Programmatic approvals of corporate spend and employee expense

An approval system for evaluating transaction requests in real-time, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a non-transitory storage medium storing executable instructions that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations of:
• receiving, through a communication network, at least one expenditure request received by a computerized transaction system and transmitted to said approval system through said communication network;
• in real-time, before said computerized transaction system committing a transfer of funds requested in said computerized request:
• processing the at least one expenditure request to extract a plurality of request attributes;
• identifying at least one expenditure rule applicable for the at least one expenditure request;
• analyzing the plurality of request attributes compared to the at least one expenditure rule;
• according to the at least one expenditure rule, accessing through said communication network, at least one on-line public data source and obtaining from said accessed at least one on-line public data source, market data related to a product and/or service requested to be purchased in said at least one expenditure request;
• accessing through said communication network, at least one of:
• at least one remote user resource which is a device and/or a system associated with at least one user who initiated said at least one expenditure request by accessing said computerized transaction system, for purchasing the at least one product and/or service, and obtaining from said accessed at least one remote user resource scheduling data related to said at least one user, and
• at least one remote data source of an organization associated with the at least one user, and obtaining from the accessed at least one remote data source organizational information;
• determining automatically in real-time, compliance between the plurality of request attributes and the at least one expenditure rule, based on information extracted from said at least one on-line public data source and said at least one remote user resource and/or said at least one remote data source;
• and
• wherein when said automatic determination determines compliance between the plurality of request attributes and the at least one expenditure rule, and before said computerized transaction system committing the transfer of funds requested in said computerized request, instructing said computerized transaction system to automatically commit said transfer of funds;
• and
• wherein when said automatic determination determines non-compliance between the plurality of request attributes and the at least one expenditure rule, and before said computerized transaction system committing the transfer of funds requested in said computerized request, instructing said computerized transaction system to not automatically commit said transfer of funds.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory medium storing thereon computer program instructions which, when executed by a hardware processor of an approval system connected through a communication network to a computerized transaction system, cause the hardware processor to:

• receive, through said communication network, at least one expenditure request received by the computerized transaction system and transmitted to said approval system, through said communication network;
• in real-time, before said computerized transaction system committing a transfer of funds requested in said computerized request:
• process the at least one expenditure request and extract a plurality of request attributes;
• identify at least one expenditure rule applicable for the at least one expenditure request;
• analyze the plurality of request attributes compared to the at least one expenditure rule;
• according to the at least one expenditure rule, access through said communication network, at least one on-line public data source and obtain from the accessed at least one on-line public data source, market data related to a product and/or service requested to be purchased in said at least one expenditure request;
• access through said communication network, at least one of:
• at least one remote user resource which is a device and/or a system associated with at least one user who initiated said at least one expenditure request by accessing said computerized transaction system, for purchasing the at least one product and/or service, and obtaining from said accessed at least one remote user resource scheduling data related to said at least one user, and
• at least one remote data source of an organization associated with the at least one user, and obtain from the accessed at least one remote data source organizational information;
• determine automatically in real-time, compliance between the plurality of request attributes and the at least one expenditure rule, based on information extracted from said at least one on-line public data source and said at least one remote user resource and/or said at least one remote data source;
• and
• wherein when said automatic determination determines compliance between the plurality of request attributes and the at least one expenditure rule, and before said computerized transaction system committing the transfer of funds requested in said computerized request, instruct said computerized transaction system to automatically commit said transfer of funds;
• and
• wherein when said automatic determination determines non-compliance between the plurality of request attributes and the at least one expenditure rule, and before said computerized transaction system committing the transfer of funds requested in said computerized request, instruct said computerized transaction system to not automatically commit said transfer of funds.