Ensuring the accurateness and currentness of information provided by the submitter of an electronic invoice throughout the life of a matter using tentative electonic invoice submission
AssigneeLegal Systems Holding Company
InventorsThomas G. Melling, Ronald G. Wencel, Gregory P. Shriber, Richard D. Boone, Donald Murray, Robert Thomas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A facility for collecting specified information in conjunction with the submission of an invoice by submitter is described. The facility provides a mechanism usable by the submitter to provide the specified information. When the facility receives the invoice from the submitter, the facility makes the invoice available for payment only after the mechanism has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information.
Claims56
A method in a computing system having a processor and memory for collecting specified information in conjunction with the submission of an invoice on behalf of a vendor for payment by an invoiced party, comprising:
- providing a mechanism usable by users associated with the invoiced party to specify a condition under which the specified information is required;
- providing a mechanism usable by users associated with the vendor to provide the specified information, wherein the specified information is separate from the invoice;
- receiving the invoice from a user associated with the vendor;
- accepting the received invoice without imposing conditions on such acceptance;
- after the invoice has been accepted, determining by the processor whether the specified condition is satisfied;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is not satisfied, making the received invoice available for payment;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is satisfied, determining by the processor whether the mechanism has been used by a user associated with the vendor to provide the specified information;
- associated with the vendor to provide the specified information, making the received
- in response to determining that the mechanism has not been used by a user associated with the vendor to provide the specified information:
- in response to determining that the mechanism has not been used by a user associated with the vendor to provide the specified information;
- providing a notification to at least one user associated with the vendor that identifies specified information that must be provided before the received invoice will be made available for payment;
- holding the received invoice in the memory until the mechanism has been used by a user associated with the vendor to provide the specified information;
- and
- only when the mechanism has been used by the user associated with the vendor to provide the specified information, using the processor to make the received invoice available for payment.
A method in a computing system having a processor and memory for collecting specified information in conjunction with the submission of an invoice by a submitter for payment by an invoiced party, comprising:
- providing a mechanism usable by a representative of the invoiced party to specify condition under which the specific information is required;
- providing a mechanism usable by the submitter to provide the specified information, wherein the specified information is separate from the invoice;
- receiving the invoice from the submitter;
- and
- in response to receiving the invoice from the submitter, determining whether the specified condition is satisfied;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is not satisfied, using the processor to make the received invoice available for payment;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is satisfied;
- holding the received invoice in the memory until the mechanism has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information, and
- only when the mechanism has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information, using the processor to make the received invoice available for payment.
A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the medium is not a data signal, whose contents cause a computing system to perform a method for collecting specified information in conjunction with the submission of an invoice by a submitter for payment by an invoiced party, the method comprising:
- providing a mechanism usable by a representative of the invoiced party to specify condition under which the specific information is required;
- providing a mechanism usable by the submitter to provide the specified information, wherein the specified information is separate from the invoice;
- receiving the invoice from the submitter;
- and
- after the invoice has been received from the submitter determining whether the specified condition is satisfied;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is not satisfied, using the processor to make the received invoice available for payment;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is satisfied;
- holding the the received invoice until the mechanism has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information, and
- only when the mechanism has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information, making the received invoice available for payment.
A computing system having a processor and memory for collecting specified information in conjunction with the submission of an invoice by a submitter for payment by an invoiced party, comprising:
- a first user interface component usable by a representative of the invoiced party to specify condition under which the specified information is required;
- a second user interface component usable by the submitter to provide the specified information, wherein the specified information is separate from the invoice;
- an invoice receiving component that receives the invoice from the submitter;
- and
- a payment gating component that, after the invoice has been received from the submitter
- determines whether the specified condition is satisfied;
- in response to the determining that the specified condition is not satisfied, makes the received invoice available for payment;
- in response to determining that the specified condition is satisfied;
- holds the received invoice until the user interface component has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information, and
- only when the user interface component has been used by the submitter to provide the specified information, makes the received invoice available for payment, wherein the components are implemented as instructions stored in the memory and executed by the processor.
A data transmission network conveying to a user associated with a vendor that has submitted an invoice a notification data structure relating to the submitted invoice, the notification data structure comprising:
- information identifying one or more required information items, wherein the required information items are separate from the submitted invoice;
- and information indicating that the submitted invoice will be held for processing based upon satisfaction of a condition specified by a user associated with an invoiced party until the identified required information items are provided by the vendor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.