Machine, methods, and program product for electronic inventory tracking

• US 9,213,965 B1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pathward National Association
• Original Assignee: MetaBank (Meta Financial Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Brooks, Jason, Wells, Mike
• Primary Examiner(s): Ludwig, Peter L
• Application Number:
  US12/626,349
• Time in Patent Office: 2,211 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• 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 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Machine, methods, and program product for facilitating electronic inventory tracking and management of products through messaging over a payment network, are provided. An example includes an inventory management computer in communication with a merchant POS apparatus or terminal over an existing financial services payment network and configured to receive and process purchase transaction data associated with a product being purchased, for use by a product provider. The computer can include electronic inventory management program product configured to perform various operations including receiving a purchase transaction message sent through the payment network, storing purchase transaction data, and notifying a product provider of the purchase transaction data. The purchase transaction message can include a financial services electronic payment network compatible universal product-transaction identifier, which can be received through the POS terminal in response to a consumer or merchant interfacing the product'"'"'s container, or an associated purchase ticket or slip storing the transaction identifier, with the POS terminal.

Claims

1. A computer associated with a first financial institution to define a financial institution computer to facilitate electronic inventory management of a plurality of products provided by a plurality of different product providers, the financial institution computer comprising:

one or more processors configured to process data associated with the first financial institution;

one or more input/output units configured to communicate with a communication network and an electronic financial payment network, the electronic financial payment network adapted to identify a plurality of issuers of a plurality of bank identifier numbers (BINs) and further adapted to set transaction rules to settle funds between parties of transactions, the plurality of issuers of the plurality of BINs configured to include the first financial institution;

non-transitory memory encoded with one or more computer programs operable by the one or more processors and configured to facilitate electronic inventory management of a plurality of different products provided by each of the plurality of different product providers, each of the plurality of different products of each of the plurality of different product providers adapted to have an associated apparatus to thereby define a plurality of product apparatuses, so that during operations of the one or more computer programs, the one or more processors operate to perform the following steps;

generating a plurality of universal product transaction identifiers adapted to be positioned on the plurality of product apparatuses and configured to facilitate inventory management of the plurality of different products of each of the plurality of different product providers, each of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers configured to include one of the plurality of BINs issued by the first financial institution, each of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers further configured to include one of a plurality of product identifiers, the one of the plurality of BINs configured to be compatible with the electronic financial payment network to thereby enable the electronic financial payment network to identify the first financial institution as the issuer of each of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers;

communicating, via the communication network, the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers to the plurality of different product providers so that the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers are adapted to be positioned on the plurality of product apparatuses, each of the plurality of different product providers adapted to provide the respective plurality of different products to a plurality of merchants, each of the plurality of different product providers also adapted to determine a count of the respective plurality of different products;

correlating the plurality of product identifiers of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers with the plurality of different products of one or more of the plurality of different product providers, the correlation responsive to receipt, via the communication network, of product information from the one or more of the plurality of different product providers;

determining receipt of one or more first transaction messages having one or more of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers and a flag indicating a capability of one or more of a plurality of merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminals to support partial-authorization messaging, the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals positioned in communication with one or more of a plurality of merchant acquirer computers and associated with one of the plurality of merchants, the one or more first transaction messages being sent through the electronic financial payment network from the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals responsive to one or more purchase requests of one or more of the plurality of different products of one of the plurality of different product providers when the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals interface with one or more of the plurality of product apparatuses to retrieve one or more of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers associated with the one or more of the plurality of different products;

sending, via the electronic financial payment network responsive to the determining receipt of the one or more first transaction messages, partial-authorization approval data to the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals to indicate a requirement to tender funds to complete the one or more purchase requests of the one or more of the plurality of different products to thereby use the partial-authorization messaging to facilitate communication of product inventory data using the electronic financial payment network;

determining receipt of one or more second transaction messages sent through the electronic financial payment network from the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals, the one or more second transaction messages indicating a purchase acknowledgement and being responsive to the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals receiving authorization of a method of payment from a second financial institution that issued a transaction card associated with the method of payment to thereby indicate a purchase of the one or more of the plurality of different products associated with the one or more purchase requests; and

notifying, responsive to the determining receipt of the one or more second transaction messages, the one of the plurality of different product providers of a plurality of product provider transaction messages, the plurality of product provider transaction messages configured to include a transaction time and a transaction date of the one or more of the plurality of different products purchased with one or more of the plurality of merchants, each of the plurality of product provider transaction messages further configured to indicate an effect of the purchase of the one or more of the plurality of different products associated with the one or more purchase requests on the count of the plurality of different products of the one of the plurality of different product providers.

2. The financial institution computer as defined in claim 1, wherein the purchase acknowledgement received further indicates one or more of the following data items:

merchant category code, merchant identification number, terminal identification number, date purchased, time-of-day purchased, and product purchase location indicia.

3. The financial institution computer as defined in claim 1, wherein the one or more of the plurality of merchant POS terminals interface with the one or more of the plurality of product apparatuses to read the one or more of the plurality of universal transaction identifiers via one or more of the following:

swiping a magnetic stripe positioned on the one or more of the plurality of product apparatuses, reading a RFID tag positioned on or in the one or more of the plurality of product apparatuses, or scanning a bar code positioned on the one or more of the plurality of product apparatuses.

4. The financial institution computer as defined in claim 1, wherein the plurality of different products of the one of the plurality of different product providers have a common BIN with the plurality of different products of another one of the plurality of different product providers.

5. The financial institution computer as defined in claim 2, wherein the plurality of product provider transaction messages further include a compiled report of the one or more of the plurality of different products based on the date purchased, the time-of-day-purchased, or the product purchase location.