Funding systems, devices, programs, and methods

Abstract

To provide a system, device, program, and method for assisting in providing funds to employees who work for a prescribed company.SOLUTION: A fund providing system for providing a fund at a desired timing to an employee belonging to a company, includes: an interface to which attribution data, attendance data, desired provision date data, desired provision amount data, and fund provision execution data on the employee are inputted; and a processing device that calculates or extracts salary data on the basis of the attribution data and the attendance data, determines whether provision of a fund to the employee can be executed on the basis of the salary data and the desired provision amount data, and that, when determining that provision of a fund can be executed, creates fund provision execution data, transfers a providable amount to an account of the employee, and transmits the fund provision execution data to the company.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2A

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a fund disbursement support system, apparatus, program and method for employees working at a predetermined enterprise. Specifically, the present invention relates to a fund disbursement system for employees of member stores that provide services under a franchise agreement. [Background Art]

[0002] Along with the diversification of work styles, there exist systems that provide incentives to workers by flexibly paying compensation for labor. The inventions described in Patent Documents 1, 2 and 3 by the applicants of the present application provide such benefits to workers. Furthermore, it is also possible to receive flexibly payable compensation for labor separately as electronic money and bank transfer. However, in the inventions described in these patents, while it is possible to flexibly pay compensation for labor to workers, the paid compensation for labor is simultaneously debited from the employer's account. [Prior Art Documents] [Patent Documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3685788 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent No. 3857279 [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent No. 4395413 [Patent Document 4] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2019-185540 [Summary of the Invention] [Problem to be Solved by the Invention]

[0004] One type of business model is the franchise agreement. In a franchise business model, the franchisor provides the franchisee with the right to use the trademark and trade name, the right to sell goods and services, and the guidance and education on management know-how. The franchisor collects a security deposit, royalties, and costs related to the purchase of goods from the franchisee and distributes the profits to the franchisee. Specifically, the franchisee deposits their monthly sales with the franchisor, which deducts the security deposit, royalties, and the cost of goods purchased from the sales and returns the remaining amount to the franchisee. The franchisee then keeps the amount received in this way as their profit. By the way, franchise stores employ workers to run their businesses. As franchise stores are employers of these workers, they have an obligation to pay their workers for their labor.

[0005] To elaborate by business type, in the convenience store industry, franchisees deposit their sales revenue into an account held by the headquarters. The headquarters then collects a security deposit and royalties from this account and advances the cost of goods, etc. The franchisee receives the remaining amount as profit from the headquarters. In franchise businesses outside the convenience store industry, franchisees pay various expenses to the franchisor, including royalties, advertising costs, procurement costs through the franchisor, and rent. Franchisees pay employee salaries from the amount remaining after paying these expenses from their sales revenue.

[0006] The timing of settlements between franchise stores and headquarters is typically once a month. Consequently, franchise stores also typically receive their profits only once a month. In this situation, in order for franchise stores to flexibly provide wages in installments at the request of workers, or to provide internal loans from franchise stores to workers, it was necessary for franchise stores to maintain a certain amount of reserves. As a result, franchisees are burdened with the task of securing funding and managing those funds, which requires dealing with headquarters or banks.

[0007] Furthermore, in some cases, the headquarters manages employee work performance using systems installed at each franchise store, such as POS terminals. In this case, after a franchise store flexibly distributes wages to employees, or after an employee provides an internal loan, each franchise store had to report its advance payment history to headquarters and calculate the amount deducted from the employee's wages.

[0008] The present invention was made in consideration of these circumstances, and in order to reduce the financial burden on franchisees, the headquarters automatically provides loans or advances funds to franchisees.

[0009] Furthermore, if the headquarters makes an advance payment to an employee, this system will deduct the advance payment from the payroll calculation and provide the payroll data to the franchisee. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] One embodiment of the present invention is a system for distributing funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing, The aforementioned system has a fund distribution computer, The aforementioned fund disbursement computer comprises an interface, a storage device, and a processing device. The interface is connected to the storage device and / or the processing device and includes means for inputting the employee's attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, desired payment amount data, and fund payment execution data. The storage device comprises a labor data management file for storing the attribute data and attendance data, a payroll data management file for storing payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file, and a fund disbursement data management file for storing the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data. The processing device is a fund disbursement system that includes means for accessing the payroll data management file to extract payroll data, accessing the fund disbursement data management file to extract the requested amount data, determining whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the payroll data and the requested amount data, creating fund disbursement execution data if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, transferring the available amount to the employee's account, and transmitting the fund disbursement execution data to the company.

[0011] Furthermore, one embodiment of the present invention is a system for distributing funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing, The aforementioned system includes a fund distribution computer and a corporate computer, The aforementioned fund disbursement computer comprises an interface, a storage device, and a processing device. The interface is connected to the storage device and / or the processing device and includes means for inputting the employee's attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, desired payment amount data, and fund payment execution data. The pre-storage device comprises a labor data management file that stores the attribute data and the attendance data, a payroll data management file that stores payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file, and a fund disbursement data management file that stores the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data. The processing device includes means for accessing the payroll data management file to extract the payroll data, accessing the fund disbursement data management file to extract the desired amount data, determining whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the payroll data and the desired amount data, and if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, creating fund disbursement execution data, transferring the disbursable amount to the employee's account, and transmitting the fund disbursement execution data to the company. The aforementioned corporate computer is connected to the aforementioned fund disbursement computer so as to be able to send and receive data, and is equipped with an interface, a storage device, and a processing device. The interface is connected to the storage device and / or the processing device and includes means for receiving and inputting the fund disbursement execution data. The storage device comprises a fund disbursement data management file for storing the fund disbursement execution data and an employee salary data management file for storing the employee salary data. The processing device is a fund disbursement system that includes means for accessing the fund disbursement data management file, extracting the amount of funds disbursed by the fund disbursement provider from the fund disbursement execution data, executing a process to transfer the disbursed amount of funds to the fund disbursement provider at a predetermined timing, and accessing the employee salary data management file to update the employee salary data by subtracting the amount of funds disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement execution data from the employee's salary data.

[0012] Furthermore, one embodiment of the present invention is a fund disbursement system in which the company has multiple franchise stores with which it enters into franchise agreements, and the employees are employees who work at the franchise stores.

[0013] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the corporate computer of the aforementioned fund disbursement system, Sales data for the affiliated store is entered from the interface. The storage device further includes a merchant data management file that stores the merchant's sales data and expense data. The processing device further accesses the merchant data management file to extract sales figures from the sales figures data, accesses the expense data to extract expenses, calculates the amount obtained by subtracting the expenses from the sales figures, accesses the fund disbursement data management file to calculate the amount of funds to be disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement execution data, updates the merchant data management file with profit figures obtained by subtracting the expenses and the amount of funds to be disbursed from the sales figures, and executes a transfer request to the merchant for the amount based on the profit figures data to the fund disbursement provider.

[0014] Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned fund disbursement system, the fund disbursement system is characterized in that the member store data management file in the storage device is set for each member store.

[0015] Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned fund disbursement system, the fund disbursement system is characterized in that the member store data management file in the storage device is set for each owner of a member store.

[0016] Further, one embodiment of the present invention is a program for executing a system that disburses funds to employees belonging to a company at a timing desired by the employees, wherein the system comprises a fund disbursement computer, causing a processor of the fund disbursement computer to: a step of inputting attribute data, attendance data, desired disbursement date data, desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution history data of the employee; a step of storing the attribute data and the attendance data in a labor data management file, storing salary data calculated or extracted based on labor data stored in the labor data management file in a salary data management file, and storing the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data in a fund disbursement data management file; and a step of accessing the salary data management file to extract the salary data, accessing the fund disbursement data management file to extract the desired amount data, determining whether fund disbursement to the employee can be executed based on the salary data and the desired disbursement amount data, and if it is determined that the fund disbursement can be executed, executing a transfer process of the available disbursement amount to an account of the employee, generating fund disbursement execution history data, and transmitting the data to the company; which is a program that causes the above steps to be executed.

[0017] Further, one embodiment of the present invention is a system that disburses funds to employees belonging to a company at a timing desired by the employees, wherein The aforementioned system includes a fund distribution computer and a corporate computer, The steps include inputting the employee's attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, desired payment amount data, and payment history data into the interface of the aforementioned payment computer, Steps include: storing the attribute data and attendance data in a labor data management file; storing payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file in a payroll data management file; and storing the desired payment date data, desired payment amount data, and payment execution data in a payment data management file. The system performs the following steps: access the salary data management file to extract the salary data; access the fund disbursement data management file to extract the desired amount data; determine whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the salary data and the desired amount data; if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, transfer the disbursable amount to the employee's account; create fund disbursement execution history data and send it to the company; The processor of the aforementioned corporate computer, The steps include: entering the aforementioned funding data, The steps include storing the fund disbursement data in a fund disbursement file and storing the employee salary data in an employee salary data management file on the storage device, The program causes the processing unit to perform the following steps: access the fund disbursement file, extract the amount of funds disbursed by the fund disbursing company from the fund disbursement data, execute a process to transfer the disbursed amount of funds to the fund disbursing company at a predetermined timing, and access the employee salary data management file, update the employee salary data by subtracting the amount of funds disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement data from the employee's salary data.

[0018] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the program described above, the company has multiple franchise stores with which it enters into franchise agreements, and the employees are employees who work at the franchise stores.

[0019] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the program described above, the enterprise computer, The interface further inputs sales data for the affiliated store. The memory device further stores the sales data and expense data of the affiliated store in an affiliated store data management file. The processing device further accesses the merchant data management file to extract sales figures from the sales figures data, accesses the expense data to extract expenses, calculates the amount obtained by subtracting the expenses from the sales figures, updates the merchant data management file with the profit figures data, and executes a transfer request to the fund disbursing company.

[0020] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned program, the merchant data management file in the storage device of the corporate computer is set for each merchant.

[0021] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned program, the merchant data management file in the storage device is set for each merchant owner in the corporate computer.

[0022] Furthermore, one embodiment of the present invention is a system for distributing funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing, The aforementioned system has a fund distribution computer, The aforementioned fund disbursement computer comprises an interface, a storage device, and a processing device. The interface is connected to the storage device and / or the processing device, and the employee's attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, desired payment amount data, and fund payment execution data are input from it. The pre-storage device comprises a labor data management file that stores the attribute data and the attendance data, a payroll data management file that stores payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file, and a fund disbursement data management file that stores the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data. The processing device accesses the payroll data management file to extract the payroll data, accesses the fund disbursement data management file to extract the requested disbursement amount data, determines whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the payroll data and the requested disbursement amount data, and if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, creates fund disbursement execution data, performs a transfer of the disbursable amount to the employee's account, and transmits the fund disbursement execution data to the company, thereby providing funds.

[0023] Furthermore, one embodiment of the present invention is a system for distributing funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing, The aforementioned system includes a fund distribution computer and a corporate computer, The aforementioned fund disbursement computer comprises an interface, a storage device, and a processing device. The interface is connected to the storage device and / or the processing device and includes means for inputting the employee's attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, desired payment amount data, and fund payment execution data. The pre-storage device comprises a labor data management file that stores the attribute data and the attendance data, a payroll data management file that stores payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file, and a fund disbursement data management file that stores the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data. The processing device includes means for accessing the payroll data management file to extract the payroll data, accessing the fund disbursement data management file to extract the desired amount data, determining whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the payroll data and the desired amount data, creating fund disbursement execution data if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, performing a transfer of the disbursable amount to the employee's account, and transmitting the fund disbursement execution data to the company. The aforementioned corporate computer is connected to the aforementioned fund disbursement computer so as to be able to send and receive data, and is equipped with an interface, a storage device, and a processing device. The interface is connected to the storage device and / or the processing device, and receives and inputs the fund disbursement execution data. The storage device comprises a fund disbursement data management file for storing the fund disbursement execution data and an employee salary data management file for storing the employee salary data. The processing device accesses the fund disbursement data management file, extracts the amount of funds disbursed by the fund disbursement provider from the fund disbursement execution data, executes a process to transfer the disbursed amount of funds to the fund disbursement provider at a predetermined timing, and accesses the employee salary data management file to update the employee salary data by subtracting the amount of funds disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement execution data from the employee's salary data.

[0024] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned method of disbursing funds, the company has multiple franchise stores with which it enters into franchise agreements, and the employees are employees who work at the franchise stores.

[0025] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned funding method, the enterprise computer, The interface further inputs the sales data of the affiliated store, The storage device further includes a merchant data management file that stores the merchant's sales data and expense data. The processing device further accesses the merchant data management file to extract the sales amount from the sales amount data, accesses the expense data to extract the expenses, calculates the amount obtained by subtracting the expenses from the sales amount, accesses the fund disbursement data management file to calculate the amount of funds to be disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement execution data, updates the merchant data management file with the profit amount data obtained by subtracting the expenses and the amount of funds to be disbursed from the sales amount, and executes a transfer request to the fund disbursement provider for the amount based on the profit amount data.

[0026] Furthermore, one embodiment of the present invention is a fund disbursement method in which, in the corporate computer, the merchant data management file in the storage device is set up for each merchant.

[0027] Furthermore, in one embodiment of the present invention, in the aforementioned funding method, the enterprise computer, The aforementioned merchant data management file in the storage device is a fund distribution method set up for each merchant owner. [Effects of the Invention]

[0028] According to the present invention, franchisees in a franchise business can provide funds to their employees in various forms. Furthermore, franchisees do not need to prepare the source of funds for providing funds to employees through bank loans or other means. In addition, the headquarters company can reduce the administrative burden on franchisees by deducting the funds advanced by the fund provider from the franchisee's sales. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0029] [Figure 1A] This is a conceptual diagram of an embodiment. [Figure 1B] This is a conceptual diagram of an embodiment. [Figure 2A] This is a conceptual diagram of an embodiment. [Figure 2B] This is a conceptual diagram of an embodiment. [Figure 3] This is a conceptual diagram of an embodiment. [Figure 4] Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the fund distribution computer. [Figure 5] Figure 1 is a block diagram of the enterprise computer configuration. [Figure 6] This is a functional block diagram of the fund distribution computer. [Figure 7] This is a functional block diagram of an enterprise computer. [Figure 8] This is a functional block diagram of the merchant terminal. [Figure 9] This is a functional block diagram of an employee terminal. [Figure 10] This is a processing flowchart for the fund distribution computer. [Figure 11A] This is a processing flowchart for a corporate computer. [Figure 11B] This is a processing flowchart for a corporate computer. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0030] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The term "funding provider" as used herein refers to any entity capable of providing funds to employees on behalf of a company for a predetermined period, and may include banks, non-bank businesses, or individuals. Non-bank businesses, given the nature of the present invention, may include any business capable of transferring funds to employees by some means, such as a money transfer business (money transfer service).

[0031] The fund disbursement computers described herein are not particularly limited as long as they are computers capable of disbursing funds in response to fund disbursement requests from employees, and may include bank computers, computers of non-bank businesses, or personal computers. In the following, a bank computer, which is an example of a fund disbursement computer, is synonymous with a bank system, and a corporate computer is synonymous with a corporate system. Also, in this specification, applications and programs are synonymous.

[0032] In this specification, "employee" means anyone employed by a company, regardless of the form of employment. Furthermore, "employed by a company" is not limited to specific employment types and includes full-time employees, part-time workers, dispatched workers, contract employees, etc. Moreover, employment types are not limited to those who have entered into an employment contract with a company or business owner, but also include those who have entered into a contract for work, a mandate contract, a quasi-mandate contract, etc., with a company or business owner.

[0033] In this specification, "interest rate" means the percentage of interest, etc., on the amount advanced by the fund provider. Interest rates include, but are not limited to, interest rates, annual interest rates, monthly interest rates, daily interest rates, etc.

[0034] Figures 1A and 1B show a conceptual diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. They illustrate the relationship between employees, companies, and funding providers. Figure 1A shows a case where the fund provider is a bank. Employees are employed by a company and provide labor to the company. In this specification, employees and companies have accounts with the bank. Employees provide attendance data to the bank in order to use the fund provision system of the present invention. This attendance data may be provided to the bank by the merchant and / or company with the employee's consent. In this embodiment, employees may provide their attribute data and attendance data to the bank. The company repays the amount the bank has provided to the employee, and the company transfers the employee's salary to the employee's account through the bank as usual. In this embodiment, the company can deduct the funds provided by the bank from the employee's salary before paying the salary. In the present invention, the company can deduct the provided funds from the employee's salary and request the bank to transfer the funds as the employee's salary, coinciding with the timing of the employee's salary payment.

[0035] Next, with reference to Figure 1B, we will describe the case where the funding provider is not a bank. The employee is employed by the company and provides labor to the company. In this embodiment, the employee and the company have a dedicated account with the funding provider. As used herein, “account” means a section in a financial institution that manages the receipt and disbursement of depositors’ funds and the balance of those funds, and also includes a wallet, which means a virtual or conceptual place for storing assets in electronic payments. The employee provides attendance data to the funding provider in order to use the funding system of the present invention. This attendance data may be provided to the funding provider by the merchant and / or company with the employee’s consent. In this embodiment, the employee may provide their attribute data and attendance data to the funding provider. The funding provider requests repayment from the company for the amount it has provided to the employee. The salary for the same employee is transferred from the company to the employee’s account through a bank as usual. In this embodiment, the company deducts the funds provided by the funding provider from the employee’s salary before paying the salary. In this embodiment, the company can deduct the grant funds from the employees' salaries at the time of payment and request a bank transfer to pay the employees' salaries.

[0036] In this embodiment, it appears that the fund provider is making an advance payment to the employee for part or all of their salary. In such a case, the company is also borrowing the advance payment from the fund provider, and therefore the fund provider may charge interest or fees on the advance payment. However, in the present invention, the fund provider can set any interest rate (e.g., interest rate) based on the transaction between the company and the fund provider. It is also possible to set the interest rate (e.g., interest rate) to 0%. Until now, when an employee sent a fund payment request and funds were disbursed from the bank, or after the company's approval, the bank would process the withdrawal of the disbursed funds from the merchant's account (Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3). In the present invention, the company can deduct the disbursed funds from the employee's salary at the time of salary payment and request a bank transfer as the employee's salary.

[0037] Figures 2A and 2B show conceptual diagrams of other embodiments of the present invention, illustrating the relationships between employees, affiliated stores, companies, and funding providers. Figure 2A shows a scenario where the fund provider is a bank. Employees are employed by the franchisee and provide labor to the franchisee. The franchisee and the company have a franchisee-franchisor relationship. Therefore, the franchisee deposits its sales revenue with the company, and the company pays the franchisee the remaining amount as profit after deducting guarantee fees, royalties, and the cost of goods purchased from the sales revenue. In this embodiment, the company can further deduct an amount equal to the funds provided by the fund provider to the employees from this profit and pay it to the franchisee. By realizing this flow of fund distribution, the burden of fund distribution on the franchisee can be reduced. Figure 2B illustrates a scenario where the funding provider is not a bank. Employees are employed by the franchisee and provide labor to the franchisee. The franchisee and the company have a franchisee-franchisor relationship. Therefore, the franchisee deposits its sales revenue with the company, and the company pays the franchisee the remaining amount as profit after deducting guarantee fees, royalties, and the cost of goods purchased from the sales revenue. In this embodiment, the company can further deduct an amount equal to the funds provided by the funding provider to the employees from this profit and pay it to the franchisee. In this embodiment, naturally, the franchisee may also request a bank transfer to the employee's bank account to pay the employee the amount remaining after deducting the provided funds from their salary.

[0038] In this embodiment, it appears that the fund provider is making advance payments to employees for part or all of their salaries. In such cases, the merchant is also borrowing the advance payment from the fund provider, and therefore the fund provider may charge interest or fees. However, in the present invention, the fund provider can set any interest rate (e.g., interest rate) based on transactions with the company, or using the sales amount from the merchant to the company as collateral. It is also possible to set the interest rate (e.g., interest rate) to 0%. Previously, when an employee sent a fund payment request and funds were disbursed from the bank, or after the company's approval, the bank would deduct the disbursed amount from the merchant's account (Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3). In the present invention, since the company deducts the funds disbursed to the merchant's employees from its sales, it can request a bank transfer as employee salaries.

[0039] In the embodiments shown in Figures 2A and 2B, employees provide labor based on an employment contract with the company or affiliated store. Employees provide attendance data to the fund disbursement provider. In the present invention, attendance data basically consists of working days and working hours, but may also include data necessary to calculate the employee's hourly wage, basic deductions, and other employee salaries. Data used to create withholding tax statements may also be used. In the present invention, employees may provide their own attribute data and attendance data to the fund disbursement provider. Attendance data is generated sequentially each time an employee provides labor to an affiliated store and is provided to the fund disbursement computer in the present invention. The fund disbursement computer accumulates the sequentially generated attendance data and calculates or extracts funds that can be disbursed to the employee.

[0040] In the present invention, the attendance data is also provided to the company. Specifically, after the labor data is shared from the member store to the company, the company may provide the labor data to the fund disbursement system. The labor data can also be shared simultaneously by the member store to the company and the fund disbursement computer.

[0041] Employees submit funding requests to funding providers at appropriate times. The funding system includes the date on which the employee wishes to receive the funds (desired funding date data) and the amount of funds to be disbursed (desired funding amount data). The desired funding date can be set to any day after the employee has provided labor to the merchant.

[0042] In this embodiment, the fund provider fulfills the employee's request by transferring funds to the employee's account upon the employee's request. The funds may be distributed within the range of the total funds generated by the employee's labor, or the amount available for distribution may be calculated by multiplying the employee's attendance data by a certain coefficient and taking creditworthiness into account. In any case, the employee can receive the funds, which are based on the compensation for their labor, on any day of their choosing. After distributing the funds to the employee on the day requested by the employee, the fund provider outputs fund distribution execution data to the merchant or company, or both, to notify them that the fund distribution has been completed. Note that the output of transfer data to the merchant may be performed prior to the transfer to the employee's account, or the transfer to the employee's account may be performed after receiving the merchant's approval.

[0043] After the company receives transfer data for employee fund disbursements from the fund disbursement computer, and after receiving sales figures from merchants, it deducts the amount based on the transfer data from those sales figures and transfers the remaining amount to the merchant as profit.

[0044] In the present invention, when an employee wishes to receive an advance on their salary, they would normally apply to their employer, who would then make the payment. However, in this embodiment, instead of the employee applying to the franchisee (the employer), the employee sends a fund disbursement request to a fund disbursement computer, allowing the fund disbursement provider to handle the fund disbursement process for the employee. In this invention, fund disbursement execution data is transmitted to the company with which the franchisee has a franchise agreement, and the company, based on the fund disbursement execution data, transfers the funds to the fund disbursement provider after the fund disbursement has been executed. The franchisee then determines the franchisee's profit by deducting the amount equivalent to the disbursed funds from the franchisee's sales. The franchisee pays employee salaries from this profit. Employees can receive the necessary amount of funds when needed, based on their work performance. Furthermore, this eliminates the need for the franchisee to disburse funds to employees and also eliminates the need to prepare a source of funds for fund disbursements that are requested at flexible timings.

[0045] For the purpose of explanation, this specification describes the process based on the assumption that funds are transferred to an employee's account. However, as described in Patent Document 4, employees can choose to receive payment using electronic money, virtual currency, or other available methods when receiving funds.

[0046] Employees can request funding from their mobile phones, tablets, or personal computers, for example.

[0047] Next, with reference to Figure 3, an embodiment of the system of the present invention will be described. In order to implement the system and program of the present invention, it is preferable that employee terminals owned by employees, merchant terminals owned by merchants, computers owned by companies, fund disbursement computers owned by fund disbursing agents, and, if applicable, bank computers owned by banks (not shown) are connected to a communication network 20 so that data entered into the terminals and / or computers can be sent and received.

[0048] The fund disbursement computer 10 comprises at least an interface, a recording device, and a processing device. These enable the fund disbursement computer 10 to transfer funds to an employee's account upon the employee's request for funds, and for the company to transfer an amount equivalent to the transferred funds to the fund disbursement provider. Therefore, if the fund disbursement computer 10 is a bank computer, employees of member stores often have bank accounts, and companies often have accounts with the same bank. In the present invention, employees may have accounts with other banks. A description of the portion of the transfer to employees in such cases is provided in Patent Document 1.

[0049] The corporate computer 12 receives sales from franchisees, deducts amounts such as security deposits, and distributes profits to the franchisees. At the same time, it reflects the amount equivalent to the funds provided by the fund disbursement provider to employees in its payroll calculations, deducts it from the sales amount from the franchisees, and transfers the funds to a designated bank account.

[0050] The merchant terminal 16 receives the profit amount processed by the corporate computer and pays employees' salaries, or it can request the bank to transfer employee salaries.

[0051] Employee terminals send funding requests to the funding computer and also share their attendance data and other information with the funding computer via their execution programs.

[0052] Next, with reference to Figure 4, the fund disbursement computer 10 in the present invention will be described. Figure 10 is a block diagram of the fund disbursement computer. The fund disbursement computer 10 comprises a CPU 10a, ROM 10b, RAM 10c, input / output interface (I / F) 10d, storage device 10e, communication I / F 10f, input device 10g, and display device 10h, which are connected by a bus.

[0053] One or more CPUs 10a read processing programs stored in ROM 10b or storage device 10e and execute various processes using RAM 12c as working memory. These processes include inputting and storing labor data, calculating salaries for each employee, receiving fund disbursement request data and processing whether or not to disburse funds, transfer processing, transferring funds to bank accounts, and notifying companies.

[0054] The input / output interface 10d is connected to the input device 10g and the display device 12h, and inputs and outputs data.

[0055] The storage device 10e consists of HDDs, SSDs, etc., and stores various types of data.

[0056] The communication interface 10f transmits and receives data to and from the corporate computer 12, affiliate terminals, employee terminals, and, if applicable, the bank computer via the communication network 20. The communication interface 10f constitutes the labor data input unit 120 in Figure 3.

[0057] The storage device 10e of the fund disbursement computer 10 contains a labor data management file, a payroll data management file, FirstIt has a fund disbursement data management file. The fund disbursement computer 10 can perform normal fund transfer processing. If the fund disbursement computer 10 is a bank computer, the fund disbursement computer 10 can perform fund transfer processing, i.e., withdrawal, transfer, or remittance processing by writing to a specific account file within its own bank. If the account to be processed for fund transfer transactions is located at another bank rather than its own, it requests the other bank's computer system to perform the same processing. The fund disbursement computer 10 has attribute data and attendance data provided by employees, as well as data on the desired disbursement date and the desired disbursement date. gold Amount data acquisition It has an interface for this purpose. Attendance data is stored in the labor data management file, and the desired delivery date data and delivery date data are included. gold The amount data is stored in the first fund disbursement data management file.

[0058] The labor data management file manages employee attendance data, specifically, employee working days and hours. It also manages employee attribute data, such as age and hourly wage. Employee salaries are calculated from their hourly wage and working hours and stored in the salary data management file. In other embodiments of the present invention, salary calculation may be performed on another computer that manages the labor data management file and the salary data management file.

[0059] The fund disbursement data management file manages fund disbursement request data provided by employees. This fund disbursement request data includes data on the desired disbursement date and the desired disbursement amount. In addition, the fund disbursement data management file may also store the results of fund disbursements actually performed by the fund disbursement computer 10 as fund disbursement execution data. That is, data including the date the funds were actually disbursed and the amount of funds actually transferred to the employee's account. In principle, it is preferable that the funds disbursed to employees be within the range of the employee's salary, but the amount that can be used may also be set to an amount that has been multiplied by a certain coefficient depending on the employee's years of service and skills, etc. For the purpose of explanation in this embodiment, the funds disbursed to employees are within the range of the employee's salary, and if the amount of funds requested by the employee is within the range of the salary, the requested amount and the amount actually disbursed will match.

[0060] The payroll data management file manages payroll data calculated from employee work data. When an employee provides work to an employer multiple times or over multiple days, the work data management file is updated from the attendance data, and payroll data is generated sequentially and stored sequentially in the payroll data management file. The fund disbursement computer 10 can set a limit on the amount of funds that can be disbursed to an employee by referring to the payroll data management file. The amount obtained by multiplying the sequentially generated payroll data by a certain coefficient based on the employee's years of service and skills, etc., is stored in the payroll data management file, and this can be referred to to set the amount within the range of the employee's requested disbursement. If the requested disbursement amount provided by the employee is within the range of the employee's salary up to the requested disbursement date, the fund disbursement computer will disburse that requested amount on the requested disbursement date.

[0061] The fund disbursement computer 10 disburses the funds to the employee on the date requested by the employee, and then outputs the transfer data to the company to notify it that the fund disbursement has been completed. Note that the output of the transfer data to the company may be performed prior to the transfer process to the employee's account, or the transfer process may be performed after receiving approval from the company and / or affiliated store.

[0062] figure5 This refers to the enterprise computer in the present invention. 12 This is a block diagram of the configuration. The enterprise computer 12 consists of a CPU 12a, ROM 12b, RAM 12c, input / output interface (I / F) 12d, storage device 12e, and communication I They are equipped with / F12f, and these are connected by bus. The input device 12g and the display device 12h are connected to the input / output interface 12d.

[0063] One or more CPUs 12a read processing programs stored in ROM 12b or storage device 12e and execute various processes using RAM 12c as working memory. These processes include inputting and storing attendance data, calculating salaries for each worker, receiving fund disbursement execution data, creating and outputting fund disbursement repayment data to fund disbursement providers, and processing transfers to bank accounts.

[0064] The input / output interface 12d is connected to the input device 12g and the display device 12h, and inputs and outputs data.

[0065] The storage device 12e consists of HDDs, SSDs, etc., and stores various types of data. Specifically, it stores labor data management files, payroll data management files, Second It includes a fund disbursement data management file. These files may be shared with the fund disbursement computer. In another embodiment of the present invention, the storage device 12e may also be stored and shared in an independent storage device other than the fund disbursement computer and the enterprise system. In addition to the files described above, the storage device 12e may also store a merchant data management file.

[0066] The communication interface 12f transmits and receives data to and from the corporate computer 12, affiliate terminals, and employee terminals via the communication network 20.

[0067] Figure 6 shows the fund distribution computer in Figure 3. 10A block diagram of the configuration is shown. In this embodiment, the fund disbursement computer 10 includes an attendance data input unit 100, a fund disbursement available fund calculation unit 101, a fund disbursement request input unit 103, a fund disbursement data creation unit 104, a labor data management file storage unit 105, a payroll data management file storage unit 106, a fund disbursement data management file storage unit 107, and a fund disbursement data management file output unit. 108 Payroll Department 109 It has. In this embodiment, these blocks are described separately for illustrative purposes, but blocks with similar functions can of course be integrated, and may be configured separately as needed.

[0068] The attendance data input unit 100 inputs data related to the employee's work. Specifically, this includes working hours and date and time. When work-related data is entered into the attendance data input unit 100, the employee's work data management file is updated in the work data management file storage unit 105. In this invention, the work data management file also manages the employee's attribute data (name, age, address, hourly wage, etc.).

[0069] When the labor data management file is updated, the employee's salary is calculated based on the data stored in this file, the salary data management file is updated, and the data is stored in the salary data management file storage unit 106.

[0070] When an employee sends a fund disbursement request from their employee terminal, the fund disbursement request input unit 102 receives the information and outputs it to the fund disbursement execution processing unit 103. The fund disbursement execution processing unit 103 extracts salary data from the salary data management file storage unit and compares it with the amount requested by the employee. In this embodiment, if the amount in the salary data is greater than the requested amount, it outputs a result that allows the disbursement and outputs to the fund disbursement computer so that the funds are transferred to the employee's account on the employee's requested date. In this invention, the transfer to the employee's account can be made through an account set up by the fund disbursement provider. Examples of such accounts include overdraft accounts and special deposit accounts. The fund disbursement provider can disburse the requested amount to the employee from such an account, and the company can transfer the equivalent amount of funds to the employee's account. The company can recover the disbursed funds from the sales revenue from its member stores.

[0071] If the fund disbursement execution processing unit 103 determines that fund disbursement is possible, the fund disbursement data creation unit 104 creates fund disbursement execution data. This data is stored in the fund disbursement data management file storage unit and is referenced when the next fund disbursement request is made. If there is no fund disbursement request from an employee, the bank may transfer the salary to the employee based on the company's salary transfer request. If the bank also acts as a fund disbursement provider, the bank extracts the employee's salary from the salary data management file storage unit based on the company's salary transfer request and transfers the salary to the employee via the salary transfer unit.

[0072] Figure 7 shows a functional block diagram of the enterprise computer. In this diagram, the labor data management file storage unit 125, the payroll data management file storage unit 126, and the fund disbursement data management file 127 can be shared with those in the fund disbursement system. In the enterprise computer, the attendance data input unit may, for example, receive data transmitted from the affiliate terminal 16.

[0073] In the corporate computer, data on franchisee sales and product purchases is received by the franchisee data input unit 121 and updated sequentially in the franchisee data management file storage unit. The data stored in the franchisee data management file storage unit 128 is extracted by the franchisee profit calculation unit 123 to calculate the franchisee's profit data.

[0074] In this invention, the company can deduct from the sales amount of the franchise store the amount of funds previously disbursed to the employees of the franchise store. This process is performed by the franchise store profit calculation unit 123. The return of the disbursed funds from the company to the disbursing agent can be performed by the disbursed funds return processing unit 129. The company can transfer an amount equivalent to the disbursed funds to the franchise store's overdraft account set up with the disbursing agent. An overdraft account is an account that can automatically deposit the insufficient amount even if the balance is insufficient. By setting up such an account, the franchise store does not need to prepare the source of funds to disburse to its employees, and the franchisor company can return an amount equivalent to the funds disbursed to employees from the profits of the franchise store to the disbursing agent.

[0075] Figure 8 shows an example of a merchant terminal in this embodiment. The merchant terminal only needs to include at least an operation unit 161, a display unit 162, and a storage unit 163, and be connected to a corporate computer so as to be able to transmit data. In the present invention, the type and configuration of the merchant terminal are not particularly important, and any type of merchant terminal can be used.

[0076] Figure 9 shows an example of an employee terminal. In the present invention, the employee terminal 14 may be a regular smartphone, tablet, or personal computer. The employee terminal 14 is connected to the fund disbursement computer in a data communication manner and has a fund disbursement application 141 installed, which is a program capable of executing the system of the present invention. The employee terminal 14 is equipped with an operation unit 142, a display unit 143, and a storage unit 144 for operating the application.

[0077] Next, with reference to Figure 10, the processing flow of the fund disbursement computer of the present invention will be explained. When the fund disbursement computer receives attendance data (S101), it calculates the salary for each employee (S102). The reception of attendance data and salary calculation may be based on data from the corporate computer, or it may be extracted from a system independent of the corporate computer and the fund disbursement computer.

[0078] Next, when the fund disbursement computer receives a fund disbursement request from an employee terminal (S103), it determines whether or not to disburse the funds as described above (S104). If disbursement is possible, the funds are disbursed to the employee's account (S105); if disbursement is rejected, it waits again for the attendance data to be received. The fund disbursement computer outputs to the corporate computer that the fund disbursement has been executed (S106).

[0079] Next, referring to Figure 11A, the processing flow from the corporate computer to the fund disbursement computer will be explained. The corporate computer, having received attendance data, calculates the salary for each employee (S121 and S122). Then, from S106 in Figure 10, if the fund disbursement computer has executed a fund disbursement to an employee, it receives fund disbursement execution data (S123).

[0080] Next, the sales from the member store are received, and the amount to be disbursed based on the fund disbursement execution data is recovered from said sales (S124). The recovered amount equivalent to the fund disbursement execution is transferred to the fund disbursement provider's account (S125). In the present invention, the order of S124 and S125 is not important. These steps can be rearranged depending on the state of the company. Here, the timing at which the corporate computer 12 receives the sales from the member stores is an example of a predetermined timing at which it executes the process of transferring the disbursed funds to the fund disbursing agent.

[0081] Next, with reference to Figure 11B, the processing flow of the corporate computer for franchisees will be explained. The corporate computer receives sales data from franchisees (S126). From the sales data, the company recovers royalties, the cost of goods purchased, and, if applicable, the equivalent amount of funds paid to employees, to determine the franchisee's profit amount, and then transfers the funds to the franchisee's account or requests a transfer from the bank (S127 and S128). [Explanation of Symbols]

[0082] 10 Funding distribution computers, 12 Corporate computers, 14 Employee terminals, 16 Merchant terminals, 20 Communication networks.

Claims

1. This is a system that provides funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing. The aforementioned system includes a fund distribution computer and a corporate computer, The aforementioned fund disbursement computer comprises a first interface, a first storage device, and a first processing device. The first interface is connected to the first storage device and / or the first processing device and includes means for acquiring attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, and desired payment amount data of the employee. The first storage device comprises a labor data management file for storing the attribute data and attendance data, a payroll data management file for storing payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file, and a first fund disbursement data management file for storing the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data created when it is determined that fund disbursement is possible. The first processing device includes means for accessing the payroll data management file to extract the payroll data, accessing the first fund disbursement data management file to extract the requested disbursement amount data, determining whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the payroll data and the requested disbursement amount data, and, if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, creating the fund disbursement execution data, executing a process to transfer the disbursable amount to the employee's account, and transmitting the fund disbursement execution data to the corporate computer. The aforementioned corporate computer is connected to the aforementioned fund disbursement computer so as to be able to send and receive data, and comprises a second interface, a second storage device, and a second processing device. The second interface is connected to the second storage device and / or the second processing device and includes means for receiving and acquiring the fund disbursement execution data, and also includes means for acquiring sales data of franchise stores with which the company has franchise agreements. The second storage device comprises a second fund disbursement data management file for storing the fund disbursement execution data, and a franchisee data management file for storing the franchisee's sales amount data and expense data. The second processing device accesses the second fund disbursement data management file, extracts the amount of funds disbursed by the fund disbursing company from the fund disbursement execution data, and executes a process to transfer the disbursed amount of funds to the fund disbursing company at a predetermined timing. The second processing device also accesses the merchant data management file to extract the sales amount from the sales amount data, accesses the expense data to extract the expenses, accesses the second fund disbursement data management file to calculate the amount of funds to be disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement execution data, subtracts the expenses and the amount of funds to be disbursed from the sales amount to obtain profit amount data, updates the merchant data management file, and executes a transfer request to the fund disbursing company for the amount based on the profit amount data to the merchant.

2. This is a system that provides funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing. The aforementioned system includes a fund distribution computer and a corporate computer, The processor of the fund disbursement computer receives the following steps: The steps include storing the attribute data and attendance data in a labor data management file, storing payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file in a payroll data management file, and storing the desired payment date data and desired payment amount data in a first fund payment data management file. The following steps are performed: access the salary data management file and extract the salary data; access the first fund disbursement data management file and extract the requested disbursement amount data; determine whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the salary data and the requested disbursement amount data; if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, execute a process to transfer the disbursable amount to the employee's account; create fund disbursement execution history data and store it in the first fund disbursement data management file and transmit it to the corporate computer; The processor of the aforementioned corporate computer, The steps include obtaining the aforementioned fund disbursement execution history data, The steps include storing the aforementioned fund disbursement execution history data in a second fund disbursement data management file, The steps include: accessing the second fund disbursement data management file, extracting the amount of funds disbursed by the fund disbursing company from the fund disbursement execution history data, and executing a process to transfer the disbursed amount of funds to the fund disbursing company at a predetermined timing; The aforementioned company obtains sales data of franchise stores with which it has entered into franchise agreements. The steps include storing the sales data and expense data of the aforementioned member store in a member store data management file. The steps include: accessing the aforementioned merchant data management file to extract sales figures from the sales figures data; accessing the expense data to extract expenses; accessing the second fund disbursement data management file to calculate the amount of funds disbursed as identified in the fund disbursement execution history data; subtracting the expenses and the amount of funds disbursed from the sales figures to obtain profit figures, updating the aforementioned merchant data management file; and issuing a transfer request to the fund disbursing company for the amount based on the profit figures data to the aforementioned merchant. A program that executes the command.

3. This is a system that provides funds to employees of a company at a time of their choosing. The aforementioned system includes a fund distribution computer and a corporate computer, The aforementioned fund disbursement computer comprises a first interface, a first storage device, and a first processing device. The first interface is connected to the first storage device and / or the first processing device and includes means for acquiring attribute data, attendance data, desired payment date data, and desired payment amount data of the employee. The first storage device comprises a labor data management file for storing the attribute data and the attendance data, a payroll data management file for storing payroll data calculated or extracted based on the labor data stored in the labor data management file, and a first fund disbursement data management file for storing the desired disbursement date data, the desired disbursement amount data, and fund disbursement execution data created when it is determined that fund disbursement is possible. The first processing device includes means for accessing the payroll data management file to extract the payroll data, accessing the first fund disbursement data management file to extract the requested disbursement amount data, determining whether or not to disburse funds to the employee based on the payroll data and the requested disbursement amount data, and, if it is determined that the fund disbursement is possible, creating fund disbursement execution data, executing a transfer of the disbursable amount to the employee's account, and transmitting the fund disbursement execution data to the corporate computer. The aforementioned corporate computer is connected to the aforementioned fund disbursement computer so as to be able to send and receive data, and comprises a second interface, a second storage device, and a second processing device. The second interface is connected to the second storage device and / or the second processing device, and receives and acquires the fund disbursement execution data, and acquires sales data of franchise stores with which the company has a franchise agreement. The second storage device includes a second fund disbursement data management file for storing the fund disbursement execution data and a franchisee data management file for storing the franchisee's sales amount data and expense data. The second processing device accesses the second fund disbursement data management file, extracts the amount of funds disbursed by the fund disbursing agent from the fund disbursement execution data, and performs a process to transfer the disbursed amount of funds to the fund disbursing agent at a predetermined timing; accesses the merchant data management file to extract the sales amount from the sales amount data; accesses the expense data to extract the expenses; accesses the second fund disbursement data management file to calculate the amount of funds to be disbursed as specified in the fund disbursement execution data; subtracts the expenses and the amount of funds to be disbursed from the sales amount to obtain profit amount data, updates the merchant data management file with this profit amount data; and executes a request to the fund disbursing agent to transfer the amount based on the profit amount data to the merchant.

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