63 results about "Electronic billing" patented technology

The present invention consists of a secure interactive electronic account statement delivery system suitable for use over open networks such as the Internet. The invention utilizes a certification hierarchy to insure that electronic bills, invoices, and other account statements can be securely sent over open networks. The participants in the system are a certification authority, certificated banks, billers, and customers. The certification authority grants digital certificates to the certificated banks, which in turn grant digital certificates to billers and customers. Digital certificates form the basis for encryption and authentication of network communications, using public and private keys. The certificates associate a customer and biller with a certificated bank and with the electronic billing system, much like payment cards associate a customer with a payment card issuer and a particular payment card system. Digital signatures are used for authentication and non-repudiation. The certificates may be stored as digital data on storage media of a customer's or biller's computer system, or may be contained in integrated circuit or chip cards physically issued to billers and customers. The electronic bill itself may be a simple text message containing the equivalent of summary information for the bill, or may be more elaborate. In one embodiment of the invention, the electronic bill contains a number of embedded links, for example an embedded URL of a biller's world wide web server that allows the customer to interactively bring up detailed billing information by activating the link. The e-mail message may also include links to third party websites.

Current embodiments provide for authorization and payment of an online commercial transaction between a purchaser and a merchant including verification of an identity of the purchaser and verification of an ability of the purchaser to pay for the transaction, where the identity provider and the payment provider are often different network entities. Other embodiments also provide for protocols, computing systems, and other mechanisms that allow for identity and payment authentication using a mobile module, which establishes single or multilevel security over an untrusted network (e.g., the Internet). Still other embodiments also provide for a three-way secure communication between a merchant, consumer, and payment provider such that sensitive account information is opaque to the merchant, yet the merchant is sufficiently confident of the consumer's ability to pay for requested purchases. In yet another embodiment, electronic billing information is used for authorization, auditing, payment federation, and other purposes.

A method is provided for centrally tracking transactions in an electronic billing system. The system includes multiple different billing entities, multiple different financial institute entities and multiple different user entities. Each of the multiple different billing entities is associated with a respective portion of the multiple different user entities and each of the multiple different financial institute entities is associated with a respective portion of the multiple different user entities. A message is received from any of the multiple different financial institute entities indicating a request from any of the multiple different user entities associated with the applicable financial institute entity to view billing information. The receipt of the request to view the billing information is logged in a database as first event information. A message indicative of the billing information of at least one of the multiple different billing entities associated with the applicable user entity which is available for viewing is transmitted to the applicable user entity. A message indicating a request from the applicable user entity to view the available billing information of that billing entity is received from any of the at least one of the billing entities. The receipt of the message indicating the applicable user entity request to view the billing information of the applicable billing entity is logged in the database as a second event information.

A computerized method of automatically generating payment for electronic billing data including automatically obtaining billing data in an electronic format from a billing party for a billable party, and automatically comparing the billing data with rule data defined by the billable party. The method includes automatically authorizing generation of payment data for the billing party if the billing data satisfies the comparison with the rule data.

A consumer-based bill management and payment system is configured to receive, analyze, manage and pay electronic billing statements received from the biller over the Internet. The system includes a notification manager that detects when the electronic bill arrives and notifies the consumer. The bill is stored in memory with other unpaid electronic bills. According to another aspect of the invention, the system has a cashflow analyzer that enables the consumer to coordinate the unpaid electronic bills according to different payment schedules for a bill payment cycle (e.g., a month). The goal of the manipulation is to permit the consumer to analyze how the different payment schedules affect the consumer's cashflow with an aim toward minimizing overdraft during the bill payment cycle. The cashflow analyzer can automatically compute an optimized payment schedule that minimizes overdraft of the consumer's account, while maximizing the balance to generate the most interest. When the consumer desires to pay a particular bill, the bill is presented to the consumer through a graphical user interface (UI). The bill management and payment system supports a payment analyzer to enable the consumer to determine how much of the electronic bill to pay. The payment analyzer provides a venue to challenge certain items on the bill.

An electronic bill payment network includes a plurality of user network stations associated with different users, a plurality of biller network stations associated with different billers, and a central network station. A first user station operates, in real time, to transmit information relevant to an amount of an available bill and an instruction to pay the available bill. A first biller station operates, in real time, to receive the transmitted information and to compute the amount of the available bill based upon the received information. The central network station operates to receive the computed amount of the available bill and the transmitted pay instruction, and to direct payment of the computed amount of the available bill based upon the transmitted instruction to pay that bill.

A cash flow management system is provided within a host system for facilitating cash flow management for businesses. The cash flow management system includes an electronic billing and invoicing computing system enabling generation and transmission of electronic bills based on business invoices and for displaying the generated bills for payment and an integrated receivables and reconciliation system receiving notification of received payments and for matching received payments with the generated invoices. The system additionally includes a communication interface for allowing the cash flow management system to communicate with multiple financial management systems accessible to the host enterprise, the systems including at least an accounting system, the integrated receivables management system receiving information from the financial management systems within the host system to facilitate management of cash flow for the businesses using the cash flow management system for electronic billing.

A Software As A System (SAAS)-based system is disclosed herein for sending bills and payments in conjunction with a third-party accounting system. The system deploys a downloadable program interface to configure the third-party accounting system and then send and receive data between the two systems. The transmitted bills may contain an electronic signature, a line item billing, and / or other transaction-specific meta data, and, based on cash flow needs and outstanding bills, some or all customers may be offered a very substantial time-limited discount for immediate payment. Also, customers may use the line-item billing feature to withhold partial payments for specific issues attributed to specific items. Alternatively, a communication module between SAAS units (CSU) may be deployed to configure the third-party accounting system and then send and receive data between the two systems.

A system and method by which a merchant automatically notifies an outside e-billing vendor of customer account status changes that affect the transfer of billing information between the merchant and the e-billing vendor. The method reads an update file containing service order activities, searches among the activities in the update file for customers enrolled in an e-billing service, determines which of those enrolled customers received a service change that affected their account number, pulls the information associated with each affected account number, places the information in a record formatted as required by the e-billing vendor, and transmits the record to the e-billing vendor to synchronize the account numbers between the merchant and the e-billing vendor.

To notify a person of the availability of electronic billing information, billing information associated with bills of a biller for its customers is stored in a first data store, and identify information identifying unregistered persons having billing information stored in the first data store, is stored in a second data store. Registration information identifying a person who is currently unregistered is received via a wide area network. The received registration information is compared with the identity information stored in the second data store. Based on the comparison, it is determined if the received registration information identifies a customer of the biller. If so, a notice of the availability of the stored billing information of the biller is transmitted to the person via the wide area network.

A computerized method of automatically generating payment for electronic billing data including automatically obtaining billing data in an electronic format from a billing party for a billable party, and automatically comparing the billing data with rule data defined by the billable party. The method includes automatically authorizing generation of payment data for the billing party if the billing data satisfies the comparison with the rule data.

Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for invoicing and electronic billing. Methods include receiving invoicing data from a merchant, identifying a user based on the invoice data, receiving payment instructions from the user, where the payment instructions include an alias, and determining that the merchant is a registered payment recipient based on the alias. In specific embodiments, the invoice data is converted into an electronic bill, and the electronic bill is sent to the user.

Enhanced systems and methods for processing invoices, payments, and money transfers are described. One aspect of the invention is a computer-implemented method (and corresponding system and computer program product) for inviting an entity to open an account at a billing and payment system, the method comprising: issuing a check payable to the entity, wherein a checkbox for opening an account at the billing and payment system is printed on an endorsement section of the check along with a reference to additional information regarding additional information related to the account opening; receiving an image of the endorsement section of the check after the check is cleared; determining whether the checkbox is checked in the image; and responsive to a determination that the checkbox is checked, opening an account for the entity at the billing and payment system.

An electron bill system that combines with digital seal, the digital signature of important information in the bill embed in the seal image by the technology of the image watermark, the digital seal insure the integrality, un-alterability and un-deniability of the E-table bill, the seal can print out on the paper, and the information in the E-table can be safety authentication, anti-bogus and anti-sophisticate. The electron bill system use advantages that provided by the network to shorten the transmitting time by the electron transmitting method of, and also ensures the authenticity and the un-alterability of the digital seal technology that combine the digital watermark, and use the digital certificate technology to ensure the anti-bogus and the undeniable character of the user's status.

The present invention provides a method, system, and article of manufacture for presenting information via a network. Multiple information identifiers, each associated with information to be directed to a network user, are received and stored. A notice of availability of the information, as well as one of the information identifiers, are transmitted to the network user. Only after the network user views the information associated with the transmitted information identifier, another information identifier is transmitted to the network user to allow the network user to view the information associated with the other information identifier.

Enhanced systems and methods for processing invoices, payments, and money transfers are described. One aspect of the invention is a computer-implemented method (and corresponding system and computer program product) for determining trustworthiness and familiarity of entities for a billing and payment system, the method comprising: categorizing entities into the following four categories based on their trustworthiness and familiarity to the billing and payment system: (1) a first zone for well-known and trusted entities, (2) a second zone for entities that are familiar but not well-known or not as trusted, (3) a third zone for entities that are new to the billing and payment system, and (4) a fourth zone for other entities; re-categorizing entities based at least on their payment transactions made through the billing and payment system during the time they are with the billing and payment system; and treating the entities of different categories differently according to their categories.

A consumer-based bill management and payment system is configured to receive, analyze, manage and pay electronic billing statements received from the biller over the Internet. The system includes a notification manager that detects when the electronic bill arrives and notifies the consumer. The bill is stored in memory with other unpaid electronic bills. According to another aspect of the invention, the system has a cashflow analyzer that enables the consumer to coordinate the unpaid electronic bills according to different payment schedules for a bill payment cycle (e.g., a month). The goal of the manipulation is to permit the consumer to analyze how the different payment schedules affect the consumer's cashflow with an aim toward minimizing overdraft during the bill payment cycle. The cashflow analyzer can automatically compute an optimized payment schedule that minimizes overdraft of the consumer's account, while maximizing the balance to generate the most interest. When the consumer desires to pay a particular bill, the bill is presented to the consumer through a graphical user interface (UI). The bill management and payment system supports a payment analyzer to enable the consumer to determine how much of the electronic bill to pay. The payment analyzer provides a venue to challenge certain items on the bill.

Enhanced systems and methods for processing invoices, payments, and money transfers are described. One aspect of the invention is a computer-implemented method (and corresponding system and computer program product) for inviting an entity to open an account at a billing and payment system, the method comprising: receiving from a first entity an instruction to invite a second entity to open an account at the payment system, the first entity having an account with the payment system; receiving from the first entity a security question and an answer to the security question to accompany the invitation; transmitting to the second entity the invitation along with the security question; receiving from the second entity an acceptance of the invitation along with an answer to the security question; verifying the acceptance by comparing the answer received from the second entity to the answer received from the first entity; responsive to the two answers match, determining the acceptance verified and opening an account for the second entity; and creating a link between the accounts of the two entities for the purpose of sharing invoice information, making electronic payments, transmitting remittance information, and maintaining basic information about the invitor and invitee.

Current embodiments provide for authorization and payment of an online commercial transaction between a purchaser and a merchant including verification of an identity of the purchaser and verification of an ability of the purchaser to pay for the transaction, where the identity provider and the payment provider are often different network entities. Other embodiments also provide for protocols, computing systems, and other mechanisms that allow for identity and payment authentication using a mobile module, which establishes single or multilevel security over an untrusted network (e.g., the Internet). Still other embodiments also provide for a three-way secure communication between a merchant, consumer, and payment provider such that sensitive account information is opaque to the merchant, yet the merchant is sufficiently confident of the consumer's ability to pay for requested purchases. In yet another embodiment, electronic billing information is used for authorization, auditing, payment federation, and other purposes.

The electronic billing system comprises a means for isolating the service provider from directly engaging the billing guidelines of the consumer client through the use of a universal billing format file and a billing hub module. The billing process comprises a service provider computer system, on which specific billing data is stored, a service provider application that accesses the billing data and compiles a universal billing format file, a validation process to ensure that the billing data satisfies billing guidelines supplied by the service consumer, and a billing hub module that receives the universal billing format file and reconfigures the individual billing data entries into a client invoice that complies with the billing guidelines supplied by the service consumer.

The present discloses a method and apparatus for obtaining billing information. The method includes the following steps that: user mails are obtained from a mail server end according to the mailbox login information of a user; a billing mail is identified from the user mails, wherein the billing mail contains electronic billing information; and the billing information is extracted from the billing mail. According to the method for obtaining the billing information of the invention, in a whole billing information obtaining process, the mailbox login information of the user is not uploaded to a billing server and is only stored on a user terminal, and therefore, user information leakage caused by attacks to the database of the billing server performed by criminals can be effectively prevented, and the information security of the user can be effectively ensured.

The present invention describes network commercial transactions. Current embodiments provide for authorization and payment of an online commercial transaction between a purchaser and a merchant including verification of an identity of the purchaser and verification of an ability of the purchaser to pay for the transaction, wherein the identity provider and the payment provider are often different network entities. Other embodiments also provide for protocols, computing systems, and other mechanisms that allow for identity and payment authentication using a mobile module, which establishes single or multilevel security over an untrusted network (e.g., the Internet). Still other embodiments also provide for a three-way secure communication between a merchant, consumer, and payment provider such that sensitive account information is opaque to the merchant, yet the merchant is sufficiently confident of the consumer's ability to pay for requested purchases. In yet another embodiment, electronic billing information is used for authorization, auditing, payment federation, and other purposes.

The present invention relates to an electronic billing system for roads, which is established based on common GSM / UMTS mobile phones or similar devices with GSM functions such as PDAs and car phones in the market. In any mobile radio network, the data of the corresponding radio cell is transmitted to the radio telephone via the organizational channel. According to the invention, this information provided by the fixed radio station is used to register in the radio telephone the radio cells traveled by the paying subscriber. The collected data is sent to the billing center. With the aid of the sequence of the traveled radio cells transmitted by the terminal of the person tolled, it is possible to deduce with high accuracy which roads the vehicle has used which are tolled by comparison with a database of existing roads. According to the invention, no hardware modifications need to be made on existing mobile radio systems and terminals. Existing mobile wireless devices, radiotelephones, etc. are generally owned by the paying subscriber and can be used.

The invention discloses a collecting and recording method and system of electronic billing data. The collecting and recording method of the electronic billing data comprises the steps of obtaining unique tax number ID of a user; obtaining original electronic invoice information corresponding to the unique tax number ID and converting the electronic invoice information into an appointed standard data format and storing the electronic invoice information in the appointed standard data format into a storage unit; reading corresponding field data related to electronic billing from the electronic invoice information in the storage unit according to a preset field requirement and generating corresponding electronic billing data; and storing the original electronic invoice information and the generated corresponding electronic billing data in a corresponding mode. The collecting and recording method and system of the electronic billing data can improve accounting automation, accounting timeliness and accounting accuracy.

The invention discloses an electronic billing transaction system based on a private block chain. The system comprises a network management system and a user system; the management system comprises a network creating module, a statistical storage module and a network updating module; the network creating module comprises multiple routes and multiple user nodes; each route sets a routing interface through route mapping, the user node is connected to another user node through the routing interface set by the route; the network updating module is used for initializing the user node, newly adding the user node and deleting the user node; the user system is installed at the user node; the user system is used for realizing the transaction between a transaction sender and a transaction receiver, and adding a block formed by packing the transaction data in the longest block chain in the node network through intelligent contract. The security of the account information in the transaction is guaranteed in the invention, and the security and the tamper resistance of the transaction information are guaranteed.