Unified Data Structure for Transportation Billing Reconciliation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Monitoring and tracking deviations in transportation-related invoices and payments can be complex and confusing, making it difficult to manage and reconcile billing and payment information across multiple parties.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that transforms discrete data structures from various transportation entities into a unified data structure, allowing for comprehensive billing generation, including unpaid and paid portions, using a processor and memory with a graphical user interface for display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If discrete data structures from multiple transportation entities are collected and processed separately, then data from each entity can be maintained in its original format, but monitoring and tracking billing deviations becomes complex and confusing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple discrete data structures from different transportation entities into a single unified data structure. This consolidation integrates billing information, transport details, and payment data from multiple sources into one coherent framework, eliminating the complexity of tracking deviations across separate systems while maintaining adaptability to various original formats through standardized mapping processes
2Ease of operation
If a unified data structure is generated from multiple discrete data structures, then billing and payment tracking becomes simplified and clear, but data transformation and aggregation processes become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary data transformation and standardization when data is first ingested from transportation entities. By pre-processing and mapping data to the unified structure format upfront, the system eliminates the need for complex real-time transformations during billing and payment operations, simplifying subsequent monitoring and tracking activities
Solution Approach 2:
The unified data structure serves as an intermediary layer between multiple discrete data sources and the billing/payment monitoring functions. This intermediate representation standardizes information from various entities, allowing complex data aggregation to occur once during structure creation, while subsequent operations benefit from simplified, standardized data access
3Reliability
If discrete data structures are maintained separately, then data integrity from each transportation entity is preserved, but reconciliation of billing and payment information across multiple parties becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The unified data structure merges information from multiple discrete sources while maintaining reference links to the original data structures. This combination allows the system to preserve the integrity and auditability of source data while enabling efficient cross-entity reconciliation through a centralized view that connects billing information, transport details, and payment status across all parties
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus and corresponding methods for transforming a data structure is provided. Apparatus may include a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor. The memory instructs the processor to receive a plurality of discrete data structures from one or more transportation entities, wherein each of the plurality of discrete data structures comprises a plurality of discrete transport data related to a transport. The memory instructs the processor to generate a unified data structure as a function of the plurality of discrete data structures, wherein the unified data structure comprises unified transport data. The memory instructs the processor to display the unified data structure to a user through a graphical user interface (GUI).