Electronic bill and non-bill information presentation

#The present invention relates to electronic bill presentment and more particularly to combining electronic presentation of billing information with electronic presentation of non-bill information.

#Billers have traditionally presented bills to their customers in paper form. With the advent of affordable computers and widespread network access, bill presentment has migrated from paper presentment to electronic presentment. Electronic bill presentment is achieved by various methods. For example, some bills are presented via e-mail, some are presented via the World Wide Web, and some are presented via private network links between billers and customers. No matter the electronic method by which a bill is presented, it will be understood that information indicating an amount owed is transmitted to a customer's computing device in electronic bill presentment.

#Electronic bills are not only presented by billers themselves, but also by bill presentment service providers. Bill presentment service providers obtain billing information from billers and in turn electronically present bills to customers of the billers. This billing information can be obtained directly from a biller's computer system by a bill presentment service provider, or it can be obtained from a paper copy of a bill that has previously been generated by a biller's computer system. Electronic bills that are presented by billers are often said to be presented via a biller-direct system. Electronic bills that are presented by bill presentment service providers are often said to be presented via a bill aggregation system. There are also hybrid electronic bill presentment systems in which a portion of a bill is electronically presented by a biller and another portion of the same bill is electronically presented by a bill presentment service provider. Typically, in a hybrid system, summary bill information, such as an amount owed, is presented by a bill presentment service provider, while bill detail, such as line item charges, is presented by a biller. Such systems allow the biller to maintain control of the bill presentation experience.

#In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the appended drawings. These drawings should not be construed as limiting the present invention, but are intended to be exemplary only.

#FIG. 1 is a simplified depiction of a prior art electronically presented bill.

#FIG. 2 is a simplified depiction of an electronic bill presentment system in accordance with the present invention.

#Referring to FIG. 2 there is shown a schematic diagram of an electronic bill presentment system 50 in accordance with the present invention. The system 50 comprises a user entity 52, a bill presentment service provider (BPSP) 54, a first billing entity 56A, and a second billing entity 56B. For purposes of this detailed description, the bill presentment service provider 54 is not depicted as an electronic payment service provider. However, it should be understood that that electronic bill payment could be a readily included feature of the bill presentment service provider 54.

#At this point it should be noted that although only a single user entity 52 and two billing entities 56A and 56B are shown in the system 50, it is common to have a multitude of such entities in an actual electronic bill presentment network in accordance with the present invention.

#Billing entity 56A and the user entity 52 are each in communication with the BPSP 54, as well as with one another. Billing entity 56B and the user entity 52 are also in communication with one another. It will be understood by one skilled in the art that the communication links between various ones of the user entity 52, BPSP 54, billing entity 56A, and billing entity 56B could be any type communication link. Preferably, the communications described herein travel via the Internet, though any network or networks capable of hosting these communications are adequate for the invention described herein.