Electronic bill processing with bill normalization and templating

Abstract

A method of electronically presenting billing information, includes receiving billing information associated with a plurality of different billers, different portions of which represent bills for different payors. Requests are received from respective payors for current billing information, responsive to which bill presentment information corresponding to the applicable portion of the billing information is transmitted to the requesting payor.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce and more particularly to electronic presentation of an aggregation of bills from different billers.[0002] Historically the billing process has been a three party process. More particularly, the typical billing process consists of billers, such as merchants, utility companies, service providers and bankcard companies, preparing hardcopy paper bills either directly or through an independent bill preparation service provider. The bills normally consist of detailed billing information relating to the goods or services purchased or ordered, including a detailed itemization of the billed charges. The billing information also includes the total charge, due date for payment and, in many cases, the minimum amount which must be paid by the due date.[0003] The hardcopy billing information relating to each individual biller is then placed in a separate envelope and mailed through the postal service to the applicable payor. Th...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Facilitates timely payment by providing flexible and efficient electronic presentation of billing information, reducing the need for hardcopy bills and minimizing communication network resources, allowing payors to manage their bills conveniently and avoid late charges.

Problems solved by technology

Although advances in electronic bill payment systems have significantly automated remittance processing, these systems have not eliminated the need for payors to continue to receive large numbers of hardcopy paper bills from individual billers.

Hence, bill presentment has remained a tedious and expensive task both in terms of the preparation and the distribution of billing information.

For example, since the proposed system transmits billing information to an individual payor only after bills from different billers have been accumulated over a predefined period of time, such as a calendar month, bills which have been issued early in the cycle may be received too late to avoid charges for late payment.

Hence, the proposed system is inflexible in dealing with individual payor demands.

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