Electronic transaction processing server with automated transaction evaluation

• US 20080144881A1
• Filed: 12/13/2006
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bottomline Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bottomline Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Priest, Gareth Rory, Savory, Nigel Kevin, Martin, Christopher Curtis, Fortune, Peter Stanley, Gaillard, Thomas D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,416,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/274 Syntactic or semantic context, e.g. balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/412 Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables

Abstract

An invoice processing system includes a document system and an invoice hub. The document system receives a document image (either a paper invoice or an image file). A character recognition system generates a data file representation of the invoice data from the document image. A data field value validation engine determines, for each data field, a rule associated with each data field. The rule is applied to the data field value to distinguish between a valid field value and suspect data value. A correction center: i) displays a portion of the document image comprising the suspect field value; ii) receives user input of a replacement value to replace the suspect field value as the data field value. The invoice hub receives the data file which includes all validated data field values and stores the invoice data in a transaction database. A spend management evaluation module performs an evaluation function of a selected one of a plurality of evaluation parameter sets to generate a resulting value. Based on the resulting value, the spend management module may determine an evaluation field value in accordance with the defined action associated with the resulting value. The evaluation field value is then associated with the at least one record of invoice data.

Claims

1. An invoice processing system for receiving, validating, and evaluating a client'"'"'s invoices, the invoice processing system comprising:

a document work flow system receiving invoice data embodied in a document image and comprising;

a character recognition system receiving an electronic representation of the document image and generating a data field value for each of a plurality of data fields, the character recognition system determining each data field value by;

determining field marker characters associated with a data field;

recognizing the field marker characters within the electronic image;

identifying a field value location within the electronic image, the field value location being within a predetermined displacement form the field marker characters;

recognizing characters located within the field value location to determine the data field value;

writing the data field value with the data field;

a data field value validation engine;

determining, for each data field, a data field value rule associated with each data field and

applying the data field value rule to the data field value associated with the data field to distinguish between a valid data field value and suspect data field value, a valid data field value consist of a data field value which complies with the validation rule, a suspect data field value consist of a data field value which fails to comply with the validation rule; and

a correction center, the correction center;

displaying at least a portion of the document image which includes the field value location;

receiving user input of a replacement data field value to replace the suspect field value as a valid data field value;

an invoice hub receiving each valid data field value as a data file comprising records of invoice data, the invoice hub comprising;

a spend management database comprising a plurality of evaluation parameter sets, each evaluation parameter set comprising at least;

identification of a vendor class to which the evaluation parameter set applies;

identification of an invoice line item class to which the evaluation parameter set applies;

an evaluation function;

at least one indicator of a defined action associated with a defined function result;

a spend management evaluation module;

selecting at least one record of invoice data which represents an amount invoiced by a vendor that is both;

i) associated with a vendor within the vendor class of a selected one of the evaluation parameter sets; and

ii) associated with a line item that is within the line item class of the selected one of the evaluation parameter sets.

performing the evaluation function of the selected one of the evaluation parameter sets on the at least one record of invoice data to generate a resulting value;

determining an evaluation field value in accordance with the defined action;

associating the evaluation field value with the at least one record of invoice data; and

a session management module for establishing a secure session with a client system and providing an invoice file through the second secure session, the invoice file comprising both the at least one record of invoice data and the evaluation field value.

2. The invoice processing system of claim 1, wherein:

the session management module further;

establishes a second secure session with the client system;

obtains at least one evaluation parameter set from the client system through the second secure session; and

writes the at least one evaluation parameter set to the spend management database.

3. The invoice processing system of claim 2, wherein:

the evaluation function of at least one evaluation parameter set is a threshold evaluation function and the at least one evaluation parameter set further comprises;

a threshold value;

a mathematical operand; and

the at least one indicator of a defined action associated with a defined function result comprises;

a true action indicator of a true action associated with a defined function result of true;

a false action indicator of a false action associated with a defined function result of false;

the true action defining a first auto analysis comment to be associated with the evaluation field in the event that the spend management evaluation module determines that comparison of a field of the record of invoice data to the threshold value using the mathematical operand generates a function result of true; and

the false action defining a second auto analysis comment to be associated with the evaluation field in the event that the spend management evaluation module determines that comparison of a field of the record of invoice data to the threshold value using the mathematical operand generates a function result of false.

4. The electronic transaction processing server of claim 3, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined price; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined price.

5. The electronic transaction processing server of claim 3, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined quantity; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined quantity.

6. The invoice processing system of claim 3, wherein:

the invoice document is a paper invoice document; and

the document work flow system further comprises an imaging system for converting the contents of the paper invoice document to an electronic representation of the document image.

7. The invoice processing system of claim 2, wherein

the spend management database links a first evaluation parameter set to a second evaluation parameter set by a Boolean logic function;

the first evaluation parameter set being a first one of the plurality of evaluation parameter sets;

the second evaluation parameter set being a second one of the plurality of evaluation parameter sets;

the at least one defined action of the first evaluation parameter set comprises;

a true action, the true action defining input of a first sub resulting value of true to the Boolean logic function; and

a false action, the false action defining input of a first sub resulting value of false to the Boolean logic function;

the at least one defined action of the second evaluation parameter set comprising;

a true action, the true action defining input of a second sub resulting value of true to the Boolean logic function; and

a false action, the false action defining input of a second sub resulting value of false to the Boolean logic function; and

wherein the spend management evaluation module performing the evaluation function of the selected one of the evaluation parameter sets on the at least one record of invoice data to generate a resulting value comprises;

performing the evaluation function of the first evaluation parameter set on the at least one record of invoice data to generate the first sub-resulting value;

performing the evaluation function of the second evaluation parameter set on the at least one record of invoice data to generate the second sub-resulting value; and

using the first resulting value and the second resulting value as input to the Boolean logic function to generate the resulting value.

8. The invoice processing system of claim 7, wherein the first evaluation parameter set and the second evaluation parameter set include the same values for identification of a vendor class and identification of an invoice line item class;

9. The electronic transaction processing server of claim 8, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined price; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined price.

10. The electronic transaction processing server of claim 8, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined quantity; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined quantity.

11. The invoice processing system of claim 8, wherein:

the invoice document is a paper invoice document; and

the document work flow system further comprises an imaging system for converting the contents of the paper invoice document to an electronic representation of the document image.

12. A method of operating an invoice processing system for receiving, validating, and evaluating a client'"'"'s invoices, the method comprising:

receiving invoice data embodied in a document image at a document work flow system;

performing a character recognition process on an electronic representation of the document image to generate a data field value for each of a plurality of data fields, the character recognition process determining each data field value by;

determining field marker characters associated with a data field;

recognizing the field marker characters within the electronic image;

identifying a field value location within the electronic image, the field value location being within a predetermined displacement form the field marker characters; and

recognizing characters located within the field value location to determine the data field value;

validating the data field value for each of the plurality of data fields by;

determining a data field value rule associated with the data field and

applying the data field value rule to the data field value to distinguish between a valid data field value and suspect data field value, a valid data field value consist of a data field value which complies with the validation rule, a suspect data field value consist of a data field value which fails to comply with the validation rule;

performing a correction process on each suspect data field value, the correction process comprising;

displaying at least a portion of the document image which includes the field value location;

receiving user input of a replacement data field value to replace the suspect field value as a valid data field value;

loading the validated data field values, as a data file comprising records of invoice data to a transaction database;

loading a spend management evaluation parameter set to a spend management database, the spend management evaluation parameter set comprising at least;

identification of a vendor class to which the evaluation parameter set applies;

identification of an invoice line item class to which the evaluation parameter set applies;

an evaluation function;

at least one indicator of a defined action associated with a defined function result;

performing a spend management evaluation by;

selecting at least one record of invoice data which represents an amount invoiced by a vendor that is both;

i) associated with a vendor within the vendor class of a selected one of the evaluation parameter sets; and

ii) associated with a line item that is within the line item class of the selected one of the evaluation parameter sets.

performing the evaluation function of the selected one of the evaluation parameter sets on the at least one record of invoice data to generate a resulting value;

determining an evaluation field value in accordance with the defined action;

associating the evaluation field value with the at least one record of invoice data; and

providing, to a client system, an invoice file comprising both the at least one record of invoice data and the evaluation field value.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the evaluation function of at least one evaluation parameter set is a threshold evaluation function and the at least one evaluation parameter set further comprises;

a threshold value

a mathematical operand; and

the at least one indicator of a defined action associated with a defined function result comprises;

a true action indicator of a true action associated with a defined function result of true;

a false action indicator of a false action associated with a defined function result of false;

the true action defining a first auto analysis comment to be associated with the evaluation field in the event that the spend management evaluation module determines that comparison of a field of the record of invoice data to the threshold value using the mathematical operand generates a function result of true; and

the false action defining a second auto analysis comment to be associated with the evaluation field in the event that the spend management evaluation module determines that comparison of a field of the record of invoice data to the threshold value using the mathematical operand generates a function result of false.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined price; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined price.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined quantity; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined quantity.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the invoice document is a paper invoice document; and

the method further comprises driving an imaging system for converting the contents of the paper invoice document to an electronic representation of the document image.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein

the spend management database links a first evaluation parameter set to a second evaluation parameter set by a Boolean logic function;

the first evaluation parameter set being a first one of the plurality of evaluation parameter sets;

the second evaluation parameter set being a second one of the plurality of evaluation parameter sets;

the at least one defined action of the first evaluation parameter set comprises;

a true action, the true action defining input of a first sub resulting value of true to the Boolean logic function; and

a false action, the false action defining input of a first sub resulting value of false to the Boolean logic function;

the at least one defined action of the second evaluation parameter set comprising;

a true action, the true action defining input of a second sub resulting value of true to the Boolean logic function; and

a false action, the false action defining input of a second sub resulting value of false to the Boolean logic function;

wherein performing the evaluation function of the selected one of the evaluation parameter sets on the at least one record of invoice data to generate a resulting value comprises;

performing the evaluation function of the first evaluation parameter set on the at least one record of invoice data to generate the first sub-resulting value;

performing the evaluation function of the second evaluation parameter set on the at least one record of invoice data to generate the second sub-resulting value;

using the first resulting value and the second resulting value as input to the Boolean logic function to generate the resulting value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first evaluation parameter set and the second evaluation parameter set includes the same values for identification of a vendor class and identification of an invoice line item class.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined price; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined price.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the evaluation value is a predetermined quantity; and

at least one of the true action and the false action comprises writing an indication that that the value of the line item is in excess of the predetermined quantity.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the invoice document is a paper invoice document; and

the method further comprises driving an imaging system for converting the contents of the paper invoice document to an electronic representation of the document image.