Electronic check image storage and retrieval system

An image generation, searching and retrieval system for financial documents comprising:

• a document imaging system generating images of at least one of the front and back of plurality of financial documents;
• a storage system storing the images, the storage system further storing:
• financial document data obtained from at least one of the financial documents, and
• customer data related to the at least one financial document, the customer data being generated by a customer of a financial institution, the customer data being different from any data contained on the financial documents;
• and
• a search system coupled to the storage system, the search system accepting a search request by the customer specifying at least one of the financial document data and the customer data, the search system searching the storage system and retrieving images of financial documents which satisfy the search request.

A method of generating, searching and retrieving images of financial documents, comprising the steps of:

• generating images of at least one of the front side and back side of a plurality of financial documents;
• storing the images;
• storing financial document data obtained from at least one of the financial documents;
• storing customer data related to the at least one financial document, the customer data being generated by a customer of a financial institution, the customer data being different from any data contained on the financial documents;
• accepting a search request by the customer specifying at least one of the financial document data and the customer data;
• and
• searching the stored data and retrieving images of financial documents which satisfy the search request.

A computer-readable medium encoded with a data structure, comprising:

• images of at least one of a front side and a back side of a plurality of financial documents;
• a financial document data field containing financial document data obtained from at least one of the financial documents;
• and
• a customer dat field containing customer data related to the at least one financial document, the customer data being generated by a customer of a financial institution, the customer data being different from any data contained on the financial documents.

A method of generating a computer-readable medium encoded with a data structure, the method comprising:

• storing on the computer-readable medium images of at least one of the front and back of a plurality of financial documents;
• storing on the computer-readable medium a financial document data field containing financial document data obtained from at least one of the financial documents;
• and
• storing on the computer-readable medium a customer data field containing customer data related to the at least one financial document, the customer data being generated by a customer of a financial institution, the data contained in the customer data field being different from any data contained on the financial documents.

An image workstation for searching and retrieving images of financial documents, the image workstation comprising:

• a processing unit;
• an electronic storage media coupled to the processing unit, the electronic storage media storing:
• images of at least one of a front side and a back side of a plurality of financial documents,
• financial document data obtained from the financial document, and
• customer data supplied by a customer of a financial institution, the customer data being different from any data contained on the financial documents;
• and
• search and retrieval software executed by the processing unit, the search and retrieval software:
• accepting a search request by the customer specifying at least one of the financial document data and the customer data,
• searching the electronic storage media in response to the search request, and
• retrieving images of financial documents which satisfy the search request.

A method of storing and retrieving data related to financial documents, the method comprising:

• storing images of at least one of a front side and a back side of a plurality of financial documents;
• storing financial document data obtained from the financial documents;
• storing customer data supplied by a customer of a financial institution, the customer data being different from any data contained on the financial documents;
• accepting a search request by the customer specifying at least one of the financial document data and the customer data;
• searching the electronic storage media in response to the search request;
• and
• retrieving images of financial documents which satisfy the search request.