US 6,532,450 B1Granted

Financial management system including an offset payment process

AssigneeAmerican Management Systems, Inc.

InventorsZipora Brown, Michael Vernon Baker

Life of this patent

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Abstract

The present invention is a system that includes a first financial management system handling receivables and a second financial management system handling payables. The receivables system sends debt offset information to an offset payment system and the payables system sends payment information to the offset payments system. The offset payment system either makes a payment or offsets the payment with the debt. The financial management systems receive offset information from the offset payment system. The system designates debt and payments that are suitable for offset using threshold criteria. The system allows administrative fees and other charges, such as interrest and penalties, to be added to the debt. During the referral of the debt to the offset payments system, the debtor as well as other parties, such as credit bureaus, are informed or notified of the delinquent debt. When an offset occurs the system feeds the amount of the offset back to the receivables and payables systems to update the records therein to reflect the amount and that the amount was an offset. That is, an authorized payment is shown as fully or partially offset and a debt is shown as fully or partially satisfy via the offset. The records of financial management systems are updated when a payment is made by the debtor after a referral has occurred, when a decision is made to write-off the debt. The invention also provides for reconciliation. Online access to the records is also provided.

Claims2

Dependent claims

A process interacting with an offset payment system, said process comprising:

determining, within a computer implemented accounts receivable financial management system separate from the offset payment system, debt to be referred for offset payment responsive to debt selection criteria comprising debt age, debt amount and number of delinquent notices;
adding, within the computer implemented financial management system, to the debt administrative charges, interest and penalties;
limiting, within the computer implemented financial management system, the debt offset by an offset percentage;
referring the debt to the offset payment system responsive to the determination;
determining, within a computer implemented accounts payable financial management system separate from the accounts receivable system, a payment to be referred for offset of a debt responsive to payment selection criteria comprising payment type, payee and expense type;
referring the payment to the offset payment system responsive to the determination;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable financial management system, debt records responsive to an offset by the offset payment system the debt records comprising general ledger records, budget records and planning records;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts payable financial management system, payment records responsive to the offset by the offset payment system;
accepting a payment from a debtor;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, the payment and the debt records and updating the offset records in the offset payment system responsive to the payment;
accepting a write-off authorization for a debt;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, the payment and the debt records and updating the offset records in the offset payment system responsive to the write-off;
reconciling, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, payments, debts and offsets;
accepting a bankruptcy notification for a debt;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, the payment and the debt records and updating the offset records in the offset payment system responsive to the notification;
notifying a debtor of the referral and the offset;
notifying a third party of the referral;
creating, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, document images for referrals and notifications for using images in work flow operations;
and
providing online access to offset payment records.

17 more elements

A process interacting with an offset payment system, said process comprising:

determining, within a computer implemented accounts receivable financial management system separate from the offset payment system, debt to be referred for offset payment responsive to debt selection criteria comprising at least one of debt age, debt amount and number of delinquent notices;
adding, within the computer implemented financial management system, to the debt administrative charges, interest and penalties;
referring the debt to the offset payment system responsive to the determination;
determining, within a computer implemented accounts payable financial management system separate from the accounts receivable system, a payment to be referred for offset of a debt responsive to payment selection criteria comprising at least one of payment type, payee and expense type;
referring the payment to the offset payment system responsive to the determination;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable financial management system, debt records responsive to an offset by the offset payment system the debt records comprising at least one of general ledger records, budget and plan records;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts payable financial management system, payment records responsive to the offset by the offset payment system;
accepting a payment from a debtor;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, the payment and the debt records and updating the offset records in the offset payment system responsive to the payment;
accepting a write-off authorization for a debt;
updating automatically, within the computer implemented accounts receivable and accounts payable financial management systems, the payment and the debt records and updating the offset records in the offset payment system responsive to the write-off;
notifying a debtor of the referral and the offset;
and

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/207,681Filed 9 Dec 1998
Granted: 11 Mar 2003
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06Q 40/02
Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes: banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance
G06Q 20/00
Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
G06Q 20/02
Payment architectures, schemes or protocols: involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
G06Q 20/023
Involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]: the neutral party being a clearing house