Methods and systems for managing financial accounts

• US 7,117,172 B1
• Filed: 03/10/2000
• Issued: 10/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CoreCard Software, Inc. (Intelligent Systems Corporation)
• Original Assignee: CoreCard Software, Inc. (Intelligent Systems Corporation)
• Inventors: Black, David B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kyle, Charles R.
• Application Number:
  US09/522,750
• Time in Patent Office: 2,398 Days
• Field of Search: 705/30, 705/35, 709/101, 709/207
• US Class Current: 705/35
• 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

Abstract

Processing systems and methods receive events, such as a transaction to an account, and converts the events into messages. Each message then invokes one or more rules which are executed by a rules engine. The execution of these rules may invoke the execution of additional rules. After all rules have executed, the account associated with the event is updated, such as by projecting the account. The rules have their parameters defined in a repository so that the parameters can be easily changed without any need to recompile. The processing systems receive authorizations and other transactions and runs in real-time as transactions arrive. As a result, balances are updated continuously and accounts are read and updated only when there is activity. Hierarchy is user configurable, including multiple hierarchy to any depth. System operations are controlled by rules and their parameters and most modifications can be accomplished without access to source code.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method performed for a financial institution having system resources for posting transactions to accounts, comprising:

a) receiving at a computerized system transactions related to a plurality of accounts;

b) in response to receiving the transactions, the computerized system;

b1) assigning a lower priority to any of the received transactions that are ready for posting relative to any of the received transactions that are of a second type of transactions;

b2) processing, with the system resources, the second type of transactions into transactions that are ready for posting at a higher priority than the ready-for-posting transactions; and

b3) posting the ready-for-posting transactions, including the second type of transactions that are processed into ready-for-posting messages, in real time to the accounts when the system resources are available;

c) wherein the posting step is interspersable with the processing of the second type of transactions; and

d) wherein the postings of the ready-for-posting transaction comprises;

d1) at a first instance, identifying any of the ready-for-posting transactions that are related to a first one of the accounts and have an effective transaction date within a predetermined first time period;

d2) first calculating a first new balance for the first account based on the ready-for-posting transactions identified at the first instance;

d3) at a second instance subsequent to the first instance, identifying a first new one of the ready-for-posting transactions that is related to the first account and also has an effecting transaction date within the predetermined first time period;

d4) second calculating a second new balance for the first account by re-calculating the first new balance with the first new ready-for-posting message included in the re-calculating; and

d5) generating an automatic adjustment, based on the effective transaction date of the first new ready-for-posting message relative to the effective transaction dates of the ready-for-posting transactions identified at the first instance, when there is a difference between the first and second calculating;

d6) first updating the first account based on the first calculating the second calculating, and the automatic adjustment by updating a plurality of existing balances associated with the first account by at least;

d61) updating a first one of the existing balances based on the first calculating, the second calculating, and the automatic adjustment; and

d62) updating a second one of the existing balances based on a contribution of the updated first balance; and

d63) updating a third one of the existing balances based on a contribution of the updated second existing balance and

d7) scheduling a next action on the first account by;

d71) performing in real time the next action on the first account upon identifying a second new ready-for-posting transaction that is related to the first account, wherein the second new ready-for-posting transaction is identified prior to an expiration of a predetermined second time period subsequent to the first updating; and

d72) performing in real time the next action on the first account upon the expiration of the predetermined second time period subsequent to the first updating, wherein the expiration is reached prior to the second new ready-for-posting transaction being identified;

d8) repeating the scheduling the next updating of the first account for updates of the first account subsequent to the second updating.

2. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the second type of transactions comprise an authorization request.

3. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the ready-for-posting transactions are approved charges to the accounts.

4. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the accounts comprise credit accounts.

5. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the transactions at the computerized system comprises receiving the transactions at a plurality of times throughout a day.

6. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the receiving of the transactions at the computerized system comprises receiving a group of the transactions at one time.

7. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the automatic adjustment comprises a calculated interest for the first account.

8. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the automatic adjustment comprises a calculated fee for the first account.

9. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the receiving at the computerized system comprises receiving at the computerize system of the financial institution.

10. The computer-implemented method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the receiving at the computerized system comprises receiving at the computerized system the transactions on behalf of the financial institution.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the generating an automatic adjustment comprises:

issuing a fee or a credit as a third new ready-for-posting transaction to cover the difference.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the next action is a statement generation.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the next action is a letter generation.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein

the plurality of accounts comprises a group account and one or more detail accounts belonging to the group account, the first account is one or the detail accounts belonging to the group account;

and

the posting of the ready-for-posting transactions further comprises propagating the first updating of the first account to the group account to also update the group account.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one first is a periodic account associated with a time period, and wherein the predetermined first time period is within the time period associated with the periodic account.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of the accounts is a first periodic account associated with a first time period, and some other ones of the plurality of the accounts are created periodic accounts that are of the same type as the first periodic account but with time periods different from each other and the first time period.

17. A computer-implemented method performed for a financial institution having system resources for posting transactions to accounts, comprising:

a) receiving at a computerized system transactions related to a plurality of accounts;

b) in response to receiving the transactions, the computerized system;

b1) assigning a lower priority to any of the received transactions that are ready for posting relative to any of the received transactions that are of a second type of transactions;

b2) processing, with the system resources, the second type of transactions into transactions that are ready for posting at a higher priority than the ready-for-posting transactions; and

b3) posting the ready-for-posting transactions, including the second type of transactions that are processed into ready-for-posting messages, in real time to the accounts when the system resources are available;

c) wherein the posting step is interspersable with the processing of the second type of transactions; and

d) wherein the posting of the ready-for-posting transactions comprises;

d1) at a first instance, identifying any of the ready-for-posting transactions that are related to a first one of the accounts and have an effective transaction date within a predetermined first time period;

d2) first calculating a first new balance for the first account based on the ready-for-posting transactions identified at the first instance;

d3) at a second instance subsequent to the first instance, identifying a first new one of the ready-for-posting transactions that is related to the first account and also has an effective transaction date within the predetermined first time period;

d4) second calculating a second new balance for the first account by re-calculating the first new balance with the first new ready-for-posting message included in the re-calculating; and

d5) generating an automatic adjustment, based on the effective transaction date of the first new ready-for-posting message relative to the effective transaction dates of the ready-for-posting transactions identified at the first instance, when there is a difference between the first and second calculating;

d6) first updating the first account based on the first calculating, the second calculating and the automatic adjustment by setting up a data structure for an aging chain of balances for a plurality of existing balances associated with the first account for the computerized system to perform balance aging on the plurality of existing balances by at least;

d61) receiving a request to update a first one of the existing balances in the data structure;

d62) moving a first existing value representing the first one of the existing balances to a second one of the existing balances in response to the update request; and

d63) replacing the first existing value in the first existing balance with a value based on the first calculating, the second calculating, and the automatic adjustment in response to the update request; and

d7) scheduling a next action on the first account by;

d71) performing in real time the next action on the first account upon identifying a second new ready-for-posting transaction that is related to the first account, wherein the second new ready-for-posting transaction is identified prior to an expiration of a predetermined second time period subsequent to the first updating; and

d72) performing in real time the next action on the first account upon the expiration of the predetermined second time period subsequent to the first updating, wherein the expiration is reached prior to the second new-ready-for-posting transaction being identified;

d8) repeating the scheduling the next updating of the first account for updates of the first account subsequent to the second updating.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the balancing aging on the plurality of existing balances associated with the first account further includes:

moving a second existing value representing the second existing balance to a third one of the existing balances prior to the moving of the first existing value from the first existing balance to the second existing balance.