Intelligent division of funds across merchant accounts

• US 9,836,786 B1
• Filed: 11/13/2014
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baker, Ginger Kay
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawley, Talia
• Application Number:
  US14/540,947
• Time in Patent Office: 1,118 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• 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 20/29 characterised by micropayments
• 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 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Merchants may desire to save for a variety of reasons, such as to purchase a new piece of equipment for use at the merchant, to pay vendors for services provided to the merchant, to set up a “rainy-day fund”, or the like. As such, described herein are techniques and arrangements for helping a merchant reach its savings goals by automatically saving, for the merchant, a portion of each transaction made by the merchant at a point-of-sale (POS) device of the merchant.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) devices respectively associated with a plurality of merchants, transaction information associated with a plurality of transactions;

storing first information associated with a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, the first information including at least revenue from past sales made by the first merchant, wherein the first merchant is in a first line of business;

storing second information associated with at least a second merchant of the plurality of merchants, the second information including at least revenue from past sales made by the second merchant, wherein the second merchant is in a second line of business designated as similar to the first line of business;

determining that the first merchant should save a specified amount of revenue from future sales made by the first merchant to purchase an item, wherein determining that the first merchant should save the specified amount to purchase the item is based at least in part on a purchase of the item by the second merchant;

recommending that the first merchant save the specified amount of the revenue from the future sales made by the first merchant, using a POS device associated with the first merchant, in a savings account of the first merchant;

calculating a percentage of the revenue from the future sales to save in order to save the specified amount, wherein calculating the percentage is based at least in part on the revenue from the past sales made by the first merchant;

after calculating the percentage, receiving, from the POS device, via the network, a request to authorize a transaction between the first merchant and a customer, wherein the transaction is associated with (i) payment information from a payment instrument read by a card reader, and (ii) a cost of the transaction;

authorizing, by communicating with one or more computing devices associated with one or more card payment networks, the payment instrument for the cost of the transaction;

calculating a fee to charge the first merchant for authorizing the payment instrument;

calculating a saved amount of the cost of the transaction to allocate to the savings account, the saved amount comprising the percentage times the cost of the transaction;

sending an amount associated with the fee to an account of the payment service;

sending the saved amount of funds to the savings account;

sending a remaining amount of funds to a business account of the first merchant, the remaining amount of funds comprising the cost of the transaction less the fee and less the saved amount; and

based at least in part on funds from the savings account reaching the specified amount, purchasing the item on behalf of the first merchant using at least a portion of the funds from the saving account.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein calculating the percentage comprises:

determining a first amount of time in which to save the specified amount;

determining total revenue from the past sales of the first merchant during a second amount of time, the second amount of time substantially equal to the first amount of time; and

calculating the percentage as a function of the first amount of time divided by the total revenue from the past sales of the first merchant during the second amount of time.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the percentage comprises a first percentage;

the first percentage is for applying to the future sales made during a first period of time; and

the acts further comprise calculating a second, different percentage of revenue from the future sales made during a second period of time to save, the second period of time subsequent to the first period of time.

18. A system as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising receiving a request that indicates at least one of a minimum amount of the cost of the transaction to allocate to the savings account or a maximum amount of the cost of the transaction to allocate to the savings account.

19. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein calculating the percentage is further based on the revenue of the past sales made by the second merchant.

20. A system as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising sending a notification that indicates that the funds of the savings account are accessible to the first merchant.

4. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) devices respectively associated with a plurality of merchants, transaction information associated with a plurality of transactions;

storing first information associated with a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, the first information including at least an amount of revenue from past sales at the first merchant, wherein the first merchant is in a first line of business;

storing second information associated with at least a second merchant of the plurality of merchants, the second information including at least an amount of revenue from past sales made by the second merchant, wherein the second merchant is in a second line of business designated as similar to the first line of business;

determining that the first merchant should save a specified amount of revenue from future sales made by the first merchant to purchase an item, wherein determining that the first merchant should save the specified amount to purchase the item is based at least in part on a purchase of the item by the second merchant;

recommending that the first merchant save the specified amount of revenue from the future sales made by the first merchant, using a POS device associated with the first merchant, in a savings account of the first merchant;

determining, based at least in part on the amount of revenue from the past sales at the first merchant, a percentage of the future sales to allocate to the saving account in order to save the specified amount;

after determining the percentage, receiving, from the POS device, a request to authorize a payment instrument for a cost of a transaction between the first merchant and a customer;

authorizing, by communicating with one or more computing devices associated with one or more card payment networks, the payment instrument for the cost of the transaction;

calculating a fee to charge the first merchant for authorizing the payment instrument;

calculating, based at least in part on the percentage, a saved amount of funds from the cost of the transaction to allocate to the savings account;

sending an amount associated with the fee to an account of the payment service;

sending the saved amount of funds to the savings account;

sending a remaining amount of funds to a business account of the first merchant, the remaining amount of funds comprising the cost of the transaction less the fee and less the saved amount of funds; and

based at least in part on funds from the savings account reaching the specified amount, causing a purchase of the item on behalf of the first merchant using at least a portion of the funds from the savings account.

5. A system as recited in claim 4, wherein:

calculating the saved amount comprises calculating the percentage of the cost of the transaction.

6. A system as recited in claim 4, wherein determining the percentage comprises calculating the percentage of the future sales to allocate to the savings account based at least in part on the amount of revenue from the past sales at the first merchant and an indicated date at which the specified amount of the future sales must be saved, wherein the saved amount comprises the percentage of the cost of the transaction.

7. A system as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising receiving a request to allocate future sales of a specific item to the savings account.

8. A system as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising receiving a request indicating at least one of a minimum amount of the cost of the transaction to allocate to the savings account or a maximum amount of the cost of the transaction to allocate to the savings account.

9. A system as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising sending, to the POS device associated with the first merchant, a suggestion that the first merchant save the specified amount to purchase the item.

10. A system as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising:

receiving, from the POS device associated with the first merchant, a request from the first merchant to pay, using an additional portion of the funds in the savings account, a vendor for services provided by the vendor to the first merchant; and

paying the vendor using the additional portion of the funds in the savings account.

11. A system as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising causing the funds in the savings account to be made available to the first merchant on a specified date and unavailable to the first merchant prior to the specified date.

12. A system as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising causing the funds in the savings account be made available to the first merchant based at least in part on the funds in the savings account reaching the specified amount.

13. A method implemented at least in part by a computing device of a payments service, the method comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) devices respectively associated with a plurality of merchants, transaction information associated with a plurality of transactions;

storing first information associated with a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, the first information including at least past revenue of the first merchant, wherein the first merchant is in a first line of business;

storing second information associated with at least a second merchant of the plurality of merchants, the second information including at least past revenue of the second merchant, wherein the second merchant is in a second line of business designated as similar to the first line of business;

determining that the first merchant should save a specified amount of revenue from future sales made by the first merchant to purchase an item, wherein determining that the first merchant should save the specified amount to purchase the item is based at least in part on a purchase of the item by the second merchant;

recommending that the first merchant save the specified amount of revenue from the future sales at the first merchant in a savings account of the first merchant;

determining, based at least in part on the past revenue of the first merchant, a percentage of the future sales to allocate to the saving account in order to reach the specified amount;

after determining the percentage, receiving, from a POS device associated with the first merchant, a request to authorize a payment instrument of a customer for a cost of a transaction between the first merchant and the customer;

authorizing, by communicating with one or more computing devices associated with one or more card payment networks, the payment instrument for the cost of the transaction;

calculating a fee to charge the first merchant for authorizing the payment instrument;

calculating, based at least in part on the percentage, a saved amount of funds of the cost to allocate to the savings account;

sending an amount associated with the fee to an account of the payment service;

sending the saved amount of funds to the savings account;

sending a remaining amount of funds to a business account of the first merchant, the remaining amount of funds comprising the cost less the fee and less the saved amount; and

based at least in part on funds from the savings account reaching the specified amount, causing a purchase of the item on behalf of the first merchant using at least a portion of the funds from the savings account.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein determining the percentage comprising calculating the percentage of the future sales to allocate to the savings accounts based at least in part on the past revenue of the first merchant and a date by which the specified amount is to be saved.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising receiving a request that specifies that a fixed amount of the future sales are to be allocated to the business account of the first merchant.

16. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising receiving a request that specifies that the percentage of the future sales are to be allocated to the savings account and that the remaining amount is to be allocated to the business account of the first merchant.

17. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request from the POS device or the another electronic device to pay, using an additional portion of the funds from the savings account, a vendor.