Automated Bill Splitting Payment Allocation System
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Merchants face inefficiencies and errors when handling payments from multiple customers who wish to split bills, as they must manually perform multiple transactions and allocate costs, leading to delays and inconvenience.
Innovation Solution
A system and process for bill splitting that allows merchants to automatically split transaction costs among multiple payment instruments without manual allocation, enabling adjustments based on customer requests, using a framework that includes user and merchant devices, a payment service interface, and a POS module to facilitate electronic payments and handle card-less transactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If merchants manually perform multiple transactions and allocate costs for bill splitting, then payment flexibility is provided, but processing time increases and errors occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automatic bill splitting where the payment processing system itself performs the allocation of transaction costs across multiple payment instruments without requiring manual merchant intervention. The system automatically divides the total transaction amount according to predetermined rules or customer specifications, eliminating the need for merchants to manually perform multiple transactions and allocate costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary payment processing system that acts as a mediator between the customer's multiple payment instruments and the merchant. This intermediary system handles the complex allocation logic and transaction coordination, allowing the merchant to simply initiate a single transaction while the system automatically manages the split payment execution across different payment methods.
2Adaptability or versatility
If merchants manually allocate costs among multiple payment instruments, then payment options are provided, but operational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically manages the complexity of allocating transaction costs across multiple payment instruments by having the payment processing system perform the allocation itself based on predetermined rules. This eliminates the need for merchants to understand or manually execute complex allocation logic, reducing operational complexity while maintaining multiple payment options.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the complex cost allocation logic from the merchant's operational process and places it within the payment processing system. By removing the allocation complexity from the merchant's workflow and embedding it within the automated system, the solution maintains payment flexibility while significantly reducing operational complexity for the merchant.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple manual transactions are performed for bill splitting, then payment flexibility is achieved, but error rate increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate transaction operations into a single integrated transaction process. Instead of requiring the merchant to perform multiple separate transactions for each payment instrument, the system merges them into one unified transaction that automatically handles the split payment execution, thereby reducing the error rate associated with manual multiple transactions while maintaining payment flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The automated system performs the allocation and execution of split payments without manual merchant intervention, eliminating human errors in calculating and distributing amounts across different payment instruments. The system's automated logic ensures accurate and consistent allocation, reducing error rates while preserving the ability to offer flexible payment options.
Data Source
AI summary
A payment handling system may operate to handle payments for the cost of a transaction. The payment handling system may receive first information associated with a first payment instrument, receive second information associated with a second payment instrument, and cause a display to update the UI to indicate that an unallocated portion of the cost of the transaction is to be approximately split between the first payment instrument and the second payment instrument.