Method for electronically merging digitized data system of generating billing statements for published advertising

• US 6,505,173 B1
• Filed: 10/15/1999
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Source 3 Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Electronic Imaging Systems of America Incorporated (Electronic Imaging Systems)
• Inventors: Metsig, John, Weibel, Willard J., Lopez, Maria Elena
• Primary Examiner(s): Hess, Douglas
• Assistant Examiner(s): GORT, ELAINE L
• Application Number:
  US09/418,744
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 705/27, 705/10, 705/2, 705/3, 705/30, 705/34, 705/40, 455/406, 455/408, 455/407, 348/114, 348/118, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A method of constructing a billing statement for publishing advertising or the like starts with digitizing the advertisement and the publication page the advertisement is on and assigning a unique identifier to at least the advertisement in an information header associated with the published image of the advertisement copy. The publication page may also be uniquely identified apart from the advertisement and contain reference to the advertisements thereon in its information header. An invoice is generated which searches at least the publication page database to find both the advertisement and page documents. The advertisement and page documents are copied and stored with the billing statement in a separate file where they are linked or merged into one document so that manual preparation of invoices with advertisement copy and tear sheets no longer need be done.

Claims

1. A method of constructing a billing statement for advertising customers placing advertisements in print publications, comprising:

a. creating a printed advertisement image on a printed publication page;

b. establishing a unique customer identifier for each customer;

c. creating a first digital document representing the printed advertisement image with a unique print advertisement identifier and associating the unique customer identifier with the unique print advertisement identifier;

d. creating a second digital document representing an image of the printed publication page containing the printed advertisement image and associating the second digital document with the unique print advertisement identifier;

e. creating a third digital document representing an invoice for the printed advertisement image including specifying an identifier range for invoiced print advertisements;

f. finding the first digital document by searching the unique customer identifier in a first database and copying the first digital document to an invoice database and listing each found first digital document as a line item on the invoice;

g. finding the second digital document and copying the second digital document to the invoice database; and

h. storing the first and second digital documents in a common file associated with the third digital document.

2. The method of claim 1 further including finding the second digital document by searching the unique advertisement identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 further including finding the second digital document by searching the unique customer identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 including the further step of copying the first, second, and third digital documents to a removable storage medium.

5. The method of claim 1 including the further step of listing each advertisement identifier as a line item on the invoice document.

6. The method of claim 1 including the further step of displaying the first, second, and third digital documents in human readable format.

7. A method of constructing a billing statement for published advertisements comprising:

a. establishing a unique customer identifier for a customer to be billed;

b. creating a digital billing invoice document and associating the digital billing invoice document with the unique customer identifier and storing the digital billing invoice document in an invoice file;

c. creating a printed advertisement image on a printed publication page;

d. creating a digital advertisement document representing the printed advertisement image with a unique advertisement identifier and associating the unique customer identifier with the unique advertisement identifier and storing the digital advertisement document in an advertisement database;

e. creating a digital publication page representing the printed publication page, with the digital advertisement document thereon, and having a unique page identifier; and

associating the unique page identifier with the unique advertisement identifier and storing the digital publication page document in a publication page database;

f. searching for digital advertisement documents in the advertisement database according to the customer identifier, identifying digital advertisement documents according to the customer identifier, and copying identified digital advertisement documents to the invoice file;

g. searching for digital publication pages associated with the digital advertisement documents in the publication page database and copying the associated digital publication pages to the invoice file; and

h. cross referencing the billing invoice, advertisement, and publication page digital documents in the invoice file.

8. The method of claim 7 including the further step of copying the billing invoice, advertisement, and publication page digital documents to a removable storage medium.

9. The method of claim 7 including the further step of listing each digital advertisement document as a line item on the invoice document.

10. The method of claim 9 including the further step of displaying the billing invoice, advertisement, and publication page digital documents in human readable format.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of

creating the digital billing invoice document includes specifying an identifier range for the digital advertisement documents.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of

specifying an identifier range further includes specifying a date range on which the digital advertisement documents were published in print.