Patent Issued for Method and system for user-controlled invoice distribution (USPTO 11694240): Sentry Insurance Company

2023 JUL 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Kozelek, Debra (Stevens Point, WI, US), O’Toole, Kevin (Stevens Point, WI, US), Ohnstad, Elizabeth (Stevens Point, WI, US), filed on April 12, 2019, was published online on July 4, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11694240 is Sentry Insurance Company (Stevens Point, Wisconsin, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance is used by both commercial entities and individuals as a way to help cover damages, losses, etc. that occur from various events such as natural disasters, injuries, accidents, vandalism, and so on. There are many different types of insurance coverage, including automobile insurance, home/building insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, general liability insurance, umbrella policies, etc. It is often the case that a commercial entity will have multiple distinct locations or businesses that each require insurance coverage. For example, a metal working company may have several different shops located in several different cities. In such a scenario, it may be desirable for each individual shop to receive an insurance invoice that is specific to the individual shop, as opposed to a single invoice that applies to the entire chain of shops.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “An illustrative method includes receiving, from a computing device of a customer, a request that specifies allocation of an insurance premium to a plurality of locations of the customer. The method includes generating, in response to the request and by an invoice distribution server, one or more rules to implement the request. The method also includes receiving, by the invoice distribution system, an amount of the insurance premium. The method also includes executing the one or more rules to allocate the insurance premium to the plurality of locations of the customer in accordance with the request. The method further includes generating a plurality of invoices indicative of the allocation of the insurance premium.

“An illustrative server includes a memory, a transceiver, and a processor operatively coupled to the memory and to the transceiver. The memory is configured to store a rules engine and information regarding a customer. The transceiver is configured to receive, from a computing device of the customer, a request that specifies allocation of an insurance premium of the customer to a plurality of locations of the customer. The transceiver is also configured to receive an amount of the insurance premium. The processor is configured to generate, in response to the request, one or more rules in the rules engine to implement the request. The processor is also configured to execute the one or more rules to allocate the insurance premium to the plurality of locations of the customer in accordance with the request. The processor is further configured generate a plurality of invoices indicative of the allocation of the insurance premium.

“An illustrative non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon, that upon execution by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations. The instructions include instructions to receive, from a computing device of a customer, a request that specifies allocation of an insurance premium to a plurality of locations of the customer. The instructions also include instructions to generate, in response to the request, one or more rules to implement the request. The instructions also include instructions to receive an amount of the insurance premium. The instructions also include instructions to execute the one or more rules to allocate the insurance premium to the plurality of locations of the customer in accordance with the request. The instructions further include instructions to generate a plurality of invoices indicative of the allocation of the insurance premium.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: assigning, by an invoice distribution server, a plurality of entities of a customer of a plurality of insurance policies, wherein each of the insurance policies has a respective predetermined type, and wherein each entity of the plurality of entities has a unique location; generating, by the invoice distribution server, based on an instruction thereof, a first message; conveying, by a transceiver of the invoice distribution server, the first message to a computing device over a network connection, the first message to cause the computing device to present an interface comprising: a first portion configured to display the plurality of entities; a second portion configured to receive an indication of how the customer would like to allocate costs amongst the plurality of entities for a predetermined type of insurance policy; and a selectable element to cause the computing device to generate and convey an allocation request to the invoice distribution server, the allocation request comprising the indication; receiving, by the invoice distribution server from the computing device, the allocation request at a first time; generating, by the invoice distribution server, distribution rules in accordance with the allocation request, wherein generating the distribution rules comprises: determining respective distribution rules based on each of a plurality of predetermined types of insurance policies; and assigning a location identifier to each entity of the plurality of entities, wherein each location identifier is indicative of the unique location of a corresponding respective entity of the plurality of entities; receiving, by the invoice distribution server, an insurance premium of a first insurance policy of the plurality of insurance policies at a second time; identifying, by the invoice distribution server, the predetermined type of the first insurance policy; allocating, by the invoice distribution server, a respective portion of the costs associated with the insurance premium based on the predetermined type of the first insurance policy and each location identifier; and generating, by the invoice distribution server, a plurality of invoices based on the distribution rules and the insurance premium, wherein each invoice of the plurality of invoices is based at least in part on the predetermined type of the first insurance policy and associated with the location identifier corresponding to a respective entity of the plurality of entities.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of how the customer would like to allocate costs associated with an insurance policy of the plurality of insurance policies specifies a percentage of the costs to be allocated to each of the plurality of entities associated with the insurance policy.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising sending the plurality of invoices to the respective unique locations of the plurality of entities associated with the insurance policy in accordance with the distribution rules.

“4. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the distribution rules comprises: generating a first rule that assigns the location identifier to each entity of the plurality of entities; generating a second rule that allocates a respective portion of the costs to each of the location identifiers; generating a third rule that ensures that a sum of each portion of the costs is equal to the insurance premium; and storing the first rule, the second rule, and the third rule in a first database associated with the invoice distribution server.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving, by the invoice distribution server from the computing device, a start date specifying when to start implementing the allocation request.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein the start date comprises a date on which the allocation request is received from the computing device.

“7. The method of claim 5, wherein the start date comprises a future date on which the allocation request is to be implemented.

“8. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving, from the computing device of the customer, an end date specifying when to stop implementing the allocation request, wherein the start date and the end date form a date range during which the allocation request is to be implemented.

“9. The method of claim 5, wherein the invoice distribution server automatically generates the plurality of invoices using the distribution rules and the insurance premium when the second time is between the start date and an end date.

“10. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving, from the computing device, a second allocation request, the second allocation request comprising a second indication of how the customer would like to allocate costs associated with the first insurance policy between the plurality of entities, and wherein the second allocation request specifies a date range during which the second allocation request is to be implemented.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second indication specifies a second percentage of the costs to be allocated to each of the plurality of entities.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating additional rules, wherein the additional rules are configured to implement the second allocation request during the date range.

“13. The method of claim 12, further comprising, executing, by the invoice distribution server, the distribution rules to allocate portions of the insurance premium to the plurality of entities in accordance with the allocation request and the second allocation request.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the invoice distribution server automatically executes the distribution rules based upon the second allocation request when the second time is within the date range specified in the second allocation request and based upon the allocation request when the second time is outside of the date range.

“15. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the plurality of entities comprises associating a respective identifier with each entity of the plurality of entities.

“16. A server comprising: a processor configured to: generate a first message based on an instruction thereof; cause a conveyance of the first message to a computing device over a network connection, the first message to cause the computing device to present an interface comprising: a first portion configured to display a plurality of entities; a second portion configured to receive a request for how a customer would like to allocate costs amongst the plurality of entities for a plurality of insurance policies of a predetermined type; and a selectable element to cause the computing device to generate and convey the request to the processor; receive, from the computing device, the request at a first time, wherein each entity of the plurality of entities has a unique location; and generate, in response to the request, distribution rules to implement the request, wherein the distribution rules are based on the request, wherein generating the distribution rules comprises determining respective distribution rules based on each of a plurality of the predetermined types of insurance policies and assigning a location identifier to each entity of the plurality of entities, wherein each location identifier is indicative of the unique location of a corresponding respective entity of the plurality of entities; determine an insurance premium of a first insurance policy of the plurality of insurance policies at a second time, wherein the second time is after the processor generates the distribution rules; identify the predetermined type of the first insurance policy; allocate a respective portion of the costs associated with the insurance premium based on the predetermined type of the first insurance policy and each location identifier; and generate a plurality of invoices in accordance with the distribution rules and the insurance premium, wherein each invoice of the plurality of invoices is based at least in part on the predetermined type of the first insurance policy associated with the location identifier corresponding to a respective entity of the plurality of entities.

“17. The server of claim 16, wherein the request specifies a percentage split that specifies a percentage of the insurance premium to be allocated to each of the plurality of entities.

“18. The server of claim 17, wherein the selectable element is an interactive element of a graphical user interface.

“19. The server of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to receive, from the computing device, a start date indicating when to implement the request.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Kozelek, Debra. Method and system for user-controlled invoice distribution. U.S. Patent Number 11694240, filed April 12, 2019, and published online on July 4, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11694240)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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