and

one or more computing processors associated with one or more computing systems, the one or more computing processors associated with one or more computing systems implementing at least part of a process for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions, the process comprising;

defining, at the party computing system, one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters to apply to the automatic categorization of financial transactions;

storing the defined one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters in a database associated with the party computing system;

obtaining party financial transaction data associated with a party financial transaction involving a party, the party financial transaction data including data indicating a payee and an amount associated with the party financial transaction;

searching merchant data and identifying merchant payee data indicating the products and/or services provided by the merchant payee indicated by the payee data associated with the party financial transaction and merchant pricing information provided by the merchant payee;

analyzing the payee data, the merchant payee data, and at least part of the party financial transaction data associated with the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters, the secondary financial transaction categorization parameters at least including the time of day when a given transaction occurred and the merchant pricing information provided by the merchant payee;

determining a first financial category and a second financial category, each of the first and second financial categories being associated with different products available from the payee;

excluding the first financial category from further consideration as a possible category to be associated with the party financial transaction by determining that the first financial category doesn'"'"'t include any products and/or services offered by the merchant that are associated with prices that are evenly divisible into the amount of the party financial transaction; and

determining a financial category to apply to the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the exclusion of the first financial category from consideration and further based on the analysis of the payee data associated with the party financial transaction, the merchant payee data associated with the payee, and at least part of the party financial transaction data associated with the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters including the time of day when a given transaction occurred and the merchant pricing information provided by the merchant payee, wherein the determined financial category is at least partly determined by correlating one or more items included in the pricing information with an amount of the party financial transaction;

storing the determined financial category at the party computing system.

12. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the merchant data is stored in a merchant database.

13. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization generalized pricing parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and the amount of the party financial transaction as compared to how products and/or services of various kinds in various categories are typically priced.

14. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization occurrence frequency parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and the number of party financial transactions having the same payee in a defined timeframe and/or the amounts of the party financial transactions.

15. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization known services parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and on known services associated the payee associated with the party financial transaction as indicated by the merchant payee data.

16. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the one or more secondary financial transaction categorization parameters include a secondary financial transaction categorization known pricing parameter to automatically categorize the party financial transaction based, at least in part, on the payee associated with the party financial transaction and on known pricing associated with the payee associated with the party financial transaction as indicated by the merchant payee data.

17. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

one or more of the secondary financial transaction categorization parameters are defined by a provider of the process for improving the accuracy of the automatic categorization of financial transactions.

18. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

one or more of the secondary financial transaction categorization parameters are defined by a party of the process for improving the accuracy of the automatic categorization of financial transactions.

19. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the party financial transaction data is obtained from a financial institution.

20. The system for improving accuracy of automatic categorization of financial transactions of claim 11, wherein

the party financial transaction data is obtained from a financial management system.