Purchase management system and method

A purchase management system comprising a central database arrangement, arranged to communicate with a transaction authorization module within a bank and a customer interface to the central database arrangement,

• wherein the central database arrangement is arranged to receive, from a purchasing entity through the customer interface, purchasing rules applying to a purchasing group, fields in the central database arrangement allowing metadata to be linked to transaction IDs, the fields being dynamically set in order to define the metadata desired by the purchasing entity and a data format for this metadata, and comprises central processing means arranged to:
• add a selected purchasing group as the metadata in the data format defined for the purchasing entity, linked to a first transaction ID of the transaction IDs in the central database arrangement;
• and
• add the purchasing rules applying to said purchasing group as the metadata linked to the first transaction ID in the central database arrangement,
• wherein the transaction authorization module is arranged to communicate a purchase approval request, which purchase approval request comprises transaction information, the purchase approval request having been generated in the transaction authorization module based on the transaction information received in the transaction authorization module via a payment card network, the transaction information comprising at least the purchase amount, linked to the first transaction ID, and the system comprises bank processing means arranged to:
• decide on the purchase approval request by approving or rejecting the purchase approval request based on whether the requested purchase fulfils the purchasing rules linked to the first transaction ID in the central database arrangement;
• respond to the transaction authorization module with the approval or rejection of the purchase approval request;
• and
• add the transaction information received from the transaction authorization module as metadata linked to the first transaction ID,
• wherein the central processing means of the central database arrangement are further arranged to transfer the transaction information linked to the first transaction ID to the purchasing entity, the information about the purchase being automatically entered into at least one administrative system of the purchasing entity, and
• wherein the central database arrangement is arranged to communicate with a plurality of different parties, and comprises a plurality of adapters, each adapter corresponding to one of the plurality of different parties, and the plurality of adapters convert the data format used by a corresponding different party of the plurality of different parties into the data format defined for the purchasing entity.