Apparatus, method and program for managing accounts payable

Abstract

To improve efficiency in a method for managing accounts payable without increasing processing errors. [Solution] The management device 100 first receives invoice data for an invoice from a first user terminal 111 used by a person who has registered the accounts payable (S201). Based on the received invoice data, the management device 100 generates payment data indicating the details of the payment for the accounts payable (S202). The management device 100 also receives a deposit notification for a virtual account from a first bank server 121, which manages the user company's transfer funds (S208). The management device 100 receives a reservation request for the payment of the accounts payable from the first user terminal 111 (S209). In response to receiving the reservation request, the management device 100 sets up the transmission of a payment execution request to a second bank server 122 on the due date of the accounts payable (S210). When the set due date arrives, the management device 100 sends a payment execution request to the second bank server 122 (S211).

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a program for managing accounts payable. [Background technology]

[0002] In corporate accounting, accounts payable management is an important task alongside accounts receivable management. Accounts payable management involves recording accounts payable based on received invoices and processing payments by their respective payment due dates. Invoices are often received at the beginning of the month, and accounts payable are often received at the end of the month. Invoices can also be received in a number of ways, such as by mail or email. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0003] This series of tasks is not a big burden when there are only a few invoices, but when there are dozens or hundreds of invoices, accounting staff often have to spend several days at the end or beginning of the month. Because the timing of receiving invoices and the processing of the resulting accounts payable deposits are separated, mistakes are likely to occur. Having multiple methods for receiving invoices adds to the complexity of accounts payable management.

[0004] The present invention has been made in consideration of these problems, and its purpose is to improve efficiency in an apparatus, method, and program for managing accounts payable without increasing processing errors. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] In order to achieve this object, a first aspect of the present invention is a method for managing accounts payable, characterized in that it includes the steps of: a management server receiving invoice data for an invoice that generates the accounts payable from a first user terminal used by a person who has registered the accounts payable; a management server generating payment data representing the details of the payment of the accounts payable based on the invoice data, the payment data including the amount, invoice date, payment due date, customer name or its identifier, financial institution name or its identifier, branch name or its identifier, account type, and account number; and a step in which the management server, in response to receiving a payment reservation request from the first user terminal, sets up a payment execution process for the amount.

[0006] In addition, a second aspect of the present invention is a method of the first aspect, characterized in that the generation is performed by character recognition of multiple items included in an invoice that can be displayed using the invoice data.

[0007] Furthermore, a third aspect of the present invention is a method of the first or second aspect, characterized in that the payment execution process is the transmission of a payment execution request to a bank server to execute the payment on the payment due date or a predetermined or specified date before that.

[0008] Furthermore, a fourth aspect of the present invention is a method according to the first or second aspect, characterized in that the payment execution process is a deposit process by a bank server to execute the payment on the payment due date or a predetermined or designated date before that.

[0009] In addition, a fifth aspect of the present invention is a method of any of the first to fourth aspects, comprising the steps of: the management server determining the payment workflow in accordance with the content of the payment data; the management server, in response to receiving an approval request for the accounts payable from the first user terminal, sending an approval request for the accounts payable to a second user terminal used by an approver specified by the workflow; and the management server receiving an approval notification for the approval request from the second user terminal, wherein the setting of the payment execution process is performed by the management server after receiving the approval notification.

[0010] A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method according to the fifth aspect, characterized in that the determination is made based on at least one of whether the amount included in the payment data is equal to or greater than a predetermined amount and whether the business partner included in the payment data is new.

[0011] In addition, a seventh aspect of the present invention is a method of the third aspect, characterized in that it includes a step in which the management server receives a deposit notification to a virtual account associated with the user company from a bank server for managing funds transferred from the user company to which the registrant belongs, and a step in which the management server calculates the balance of the user company based on the deposit notification.

[0012] Furthermore, the eighth aspect of the present invention is the seventh aspect, characterized in that the management server further includes a step of comparing the balance with the amount before sending the payment execution request to determine whether or not to send the payment execution request.

[0013] In addition, a ninth aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a method for managing accounts payable, the method comprising the steps of: a management server receiving invoice data for an invoice that generates the accounts payable from a first user terminal used by a person who has registered the accounts payable; a management server generating payment data representing the details of the payment of the accounts payable based on the invoice data, the payment data including the amount, invoice date, payment due date, customer name or its identifier, financial institution name or its identifier, branch name or its identifier, account type, and account number; and a management server setting up a payment execution process for the amount in response to receiving a payment reservation request from the first user terminal.

[0014] In addition, a tenth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for managing accounts payable, which receives invoice data for an invoice that generates the accounts payable from a first user terminal used by a person who has registered the accounts payable, and generates payment data based on the invoice data, which represents the details of the payment of the accounts payable, and includes the amount, invoice date, payment due date, customer name or its identifier, financial institution name or its identifier, branch name or its identifier, account type, and account number, and sets up a payment execution process for the amount in response to receiving a payment reservation request from the first user terminal. [Effects of the Invention]

[0015] According to one aspect of the present invention, the management of accounts payable can be greatly simplified by enabling the services provided by the management device to carry out everything from registering accounts payable based on invoice data to reserving payment execution. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the flow of a management method according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3]FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a display of payment data according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an invoice list screen after payment data has been generated according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0018] FIG. 1 shows a management device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The management device 100 is capable of communicating via a computer network with a first user terminal 111 used by a person registering accounts payable, a second user terminal 112 used by a person approving accounts payable, a first bank server 121 for managing funds transferred from user companies, and a second bank server 122 for executing payments of accounts payable. If the approval flow is not enabled, communication with the second user terminal 112 is unnecessary. Furthermore, if the bank account that receives deposits from the user company and the bank account from which the accounts payable are paid are the same, the first bank server 121 and the second bank server 122 may be the same server.

[0019] The management device 100 includes a communication unit 101 such as a communication interface, a processing unit 102 such as a processor or CPU, and a storage unit 103 including a storage device or storage medium such as a memory or hard disk, and can be configured by executing a program for performing each process. The management device 100 may include one or more devices, computers, or servers. The program may include one or more programs, and may be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium to form a non-transitory program product. The program may be stored in the storage unit 103 or a storage device or storage medium accessible from the management device 100, and can be executed by the processing unit 102.

[0020] The management device 100 first receives invoice data for an invoice that generates an account payable from the first user terminal 111 used by the person who registered the account payable (S201). The invoice data can be data in an image format such as PNG or JPEG. Alternatively, the invoice data can be data in a file format such as PDF, in which characters included in the displayed content can be identified.

[0021] The management device 100 generates payment data representing the details of the payment of the accounts payable based on the received invoice data (S202). The payment data can be generated, for example, by the management device 100 performing character recognition on multiple items included in an invoice that can be displayed based on the received invoice data. More specifically, character recognition can be performed using an inference model generated by machine learning. In addition to performing character recognition in the management device 100, it is also possible to perform character recognition by transmitting invoice data to a server accessible from the management device 100 via API integration, for example.

[0022] FIG. 3 shows an example in which at least a portion of the generated payment data is displayed on the display screen of the first user terminal 111 along with an invoice displayed based on the invoice data. In this example, the following items are recognized as included in the invoice: amount 301, invoice date 302, payment deadline 303, customer name 304, financial institution name 305, branch name 306, account type 307, and account number 308. In addition, the invoice number, customer email address, account holder name, etc. may be character-recognized. The payment data is stored in a storage device or storage medium accessible from the memory unit 103 or management device 100. Although the payment data is generated automatically using character recognition, it can also be visually confirmed by an operator.

[0023] After the generation of the payment data is completed, i.e., after the data conversion is completed, the management device 100 automatically or in response to a request from the first user terminal 111 transmits display information for the invoice list screen to the first user terminal 111 (S203). The display information can be, for example, data in HTML format.

[0024] Figure 4 shows an example of the invoice list screen after payment data has been generated. "Digitizing" means that the data is currently being visually checked by an operator, and "Waiting for approval" means that the approval request has not yet been submitted according to the workflow.

[0025] The management device 100 receives an approval request for the accounts payable from the first user terminal 111 (S204) and determines the workflow for approval required for the payment of the accounts payable based on the content of the generated payment data (S205). Here, "workflow" refers to one or more approvers who must approve the payment after the accounts payable is registered and the flow of approval. Also, although the workflow determination has been described as being performed after the approval request is received, it may be performed before the approval request is received as long as it is after the payment data is generated.

[0026] As an example, a workflow may be determined so that one of multiple workflows is applied depending on at least one of the amount included in the payment data and the client or its identifier. Examples of workflow determination criteria include whether the amount is 1 million yen or more and whether the client is a new client. Individual workflows can be set as needed by a user company's personnel on a web page provided by the management device 100.

[0027] Next, the management device 100 transmits an approval request for the accounts payable to the second user terminal 112 used by the approver determined by the workflow (S206), and receives an approval notice in response to the approval request from the second user terminal 112 (S207). Here, a workflow with one approver is shown, but a workflow with multiple approvers can also be used. As a specific example, the approval request can be transmitted by email to the second user terminal 112.

[0028] The management device 100 also receives a deposit notification to a virtual account associated with the user company from the first bank server 121, which manages funds transferred from the user company (S208). When a user company registers for a service provided by the management device 100, the management device 100 notifies the terminal used by the user company of the account number of the virtual account associated with the user company. This allows the user company to deposit an amount equivalent to the amount of accounts payable. Note that a "virtual account" refers to an account dedicated to transfers that is provided in association with a bank account, and the amount deposited into the virtual account is processed and stored as a deposit into the account associated with the virtual account. A virtual account can be created by sending a virtual account creation request from the management device 100 to the first bank server 121, and the account number of the created virtual account is notified to the management device 100. A virtual account may be created each time a user registers, or multiple virtual accounts may be created in advance.

[0029] The deposit notification includes a virtual account identifier and a deposit amount. The management device 100 has a correspondence between the user identifier of the user company and the virtual account identifier associated with that user company, and by referencing this correspondence based on the virtual account identifier included in the deposit notification, it can determine the user company that made the deposit and calculate the balance of that user company. As an example, the balance is the total deposit amount minus the payment amount described below. The virtual account identifier can specifically be the account number of the virtual account.

[0030] The management device 100 then receives a reservation request for payment of the accounts payable from the first user terminal 111 (S209), and in response to receiving the reservation request, sets up transmission of a payment execution request to the second bank server 122 on the due date of the accounts payable or a predetermined or designated date before that (S210). When the set due date arrives, the management device 100 sends a payment execution request to the second bank server 122 (S211). When the payment is completed, the management device 100 receives a completion notification from the second bank server 122 (S212) and subtracts the payment amount from the remaining balance managed by the management device 100. The payment execution request includes the payment amount and also includes the destination account. The destination account can be specified, for example, by the name of the financial institution or its identifier, the branch name or its identifier, the account type, and the account number.

[0031] In FIG. 4, once approval has been obtained in accordance with the workflow, the status changes to "Waiting for payment reservation," and once the reservation request is sent from the first user terminal 111 and processing in the management device 100 is completed, the status changes to "Payment reservation in progress."

[0032] Upon receiving a reservation request, the management device 100 may determine whether the reservation is permitted before sending a payment execution request. Specifically, the management device 100 may compare the user company's balance with the amount included in the payment data and determine that the reservation is permitted if the amount is equal to or less than the balance. The balance confirmation may be performed as a condition for sending the payment execution request when the management device 100 sends the request to the second bank server 122 or before that. Furthermore, if the invoice number included in the payment data matches that included in previously generated payment data, there is a risk of a duplicate payment. Therefore, a confirmation notification may be sent to the first user terminal 111 that sent the reservation request to confirm that the duplicate payment is not occurring. Furthermore, since the invoice number is not necessarily included in the invoice data, a confirmation notification may be sent if the amount, invoice date, payment due date, and customer or their identifier match. After receiving the necessary response from the first user terminal 111 in response to the confirmation notification, the management device 100 may determine that the reservation is permitted.

[0033] In the above explanation, the management device 100 is configured to send a payment execution request in response to receiving a reservation request, but it is also possible to send a payment execution request to the second bank server 122 in response to receiving a reservation request, and configure the payment execution process in the second bank server 122. In this case, the payment execution request includes the payment due date or a predetermined or specified due date before that, and the second bank server 122 executes the payment execution process on that due date.

[0034] In this way, by making it possible to perform everything from registering accounts payable based on invoice data to reserving payment execution on the service provided by management device 100, management of accounts payable is greatly simplified.

[0035] It should be noted that unless the word "only" is used, such as "based only on XX," "depending only on XX," or "only in the case of XX," this specification assumes that additional information may also be taken into consideration. As an example, please note that the phrase "do b when a" does not necessarily mean "do b always when a" or "do b immediately after a" unless explicitly stated otherwise. Furthermore, the phrase "each a constituting A" does not necessarily mean that A is composed of multiple components, but includes the case where the component is singular.

[0036] Also, just to be clear, even if there is an aspect of a method, program, terminal, device, server, or system (hereinafter referred to as a "method, etc.") that performs an operation different from that described in this specification, each aspect of the present invention is directed to an operation that is identical to one of the operations described in this specification, and the existence of an operation different from that described in this specification does not make the method, etc. outside the scope of each aspect of the present invention.

[0037] Furthermore, the "start" and "end" shown in FIG. 3 are merely examples, and do not necessarily mean that the method according to this embodiment starts at S301 or ends at S305. [Explanation of symbols]

[0038] 100 Management device 101 Communications Department 102 Processing section 103 Storage section 111 First User Terminal 112 Secondary User Terminal 121 First Bank Server 122 Second Bank Server 301 Amount 301 Billing Date 303 Payment deadline 304 Customer Name 305 Financial Institution Name 306 Branch Name 307 Account Type 308 Account Number

Claims

[Claim 1] 1. A method for managing accounts payable, comprising: A step of a management server receiving invoice data of an invoice generating an account payable from a first user terminal used by a person who has registered the account payable; a step in which the management server generates payment data representing the details of the payment of the accounts payable based on the invoice data, the payment data including an amount, an invoice date, a payment due date, a customer name or an identifier thereof, a financial institution name or an identifier thereof, a branch name or an identifier thereof, an account type, and an account number; a step of setting a payment execution process for the amount by the management server in response to receiving the payment reservation request from the first user terminal; Includes.

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