Automated Invoice Vetting and Dynamic Pricing System
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Solution Overview
Problem
The service repair industry faces challenges in determining fair and reasonable prices for non-standardized repairs due to highly variable parameters, and the manual bill payment process is inefficient, leading to potential overpayments and lack of uniformity in pricing across vendors.
Innovation Solution
An automated online negotiation, payment, and cost monitoring system that standardizes pricing for non-standard services by collecting data, dynamically analyzing market changes, and providing automatic negotiation and settlement features, facilitating electronic bill presentment and payment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual bill receipt and payment systems are used, then businesses can process invoices, but the process is cumbersome and inefficient especially for businesses dealing with a large number of bills
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical bill processing with an automated electronic system that receives, processes, and pays bills through electronic communication networks. The system automatically compares invoice charges to predetermined ranges, adjusts charges, and processes payments without manual intervention, substituting the mechanical manual handling process with an electronic automated system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by automatically performing bill verification, charge comparison, adjustment, and payment processing without requiring manual review by accounts payable clerks. The automated system independently handles the entire bill payment process, making the system serve itself rather than requiring human operators for each transaction.
2Measurement precision
If manual invoice vetting and negotiation is performed by accounts payable clerks, then pricing can be reviewed, but the process is time-consuming and requires lengthy comparison processes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual invoice vetting and negotiation with an automated electronic system that instantly compares invoice charges to predetermined ranges stored in a database. The system automatically verifies pricing accuracy through electronic comparison and adjustment processes, eliminating the time-consuming manual review and comparison processes while maintaining pricing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-establishing predetermined charge ranges and pricing standards in a database before invoice processing. This allows the automated system to quickly verify and adjust charges against pre-defined criteria, eliminating the need for time-consuming real-time negotiation and comparison processes that would otherwise be required.
3Ease of operation
If manual bill processing is used, then invoices can be paid, but there is a lack of uniformity in prices negotiated for identical goods and services
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements universality by creating a standardized electronic system that applies the same predetermined charge ranges and pricing criteria to all invoices uniformly. The system universally processes all bills through the same automated verification and adjustment process, ensuring consistent pricing for identical goods and services across all transactions, eliminating the variability inherent in manual negotiation processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters by converting pricing from subjective manual negotiation to objective automated comparison against predetermined ranges. The automated system applies consistent parameter-based verification and adjustment rules to all invoices, transforming the pricing process from variable human judgment to uniform parameter-driven decision-making, ensuring pricing stability and consistency.
4Productivity
If automated online negotiation and payment systems are implemented, then pricing standardization and efficiency are improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the extraction principle by isolating the complex automated processing logic into a separate electronic system that interfaces with standard communication networks. The core verification and adjustment algorithms are extracted into a dedicated system module, allowing the complex intelligence to be contained in one place while presenting a simple interface for bill submission and payment receipt, thereby managing system complexity through separation of concerns.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides an automated invoice vetting, negotiation and payment system that automatically collects goods and labors hour data, sets a reasonable pricing structure for each such good and service, dynamically analyzes the price data to adjust for market changes and provides a automatic negotiation and settlement feature for bill payment. The present invention readily accommodates the above features over electronic networks such as the Internet. The present invention therefore provides a method of payment of invoices of vendors by purchasers, comprising providing a settlement authority with invoice information from a vendor, comparing the invoice charges to a predetermined range of values for the charges, accepting the charges that are within a predetermined sub-range for the charges, adjusting the charges that are greater or less than that the predetermined sub-range for the charges and paying the accepted charges and the adjusted charges.