U.S. patent application number 17/735980 was filed with the patent office on 2022-08-18 for methods and systems for expense management.
The applicant listed for this patent is Concur Technologies, Inc.. Invention is credited to Jeannine Armstrong, Joseph Dunnick, Michael Fredericks, Valery Gorodnichev.
Application Number | 20220261759 17/735980 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | |
Filed Date | 2022-08-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20220261759 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Fredericks; Michael ; et
al. |
August 18, 2022 |
Methods And Systems For Expense Management
Abstract
Methods and systems for expense management, comprising:
retrieving at least one electronic feed of charges for multiple
expense receipt records directly from at least one lodging and/or
transportation vendor, the at least one feed of charges including
computer-readable electronic transaction data; detecting that at
least one expense receipt record from the multiple expense receipt
records from the at least one feed of charges is comprised of two
or more line items; mapping the two or more line items to at least
one transportation and/or lodging good and/or service that is
chargeable to at least one account identifier, the mapping
utilizing vendor expense codes and/or keyword searches; and
pre-populating the at least one transportation and/or lodging good
and/or service mapped to each of the two or more line items from
the at least one expense receipt record in at least one expense
report in at least one expense management system as two or more
expense itemizations.
Inventors: |
Fredericks; Michael;
(Fairfax, VA) ; Dunnick; Joseph; (Baltimore,
MD) ; Gorodnichev; Valery; (Vernon, IL) ;
Armstrong; Jeannine; (Sea Cliff, NY) |
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Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Concur Technologies, Inc. |
Redmond |
WA |
US |
|
|
Appl. No.: |
17/735980 |
Filed: |
May 3, 2022 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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16728838 |
Dec 27, 2019 |
11361281 |
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17735980 |
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15671770 |
Aug 8, 2017 |
10565558 |
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16728838 |
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13117303 |
May 27, 2011 |
9779384 |
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15671770 |
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11159398 |
Jun 23, 2005 |
7974892 |
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13117303 |
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60581766 |
Jun 23, 2004 |
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International
Class: |
G06Q 10/10 20060101
G06Q010/10; G06Q 20/10 20060101 G06Q020/10; G06Q 20/24 20060101
G06Q020/24; G06Q 40/00 20060101 G06Q040/00 |
Claims
1. A computerized method for expense management of expenses,
comprising: determining a mapping of a set of expense types to a
set of expenses in an expense receipt record; receiving from a
client device a modification to the mapping of the set of expense
types to the set of expenses in the expense receipt record;
determining whether expenses in the modified mapping of the set of
expense types to the set of expenses is to be audited; and flagging
the expenses in the modified mapping of the set of expense types to
the set of expenses determined to be audited.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: saving a copy of the
mapping of the set of expense types to the set of expenses in the
expense receipt record; comparing the copy of the mapping of the
set of expense types to the set of expenses in the expense receipt
record and the modified version of the mapping of the mapping of
the set of expense types to the set of expenses in the expense
receipt record; and based on the comparison, identifying a set of
changes to the mapping of the set of expense types to the set of
expenses in the expense receipt record.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising determining that a
change in the set of changes satisfies a criterion in a set of
defined criterion.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the set of defined criterion
comprises a change to a value that is greater than a defined
percentage.
5. The method of claim 2 further comprising determining that a
change in the set of changes does not satisfy a criterion in a set
of defined criterion.
6. The method of claim 5 further comprising, based on determining
that the change in the set of changes satisfies the criterion in
the set of defined criterion, approving the change in the set of
changes.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining that the
set of expenses comprises an expense to which a defined expense
type is mapped; and flagging the expense for auditing.
8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program
executable by at least one processing unit of a device, the program
comprising a set of instructions for: determining a mapping of a
set of expense types to a set of expenses in an expense receipt
record; receiving from a client device a modification to the
mapping of the set of expense types to the set of expenses in the
expense receipt record; determining whether expenses in the
modified mapping of the set of expense types to the set of expenses
is to be audited; and flagging the expenses in the modified mapping
of the set of expense types to the set of expenses determined to be
audited.
9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the set of instructions comprises instructions for: saving a copy
of the mapping of the set of expense types to the set of expenses
in the expense receipt record; comparing the copy of the mapping of
the set of expense types to the set of expenses in the expense
receipt record and the modified version of the mapping of the
mapping of the set of expense types to the set of expenses in the
expense receipt record; and based on the comparison, identifying a
set of changes to the mapping of the set of expense types to the
set of expenses in the expense receipt record.
10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein
the set of instructions comprises instructions for determining that
a change in the set of changes satisfies a criterion in a set of
defined criterion.
11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein
the set of defined criterion comprises a change to a value that is
greater than a defined percentage.
12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein
the set of instructions comprises instructions for determining that
a change in the set of changes does not satisfy a criterion in a
set of defined criterion.
13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein
the set of instructions comprises instructions for, based on
determining that the change in the set of changes satisfies the
criterion in the set of defined criterion, approving the change in
the set of changes.
14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the set of instructions comprises instructions for: determining
that the set of expenses comprises an expense to which a defined
expense type is mapped; and flagging the expense for auditing.
15. A system, comprising: one or more processors; a software
program comprising instructions executable on said one or more
processors, the software program configured for: determining a
mapping of a set of expense types to a set of expenses in an
expense receipt record; receiving from a client device a
modification to the mapping of the set of expense types to the set
of expenses in the expense receipt record; determining whether
expenses in the modified mapping of the set of expense types to the
set of expenses is to be audited; and flagging the expenses in the
modified mapping of the set of expense types to the set of expenses
determined to be audited.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the software program is further
configured for: saving a copy of the mapping of the set of expense
types to the set of expenses in the expense receipt record;
comparing the copy of the mapping of the set of expense types to
the set of expenses in the expense receipt record and the modified
version of the mapping of the mapping of the set of expense types
to the set of expenses in the expense receipt record; and based on
the comparison, identifying a set of changes to the mapping of the
set of expense types to the set of expenses in the expense receipt
record.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the software program is further
configured for determining that a change in the set of changes
satisfies a criterion in a set of defined criterion.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the set of defined criterion
comprises a change to a value that is greater than a defined
percentage.
19. The system of claim 16, wherein the software program is further
configured for determining that a change in the set of changes does
not satisfy a criterion in a set of defined criterion.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the software program is further
configured for, based on determining that the change in the set of
changes satisfies the criterion in the set of defined criterion,
approving the change in the set of changes.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 16/728,838 filed Dec. 27, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 15/671,770 filed Aug. 8, 2017, which is a
continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/117,303 filed
May 27, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 11/159,398, filed Jun. 23, 2005, which claims priority
from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/581,766, filed Jun.
23, 2004. The entirety of the foregoing applications are
incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to the field of expense
reporting.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0003] FIG. 1 illustrates the primary components of a
representative operating environment, according to one embodiment
of the present invention.
[0004] FIG. 2 illustrates a method of expense management, according
to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0005] FIGS. 3-6 are exemplary screen shots, according to one
embodiment of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
[0006] FIG. 1 illustrates an expense management system 100,
according to one embodiment of the present invention. Expense
management system 100 imports trusted itemized data and maps the
data to defined expense types. The expense management system 100
comprises: storage units 110 and 115; a mapping program 120; an
audit program 130; and a user interface 125.
[0007] FIG. 1 depicts storage units 110 and 115. However, these
storage units are combinable in other embodiments. Storage unit 110
contains trusted itemized expense data, which is transmitted or
obtained from any trusted source (e.g., credit card companies or
any vendor that provides receipts in an electronic form). It should
be noted that either all of the expense data or just a portion of
the expense data can be itemized. Expense data can come in a form
that identifies the location of the purchase, the amount of the
total transaction, the amount and written description of the
itemized sub-transactions, and a system-specific code which also
describes or categorizes the sub-transactions. Storage unit 110
stores a master expense type list containing the complete domain of
possible expense types utilized in expense management system 100.
Expense types are associated with an identifier, a description, a
general ledger or other accounting code, a list of data fields to
be supplied on the expense report, or corporate policy information,
or any combination thereof.
[0008] Company specific data to be utilized by expense management
system 100 is stored in storage unit 115. Companies can select a
sub-domain from the domain of the master expense type list. This
sub-domain is typically derived from company needs in relation to
control or accounting polices, or tax considerations. For
additional mapping purposes, other codes or identifiers can be
attached to the expense types in the sub-domain to facilitate
various company functions. For example, an accounting code or
identifier can be assigned to an expense type to allow the expense
report to be imported into other company reports. Storage unit 115
also stores expense reports after and during processing by mapping
program 120.
[0009] Mapping program 120 maps the trusted itemized expense data,
stored in storage unit 110, to the domain of expense types selected
by a company using expense management system 100. Prior to mapping
expense data, the program correlates vendor expense codes to
company-selected expense types. The correlation can match any
number of expense codes to any number of expense types, and the
program is customizable to incorporate corporate policies, desires
and/or tax considerations. To perform the mapping operation, the
expense codes assigned to the expense data can be read from the
trusted source, or a vendor (e.g., hotel or rental car company),
for each expense, itemized or not, and then the correlated expense
types are assigned to each expense.
[0010] To facilitate mapping accuracy, one embodiment utilizes a
filtering system that searches for key words in the trusted data
(e.g., the filter searches expense descriptions in the trusted data
for the key word "Internet" because some vendors use the same
numerical expense code for telephone and Internet charges). The
filter is customizable to cater to the weaknesses or idiosyncrasies
of each trusted source or vendor, which in turn can improve overall
system performance when more than one trusted source is providing
expense data.
[0011] In one embodiment, the user interface 125 allows for at
least two types of users. (However, in another embodiment, only one
type of user can also be used in user interface 125.) First,
company accountants/managers ("managers") provide expense
management system 100 with company-specific information, which is
then stored in storage unit 115. As discussed supra, managers can
pick expense types from the master list of expense types to
utilize, which when selected constitute the domain of expense types
available to expense management system 100 for mapping purposes.
Also, managers can assign additional data to the expense types to
facilitate other company specific functions (e.g., company specific
accounting codes can be assigned to the expense types to facilitate
importing mapped expense data to other company systems). Managers
also interact with expense management unit system 100 through
auditing program 130.
[0012] Second, employees or travelers (e.g., those receiving the
goods listed in the itemized expense data) primarily interface with
expense management system 100 by editing and approving the mapped
expense data, which is used to generate the final approved expense
report. Additionally, expense management system 100 is customizable
to allow employees to manually change the expense type assigned to
imported expense data, or to allow employees to manually enter in
expense data that was not or could not be imported by expense
management system 100 though the trusted source.
[0013] In one embodiment, an audit program 130 allows managers to
control and approve corrections made by employees to the mapped
expense data. When an employee makes a change to the mapped expense
data (e.g., by assigning the itemized expense data to a different
expense types or correcting a line item amount), the change is
flagged for auditing. This flagging process can happen in a number
of ways with similar results. In one embodiment, to identify the
changed mapping or transaction amounts, expense management system
100 will save a copy of the original mapped expense data and
compare it with user-changed data. Thus, changes made outside the
automated mapping process provided by expense management system 100
are scrutinized ensuring greater accuracy and preventing fraud.
Auditing program 130 is customizable (e.g., programmed with
tolerances or filters) to enable the system to only flag changes
that meet (or do not meet) selected criterion (e.g., changes that
are greater than a certain percentage or that map expense line
items to the "personal" expense type will automatically be
approved).
[0014] FIG. 2 illustrates a method of expense management, according
to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is explained in
the context of purchases made with a hotel or car rental company.
These examples in no way limit the applicability of the novel
systems and methods disclosed herein.
[0015] In step 205, purchase(s) are made by an individual or entity
(e.g., employee, traveler), who will eventually be responsible to
submit an expense report accounting for the purchase(s). Although
any individual or entity can be used in the example embodiment of
FIG. 2, an employee will be used for demonstration purposes. Those
skilled in the art will recognize that any individual or entity can
use the present invention.
[0016] In one embodiment, the employee charges various expenses to
a company credit card. In a hotel example, an employee purchases
lodging, personal telephone calls, business telephone calls,
mini-bar items, room service, meals at the hotel restaurant,
Internet use, valet service, etc. The hotel purchases are made with
a company assigned credit card, which is issued by a credit card
company that has an agreement with the hotel to provide trusted
itemized expense data.
[0017] Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are other
methods of payment that could be used. The credit card vendors
(e.g., MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Diners, etc.) provide
data feeds to their customers containing information about all
transactions involving the credit cards issued to the employees at
their company. Those skilled in the art will recognize that there
are other sources for data feeds, including the merchants
themselves. The data feeds are typically electronic text files. The
degree of detail contained may vary by data feed, as the credit
card vendors typically have different data feed products and
products with more detail may cost more to obtain. Within a given
electronic text file, the level of detail may vary from transaction
to transaction as not all merchants provide the same level of
detail to the credit card vendors about purchases made by
travelers. In one embodiment, certain data feed products would
include hotel portfolio data (i.e., line-item detail breaking down
the individual expenses on hotel receipts), referred to as
sub-transactions, from hotel merchants who choose to participate in
the providing such detail. It should be noted that expense
management system 100 is still operative if only some, or even
none, of the expense data is broken into sub-transactions. Those
skilled in the art will understand that the exact format of the
electronic text files may vary and that there are many other
possible methods of transmission.
[0018] In step 210, the trusted itemized expense data is sent to
expense management system 100. In one embodiment, the expense
management system 10 imports electronic text with transaction data
and analyzes it to identify the employees who charged each of the
transactions. Thus, after the employee's trip is over, the employer
receives an electronic data stream of the expense data (some of
which has been broken into sub-transactions), which is then fed
into expense management system 100.
[0019] In step 211, at some point in the process, the employee
gains access to the system and sees a list of corporate card
charges ready to be imported. For example, the employee could see a
list of charges on his corporate credit card, some of which are
from hotels that have an agreement to provide sub-transaction data
to the company through the corporate credit card. FIG. 3 is an
example screen shot illustrating credit card data, according to one
embodiment of the invention. The user can review sub-transaction
data from hotels or other sources that have agreed to provide such
data. In one embodiment, the user can place his mouse icon over
such charges in order to see the sub-transactions (line items). In
the hotel example, these sub-transactions should match the receipt
that the user received upon check-out from the hotel. FIG. 4
illustrates an example of such sub-transaction data, according to
one embodiment of the invention.
[0020] It should be noted that, in one embodiment, step 211 is
optional, and the expense report may be automatically generated.
For example, expense reports could be automatically generated on a
periodic basis from corporate card data because a certain entity
had many employees without Internet access.
[0021] It should also be noted that expense reports serve multiple
purposes including, but not limited to, allowing the employee to be
reimbursed for approved out-of-pocket expenses incurred during
business travel. Expense management tools often include the
capability of automatically paying credit card bills for
company-issued credit cards. Employees are also often liable for
expenses charged to these company-issued credit cards that are not
approved by the employer or not authorized by company procedure.
Thus, employees often include expenses from company-issued credit
cards in their expense reports to obtain the required approval and
to automate payment.
[0022] In step 215, expense management system 100 reads the expense
codes in the expense data and maps all possible line items to their
appropriate expense types. In step 211, the employee has imported
charges that need to be reimbursed for a particular expense report.
As shown in FIG. 6, in importing charges with sub-transaction data,
such as a hotel charge, the charge comes into the expense report
already broken down. With a hotel example, the hotel room comes in
designated as a hotel expense, the two phone calls come in
designated as telephone/fax, the restaurant comes in designated as
a meal, and the movie (which is not reimbursable under company
policy), comes in designated as personal. This procedure has saved
time for the employee and increased accuracy, as people often
either mis-key their receipt entry, or choose not to include
certain itemizations because it is too time-consuming. These
decisions can be detrimental to a company. For example, a company
may not be able to fully take deductions for certain items (e.g.,
meals) that are taxed as a beneficial rate.
[0023] Note that in setting up expense management system 100, the
company has selected expense types to utilize (e.g., based on
internal controls and policies, tax requirements). For example, the
line item for the lodging expense is assigned the expense code
"395," which correlates to the expense type "travel-lodging," which
is one of the expense types the company using expense management
system 100 selected from the master expense type list.
[0024] In the rental car example, the rental car company charges
the employee for the daily rental car rate, insurance, over mileage
fee, refueling, etc. Instead of using a credit card to record and
transmit the expense data 210, as illustrated in the hotel example,
the rental car company has an arrangement with the employer (or a
service that manages expenses for the employer) to send expense
data directly to them in the form of trusted receipts. Is should be
noted that almost all vendors, not just rental car companies or
hotels, have the potential to provide electronic trusted receipts.
Although the data from these receipts are different from that of
the trusted expense data feeds from the credit card companies,
expense management system 100 can still process this trusted
receipts in a similar way--mapping the itemized expenses to
appropriate expense types.
[0025] In one embodiment, expense management system 100 maintains a
master list of expense types. Company accountants or managers
choose from this list of expense types when creating a domain of
expense types that will be used by the company or a department in
the company. Those skilled in the art will recognize that an
expense management system could contain multiple master lists of
expense types, and that different groups of users within a company
could use different lists. When expense items are imported the
expense management system chooses the expense type based on
semantic information added to each expense type on the master list.
This semantic type information could be an integer code.
[0026] In one embodiment, semantic information can be added to all
expense types. In other embodiments, semantic information can be
added to only a subset of expense types, or no expense types at
all. The user can determine which embodiment best fits the user's
needs. For example, if the user has an expense in their system for
"equipment repair", this is not an expense type that is returned by
any of the hotel providers, so it would never get a hotel semantic
term. However, if the trusted source, such as a rental car
provider, does have the expense type "equipment repair", then this
expense would get a rental car provider semantic term.
[0027] Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are many
methods for storing semantic information. The semantic information
provides a mapping between the possible list of types for the
sub-transactions and the expense types in the expense management
system. For example, the semantic information could indicate which
expense type is to be used when importing a telephone charge, or an
in-room movie. When a sub-transaction is imported, the type
information from that sub-transaction is cross-referenced with the
list of expense types to try to find an expense type with semantic
information indicating that it is the correct type to use for this
type of sub-transaction. If a match is found then the line item is
imported with this type. For example, an Internet charge could be
designated by the hotel as a phone charge expense type. However, a
semantic search of the sub-transaction would reveal the word
Internet to show that the Internet charge was for the Internet and
not the phone.
[0028] FIG. 5 is an exemplary screen shot illustrating how expense
types are associated with semantics, according to one embodiment of
the invention. The expense type is "personal". The semantics
associated with personal expenses include gift shop, mini-bar, and
movies, according to this particular company's policies.
[0029] In a further embodiment, the expense management system
maintains a master list of accounting codes, including but not
necessarily limited to cost centers, general ledger codes, and
project codes. End users may choose from this list of accounting
codes when creating expenses. The system may be configured to
restrict the codes that a given user may use. Those skilled in the
art will recognize that perhaps no codes are used for a given
expense, but on other expenses multiple codes may be necessary.
When an expense transaction is imported and the expense management
system detects that this transaction has been assigned to multiple
accounting codes, the accounting code information stored on the
sub-transactions can be read and then used to choose the values for
the corresponding expense items on the expense report. The billing
codes include, but are not limited to, cost centers (e.g.,
marketing department), a project (e.g., a particular matter), and
an identifier that maps to a classification used in a company's
accounting system (e.g., an air ticket may be designated
differently from lodging for tax purposes).
[0030] In step 225, the employee is able to edit and approve the
expense data and mapping. If an expense is mapped to more than one
expense type, then the employee can select the appropriate type
from the available options. If no expense type or the wrong type is
assigned, then the employee can change the assigned expense type.
For example, when the employee reviews the mapped hotel expense
data, he or she realizes that the personal telephone calls have
been included with the business telephone expense and mapped to the
"travel-phone" expense type. To correct the error, the employee is
able to edit this expense and parse the business from the personal
calls and, in addition, the employee maps the personal telephone
calls to the "personal" expense type. When the employee has
reviewed all the expenses and assigned expense types where needed,
the employee can approve, or sign off on, the mapped data.
[0031] In step 230, expense management system 100 is optionally
able to audit the expense report. Expense management system 100
contains an audit module that can automatically compare the
original transactions and sub-transactions from the data feed with
the expenses actually submitted to detect differences between the
two. For example, if a hotel receipt contained $100 for a room, $50
for meals and $10 for an in-room movie, but the expense report
contains $100 for the room and $60 for meals, the audit module
would detect this. Those skilled in the art will recognize that
there are many ways to implement such an audit module including,
but not limited to, a database query that compares relational
database entries containing the expense reports and the original
transactions and sub-transactions. Those skilled in the art will
recognize that there are many ways to present the information
regarding the expense reports which deviate from the data feed,
such as in tabular format on-screen or in a spreadsheet file which
can be read by an application such as Microsoft Excel.
[0032] In one embodiment, the audit module can be configured to
have tolerances or filters, which can automatically approve a
difference between the expense report and the imported data because
the difference meets the programmed criteria. A zero-tolerance
program would present all reports that differ by any amount,
whereas a 1 percent tolerance would present reports where the
difference is greater than 1 percent. Those skilled in the art will
recognize that tolerances or filters can be presented in forms
other than percentages.
[0033] When an employee changes an expense amount or mapping,
expense management system 100 flags this change for auditing. This
flagging can be performed in several ways, as one skilled in the
art will recognize. One embodiment, for example, saves the original
imported trusted expense data and compares this with the data
approved by the employee submitting the expense report and expense
management system 100 notes, or flags, all discrepancies.
[0034] Additionally, according to company controls, certain expense
types or charges can be flagged for auditing, even if a change has
not been made to the line item (e.g., if company policies forbid
reimbursement for mini-bar or valet charges, then every time these
expenses appear, they can be flagged for auditing). Expense
management system 100 can perform the auditing function either
manually or automatically through a programmed filter or tolerance,
or through a combination or both. For example, expense management
system 100 can be programmed to automatically approve all changes
that are mapped to the "personal" expense type.
[0035] In step 235, after the report has been sufficiently audited
(if this feature is used), then it becomes an approved expense
report. In step 240, the approved expense report is used in myriad
accounting and company functions.
[0036] While various embodiments of the present invention have been
described above, it should be understood that they have been
presented by way of example, and not limitation. It will be
apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) that various
changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing
from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In fact, after
reading the above description, it will be apparent to one skilled
in the relevant art(s) how to implement the invention in
alternative embodiments. Thus, the present invention should not be
limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments. In
particular, it should be noted that, for example purposes, the
above explanation has focused on the example of a hotel charge.
However, those experienced in the art will realize that any charge
with sub-transactions (e.g., a rental car charge) can be used.
[0037] In addition, it should be understood that the figures and
screen shots, which highlight the functionality and advantages of
the present invention, are presented for example purposes only. The
architecture of the present invention is sufficiently flexible and
configurable, such that it may be utilized in ways other than that
shown in the accompanying figures. For example, the steps in the
flowchart can be re-ordered or optionally used in some
embodiments.
[0038] Further, the purpose of the Abstract of the Disclosure is to
enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public
generally, and especially the scientists, engineers and
practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal
terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory
inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of
the application. The Abstract of the Disclosure is not intended to
be limiting as to the scope of the present invention in any
way.
* * * * *