US 8,798,354 B1 · Method and system for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices

Abstract

An optical image of a check submitted to a business as part a check-based financial transaction is obtained and the optical image of the check is scanned using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to obtain optical image-based financial transaction data. The optical image-based financial transaction data is then used to automatically match, or correlate, the check to a customer account and/or invoice and, pending user review and/or approval, a payment entry is automatically generated and the check-based payment represented by the check is automatically credited to the customer account and the customer account balance is transformed to reflect the check-based payment, and/or the status of an associated invoice is transformed to reflect the check-based payment, e.g., the invoice is marked as paid, or partially paid.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices comprising:

obtaining, at a business in payment for a good or service rendered by the business, an optical image of a check associated with the payment;
scanning the optical image of the check to extract optical image-based payment data associated with the check;
searching, using at least part of the optical image-based financial transaction data associated with the check, invoice data of the business to correlate the check to an invoice;
generating a payment entry in a business financial management system, the payment entry at least crediting the check to the correlated invoice;
reducing or eliminating, in response to generating the payment entry, by the business through the business financial management system, a balance owed to the business by a customer associated with the payment.

2 more elements

A computing system implemented process for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices comprising:

using one or more processors to obtain, at a business in payment for a good or service rendered by the business, an optical image of a check associated with the payment;
using one or more processors to scan the optical image of the check to extract optical image payment data associated with the check;
searching, using one or more processors and at least part of the optical image-based financial transaction data associated with the, invoice data of the business to correlate the check to an invoice;
using one or more processors to generate a payment entry in a business financial management system, the payment entry at least crediting the check to the correlated customer account and/or invoice;
and
reducing or eliminating, in response to generating the payment entry, by the business through the business financial management system, a balance owed to the business by a customer associated with the payment.

3 more elements

A system for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices comprising:

a check associated with a payment for a good or service rendered by a business;
an optical image of the check associated with the payment;
invoice data representing one or more invoices associated with a business;
and
one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems, the one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems implementing at least part of a process for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices, the process for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices including:
using the one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems to obtain the optical image of the check associated with the check-based financial transaction;
using the one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems to scan the optical image of the check to extract optical image-based payment data associated with the check;
using the one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems and at least part of the optical image-based financial transaction data associated with the check to automatically search the invoice data of the business to correlate the check to an invoice;
and
using the one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems to generate a payment entry in a business financial management system, the payment entry at least crediting the check to the correlated invoice;
reducing or eliminating, in response to generating the payment entry, by the business through the business financial management system, a balance owed to the business by a customer associated with the payment.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and system for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices

Life of this patent

Method and system for automatic correlation of check-based payments to customer accounts and/or invoices

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24