Automated account statement generation process

• US 7,653,587 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2004
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ameriprise Financial, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ameriprise Financial, Inc.
• Inventors: Krueger, Steve, Simpson, Robert C., Corey, Debra T., King, Alana
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung; Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIU, I JUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/820,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20050228679A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,120 Days
• Field of Search: 705/331, 705 1- 80, 725 1- 15, 205 1- 5
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• 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 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/128 Check-book balancing, updating or printing arrangements

Abstract

Computer-implemented methods are executed by a software application that allows users to create or edit account statements designated or queued for batch printing runs. This application also allows a test generation of a statement for confirmation of report formats assigned to the statement prior to the month-end statement generation. Finally, the application allows statements to be selected and grouped for generation based upon various account or corporate criteria. Once statements have been selected and generated, they may be sent to a quality review management program for final approval prior to batch printing.

Claims

1. A method for generating account statements for batch printing, comprising:

grouping a plurality of accounts for which account statements are to be generated in a batch printing run;

receiving, at a computer, account data for each of the plurality of accounts, the account data for use in generating at least one account statement for each of the plurality of accounts;

presenting, to a user, a plurality of reporting formats that are available to be assigned to at least one of a plurality of account statements, each of the plurality of reporting formats defining parameters relating to a report layout, a report delivery method, and a report assembly method;

receiving, from the user, a selection of a first account from the plurality of accounts, and a selection of a first reporting format for the first account and a second reporting format for the first account from the plurality of reporting formats for the first account;

updating, by said computer, a report order table with a first model identifier corresponding to the selection of the first reporting format and a second model identifier corresponding to the selection of the second reporting format, wherein the first model identifier and the second model identifier are each associated with one of the plurality of reporting formats;

receiving, from the user, a selection of a second account from the plurality of accounts, and a selection of a third reporting format for the second account and a fourth reporting format for the second account from the plurality of reporting formats for the second account;

updating, by the computer, the report order table with a third model identifier corresponding to the selection of the third reporting format and a fourth model identifier corresponding to the selection of the fourth reporting format, wherein the second account first model identifier and the second account second model identifier are each associated with one of the plurality of reporting formats;

receiving, from a user, a designation for corporate review corresponding to at least one of;

the first account and the second account, wherein said designation for corporate review is stored with statement parameters;

retrieving, by said computer, the statement parameters applicable to the account statements, wherein the statement parameters include a recipient list, statement description, statement type, statement status, a number of copies to be generated, the designation for corporate review, and a designation for internal copies;

assembling, by said computer, a directory of individual account statements, wherein said directory of individual account statements includes the designation for corporate review;

performing, by said computer, an automatic review of the individual account statements based on said statement parameters;

performing, by said computer, an automatic approval the individual account statements in response to said individual account statements being compliant with said statement parameters;

preventing the batch printing run until all individual account statements within the batch printing run are approved and released based on said automatic review;

receiving, from a reviewer, a selection of an account statement from the directory for review;

presenting the selected account statement to the reviewer;

receiving, from the reviewer, at least one of;

an approval of the selected account statement, a rejection of the selected account statement, a correction of the selected account statement, a request for regeneration of the selected account statement, and a request to delete the selected account statement;

releasing the selected account statement for the batch printing run;

retrieving, from the report order table, the first model identifier, the second model identifier, the third model identifier, and the fourth model identifier to generate batch print instructions;

generating, in accordance with the statement parameters and the batch print instructions, a first account statement for the first account, a second account statement for the first account, a third account statement for the second account, and fourth account statement for said second account; and

delivering, in accordance with the statement parameters and the batch print instructions, the first account statement, the second account statement, the third account statement, and the fourth account statement.

2. The method of claim 1, said grouping further comprising:

grouping the plurality of accounts based on a group designation selected by the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of:

the first statement, the second statement, the third statement, and the fourth statement comprises at least one of a billing statement, a credit card statement, and a summary of investment holdings.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the account data is retrieved from a financial database.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a correction of the account data for at least one of;

the first account and the second account, wherein the correction is entered into the financial database.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a selection of the second reporting format for the first account; and

generating a fifth statement for a third account and sixth statement for the third account in at least one of;

the third reporting format or fourth reporting format for the first account, the first statement, the second statement, the third statement, the fourth statement, the third account first statement, and the third account second statement for printing in the batch printing run.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a selection of a third reporting format from the plurality of reporting formats for the second account; and

generating a third account statement in the third reporting format for the second account, said first, second and third account statements for printing in the batch printing run.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

designating at least one of the first statement, the second statement, the third statement, the fourth statement, the fifth statement, and the sixth statement for quality review.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said report order table includes fields for at least one of:

a time period for said account statements, a status of the accounts corresponding to said account statements, a corporate group responsible for the accounts, a number of copies of the account statements to be printed in the batch printing run, and a designation of whether the account statements are to undergo quality review.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

printing the batch printing run after said generating and a completion of a quality review for all designated account statements in the batch printing run.