Switching between data aggregator servers

• US 9,940,668 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2016
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MX Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: MX Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: Caldwell, John Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaikh, Mohammad Z
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gregg, Mary M
• Application Number:
  US15/058,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20160180453A1
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2468 Fuzzy queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/407 Cancellation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking

Abstract

Switching between data aggregator servers. A method for switching between data aggregator servers may include tracking a first financial account using a PFM server, receiving, at the PFM server, first account identification data and first account transaction data for the first financial account from a first data aggregator server over a network, detecting, at the PFM server, that the first account transaction data of the first data aggregator server has become unavailable to the PFM server over the network and that a second data aggregator server is currently available to the PFM server over the network, and in response to the detecting, switching, at the PFM server, from the first data aggregator server to a second data aggregator server, the second data aggregator server configured to send data for the same financial accounts with different data fields and/or with different data formats than the first data aggregator server.

Claims

1. A method for switching between data aggregator servers, the method comprising:

tracking a first financial account using a personal financial manager (PFM) server;

receiving, at the PFM server, first account identification data and first account transaction data for the first financial account from a first data aggregator server over a network;

receiving, at the PFM server, data that comprises one or more custom additions, the one or more custom additions comprising one or more of custom categorizations, taggings, memos, and splits that are related to the first account transaction data;

including, at the PFM server, the data comprising the one or more custom additions in the first account transaction data;

detecting, at the PFM server, that the first account transaction data from the first data aggregator server has become unavailable to the PFM server over the network and that a second data aggregator server is currently available to the PFM server over the network;

in response to the detecting, switching, at the PFM server, from the first data aggregator server to a second data aggregator server, the second data aggregator server configured to send data for at least some of the user'"'"'s financial accounts that were accessible via the first data aggregator server, wherein at least a portion of the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the second data aggregator server comprise different data fields and/or different data formats than the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the first data aggregator server;

in response to the switching, receiving, at the PFM server, second account identification data and second account transaction data from the second data aggregator server over the network for one or more of the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the second data aggregator server;

comparing, at the PFM server, the first account identification data and the second account identification data against an identification threshold to determine if the second account identification data matches the first account identification data of the first financial account;

in response to determining that the second account identification data does not match the first account identification data of the first financial account, comparing, at the PFM server, the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold to determine if the second account transaction data matches the first account transaction data of the first financial account;

in response to determining that the second account transaction data does not match the first account transaction data of the first financial account, requesting, at the PFM server, confirmation from the user that the second account identification data and/or the second account transaction data match(es) the first account identification data of and/or the first account transaction data of the first financial account;

in response to receiving confirmation from the user that the second account identification data and/or the second account transaction data match the first account identification data of and/or the first account transaction data of the first financial account, merging, at the PFM server, the second account identification data and the second account transaction data with the first account identification data and the first account transaction data; and

merging the data comprising the one or more custom additions that is included in the first account transaction data with the second account transaction data such that the one or more custom additions remains present in the merged data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first account identification data and the second account identification data includes the following data for each account:

account financial institution name, account number, account type, and account description.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data includes the following data for each transaction:

transaction date, transaction type, transaction description, and transaction amount.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting, at the PFM server, that the first account transaction data from the first data aggregator server has become unavailable over the network includes detecting, at the PFM server, that services over the network of the first data aggregator server have halted.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction threshold is predetermined.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction threshold is determined dynamically.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, at the PFM server, of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold includes employing, at the PFM server, Levenshtein string matching.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, at the PFM server, of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold includes employing, at the PFM server, fuzzy pattern matching.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, at the PFM server, of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold includes employing, at the PFM server, crowd sourcing matching.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, at the PFM server, of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold includes comparing, at the PFM server, a specific date range of transactions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, at the PFM server, of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold includes comparing, at the PFM server, a specific number of recent transactions.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing, at the PFM server, of the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold includes comparing, at the PFM server, data fields specified by the user to be important fields.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first data aggregator server is configured to send data over the network for financial accounts using a first financial data feed having a first API; and

the second data aggregator server is configured to send data over the same network for the same financial accounts using a second financial data feed having a second API that is different from the first API.

14. A method for switching between data aggregator servers, the method comprising:

tracking a first financial account using a personal financial manager (PFM) server;

receiving, at the PFM server, first account identification data and first account transaction data for the first financial account from a first data aggregator server over a network;

receiving, at the PFM server, data that comprises one or more field values, the one or more field values comprising one or more of custom categorizations, taggings, memos, and splits that are related to the first account transaction data;

including, at the PFM server, the data comprising the one or more field values in the first account transaction data;

detecting, at the PFM server, that the first account transaction data from the first data aggregator server has become unavailable to the PFM server over the network and that a second data aggregator server is currently available to the PFM server over the network;

in response to the detecting, switching, at the PFM server, from the first data aggregator server to a second data aggregator server, the second data aggregator server configured to send data for at least some of the user'"'"'s financial accounts that were accessible via the first data aggregator server, wherein at least a portion of the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the second data aggregator server comprise different data fields and/or different data formats than the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the first data aggregator server;

in response to the switching, receiving, at the PFM server, second account identification data and second account transaction data from the second data aggregator server over the network for one or more of the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the second data aggregator server;

comparing, at the PFM server, the first account identification data and the second account identification data against an identification threshold to determine if the second account identification data matches the first account identification data of the first financial account;

in response to determining that the second account identification data does not match the first account identification data of the first financial account, comparing, at the PFM server, the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold to determine if the second account transaction data matches the first account transaction data of the first financial account, the transaction threshold comprising a predetermined percentage of fields that match between the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data;

in response to determining that the second account transaction data does not match the first account transaction data of the first financial account, requesting, at the PFM server, confirmation from the user that the second account identification data and/or the second account transaction data match(es) the first account identification data of and/or the first account transaction data of the first financial account;

in response to receiving confirmation from the user that the second account identification data and/or the second account transaction data match the first account identification data of and/or the first account transaction data of the first financial account, merging, at the PFM server, the second account identification data and the second account transaction data with the first account identification data and the first account transaction data; and

merging the data comprising the one or more field values that is included in the first account transaction data with the second account transaction data such that the one or more field values remains present in the merged data.

15. A method for switching between data aggregator servers, the method comprising:

tracking a first financial account using a personal financial manager (PFM) server;

receiving, at the PFM server, first account identification data and first account transaction data for the first financial account from a first data aggregator server over a network using a first financial data feed having a first API;

receiving, at the PFM server, customized data generated by a user, the customized data related to the first account transaction data;

including, at the PFM server, data that comprises one or more custom additions, the one or more custom additions comprising one or more of custom categorizations, taggings, memos, and splits that are related to the first account transaction data;

detecting, at the PFM server, that the first account transaction data from the first data aggregator server has become unavailable to the PFM server over the network and that a second data aggregator server is currently available to the PFM server over the network;

in response to the detecting, switching, at the PFM server, from the first data aggregator server to a second data aggregator server, the second data aggregator server configured to send data for the at least some of the user'"'"'s financial accounts that were accessible via the first data aggregator server, wherein at least a portion of the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the second data aggregator server comprise different data fields and/or different data formats than the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the first data aggregator server, the second data aggregator server using a second financial data feed having a second API that is different from the first API;

in response to the switching, receiving, at the PFM server, second account identification data and second account transaction data from the second data aggregator server over the network for one or more of the user'"'"'s financial accounts accessible via the second data aggregator server;

comparing, at the PFM server, the first account identification data and the second account identification data against an identification threshold to determine if the second account identification data matches the first account identification data of the first financial account;

in response to determining that the second account identification data does not match the first account identification data of the first financial account, comparing, at the PFM server, the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data against a transaction threshold to determine if the second account transaction data matches the first account transaction data of the first financial account, the transaction threshold comprising a predetermined percentage of fields that match between the first account transaction data and the second account transaction data;

in response to determining that the second account transaction data does not match the first account transaction data of the first financial account, requesting, at the PFM server, confirmation from the user that the second account identification data and/or the second account transaction data match(es) the first account identification data of and/or the first account transaction data of the first financial account;

in response to receiving confirmation from the user that the second account identification data and/or the second account transaction data match the first account identification data of and/or the first account transaction data of the first financial account, merging, at the PFM server, the second account identification data and the second account transaction data with the first account identification data and the first account transaction data; and

appending the data comprising the one or more custom additions that is included in the first account transaction data to the second account transaction data such that the one or more custom additions remains present in the merged data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the detecting, at the PFM server, that the first data aggregator server has become unavailable over the network includes detecting, at the PFM server, that services over the network of the first data aggregator server have halted.