Systems and methods for validating coupons

A computer-implemented method for electronically validating coupons, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a computing system comprising a control circuit executing a processing module, electronic coupon data from a coupon comprising a machine-readable code, the coupon provided by a customer;
• electronically parsing, by the processing module, the electronic coupon data;
• identifying, by the processing module, a manufacturer code in the parsed electronic coupon data;
• querying, by the processing module, a manufacturer database containing manufacturer codes associated with accepted manufacturers to determine that the manufacturer code is associated with an accepted manufacturer;
• and
• determining, by the processing module, whether the coupon provided by the customer is valid by:
• querying a primary positive coupon database containing positive coupon data relating to one or more coupons known to the valid to determine whether there is a match between the parsed electronic coupon data and the positive coupon data;
• if there is no match between the parsed electronic coupon data and the positive coupon data:
• identifying one or more dynamic fields in the parsed electronic coupon data;
• electronically removing the one or more dynamic fields from the parsed electronic coupon data;
• and
• comparing the remaining parsed electronic coupon data to the positive coupon data in the primary positive coupon database to determine a match;
• and
• determining whether the coupon has expired based on an expiration date of the coupon contained in the parsed electronic coupon data and an identified expiration date.