Patent Issued for Multi-format electronic invoicing system (USPTO 11361351): Hartford Fire Insurance Company

2022 JUN 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Arunski, Benjamin (West Hartford, CT, US), Elango, Lakshmi (South Windsor, CT, US), Finley, Cynthia D (Lyme, CT, US), Fuller, David (Westfield, MA, US), Jorge, Antonio (Stafford Spring, CT, US), Panno, Manuela (Rocky Hill, CT, US), Sedor, John (Suffield, CT, US), Ternullo, Linda L. (Tolland, CT, US), Udeh, Mary (East Hartford, CT, US), filed on June 27, 2019, was published online on June 14, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11361351 is Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “An enterprise may need to provide invoices to customers. For example, an enterprise might enter into risk relationships associated with an entity (e.g., as a form of risk management). In this case, an insurer might enter insurance agreements with customers (e.g., associated with large deductible, self-insured programs associated with workers’ compensation such as a Third-Party Administrator (“TPA”) program) in connection with an employer and a set of employees. As a result of these agreements, the insurer may periodically provide invoice documents to customers. Such invoice documents may need to be particular formats, including specific supporting documentation, etc. Manually generating such documents can be a time-consuming and error-prone task-especially when a substantial number of documents are involved (e.g., thousands of invoices might be generated each month. Moreover, the enterprise may want to accurately populate and/or utilize the content of one or more electronic records associated with those risk relationships. For example, more accurate electronic records may improve the performance of the enterprise by reducing errors (and the need to re-enter information), facilitate communication between parties, help allocate appropriate resources, etc. Note that improving the accuracy of electronic records may result in substantial improvements to the operation of a network (e.g., by reducing an overall number of electronic messages that need to be created and transmitted via various networks or improving response times).

“It would be desirable to provide systems and methods to facilitate the creation of electronic invoice documents and messaging in a way that provides efficient and accurate results.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “According to some embodiments, an invoice data store contains electronic records for invoices associated with customers and an enterprise, including an electronic record identifier and a set of attribute values. An electronic invoicing system computer server may receive invoice data (associated with a customer of the enterprise) from remote invoice platforms, and the server may create invoice documents in first and second formats based on information in the invoice data store. It may be determined that the invoice documents represent “work in process” and, as a result, the system may prevent the invoice documents from being transmitted to a customer device. An adjustment to the invoice document in an intermediate format is received and the invoice document in at least one of the first and second format is automatically updated. When it is later determined that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process,” the system electronically transmits the invoice documents to the customer device.

“Some embodiments comprise: means for receiving, by a electronic invoicing system computer server, invoice data from a plurality of remote invoice platforms, the received data being associated with a customer of an enterprise; means for arranging to create an invoice document in a first format and an invoice document in a second format, different than the first format, based on information in an invoice data store containing electronic records representing a plurality of invoices associated with multiple customers and the enterprise and, for each invoice, an electronic record identifier and a set of attribute values; means for determining that the invoice documents represent “work in process;” responsive to the determination that the invoice documents represent “work in process,” means for preventing the invoice documents from being transmitted to at least one remote customer device; means for receiving from a user an adjustment to the invoice document in an intermediate format; means for automatically updating the invoice document in at least one of the first and second format based on the received adjustment from the user; means for determining that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process;” and responsive to the determination that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process,” means for arranging to electronically transmit the invoice documents in the first and second formats to the at least one remote customer device.

“In some embodiments, a communication device associated with an electronic invoicing system computer server exchanges information with remote devices in connection with an interactive graphical user interface. The information may be exchanged, for example, via public and/or proprietary communication networks.

“A technical effect of some embodiments of the invention is an improved and computerized way to facilitate the creation of electronic invoice documents and messaging in a way that provides efficient and accurate results. With these and other advantages and features that will become hereinafter apparent, a more complete understanding of the nature of the invention can be obtained by referring to the following detailed description and to the drawings appended hereto.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system to facilitate an exchange of information via an electronic invoicing system computer server of an enterprise, comprising: (a) an invoice data store containing electronic records representing a plurality of invoices associated with multiple customers and the enterprise and, for each invoice, an electronic record identifier and a set of attribute values; (b) the electronic invoicing system computer server, coupled to the invoice data store, programmed to: (i) receive invoice data from a plurality of remote invoice platforms, the received data being associated with a customer of the enterprise, (ii) arrange to create two invoice documents based on information in the invoice data store: a first invoice document in a first format and a second invoice document in a second format, different than the first format, wherein each of the first and second formats are associated with one of: (i) a Comma-Separated Values (“CSV”) format, and (ii) a Portable Document Format (“PDF”) format, (iii) determine that the invoice documents represent “work in process,” (iv) responsive to the determination that the invoice documents represent “work in process,” prevent the invoice documents from being transmitted to at least one remote customer device, (v) receive from a user an adjustment to the invoice document in an intermediate format, (vi) automatically update the first invoice document in the first format and the second invoice document in the second format based on the received adjustment from the user, (vii) determine that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process,” and (viii) responsive to the determination that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process,” arrange to electronically transmit the invoice documents in the first and second formats to the at least one remote customer device; and © a communication port coupled to the electronic invoicing system computer server to facilitate an exchange of data with an invoicing system interface display via a distributed communication network.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein said determination that the invoice documents represent “work in process” comprises at least one of: (i) receiving a designation from the user via the invoicing system interface display, and (ii) automatically applying a rule to the set of attribute values.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user associates a user note with the invoice data via the invoicing system interface display.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user searches for a customer account via the invoicing system interface display.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein a printed version of the invoice documents is also sent to a customer address via postal mail.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of attribute values includes at least one of: (i) a status, (ii) an invoice number, (iii) an account number, (iv) an account name, (v) a billing analyst identifier, (vi) a creation date, (vii) an invoice type, (viii) a mailed to indication, (ix) a last edited identifier, and (x) a last edited date.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of attribute values includes a status comprising any of: “work in process,” “deleted,” “complete”.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of attribute values includes at least one of: (i) an invoice level, (ii) a schedule start date, (iii) a schedule end date, (iv) an invoice frequency, (v) a payment date, (vi) a payment method, (vii) a suppress output indication, and (viii) a product grouping.

“9. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of attribute values includes at least one of: (i) a delivery type, (ii) a policy activity summary, (iii) a pricing plan activity summary, (iv) an activity report option, (v) a check activity option, (vi) an invoice only option, and (vii) a check register option.

“10. A computerized method to facilitate an exchange of information via an electronic invoicing system computer server of an enterprise, comprising: receiving, by the electronic invoicing system computer server, invoice data from a plurality of remote invoice platforms, the received data being associated with a customer of the enterprise; arranging to create two invoice documents based on information in the invoice data store: a first invoice document in a first format and a second invoice document in a second format, different than the first format, wherein the invoice data store contains electronic records representing a plurality of invoices associated with multiple customers and the enterprise and, for each invoice, an electronic record identifier and a set of attribute values, wherein each of the first and second formats are associated with one of: (i) a Comma-Separated Values (“CSV”) format, and (ii) a Portable Document Format (“PDF”) format; determining that the invoice documents represent “work in process;” responsive to the determination that the invoice documents represent “work in process,” preventing the invoice documents from being transmitted to at least one remote customer device; receiving from a user an adjustment to the invoice document in an intermediate format; automatically updating the first invoice document in the first format and the second invoice document in the second format based on the received adjustment from the user; determining that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process;” and responsive to the determination that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process,” arranging to electronically transmit the invoice documents in the first and second formats to the at least one remote customer device.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein said determination that the invoice documents represent “work in process” comprises at least one of: (i) receiving a designation from the user via the invoicing system interface display, and (ii) automatically applying rule to the set of attribute values.

“12. The method of claim 10, wherein the user associates a user note with the invoice data via the invoicing system interface display.

“13. The method of claim 10, wherein the user searches for a customer account via the invoicing system interface display.

“14. The method of claim 10, wherein a printed version of the invoice documents is also sent to a customer address via postal mail.

“15. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions, that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method to facilitate an exchange of information via an electronic invoicing system computer server of an enterprise, the method comprising: receiving, by the electronic invoicing system computer server, invoice data from a plurality of remote invoice platforms, the received data being associated with a customer of the enterprise; arranging to create two invoice documents based on information in the invoice data store: a first invoice document in a first format and a second invoice document in a second format, different than the first format, wherein the invoice data store contains electronic records representing a plurality of invoices associated with multiple customers and the enterprise and, for each invoice, an electronic record identifier and a set of attribute values, wherein each of the first and second formats are associated with one of: (i) a Comma-Separated Values (“CSV”) format, and (ii) a Portable Document Format (“PDF”) format; determining that the invoice documents represent “work in process;” responsive to the determination that the invoice documents represent “work in process,” preventing the invoice documents from being transmitted to at least one remote customer device; receiving from a user an adjustment to the invoice document in an intermediate format; automatically updating the first invoice document in the first format and the second invoice document in the second format based on the received adjustment from the user; determining that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process;” and responsive to the determination that the invoice documents no longer represent “work in process,” arranging to electronically transmit the invoice documents in the first and second formats to the at least one remote customer device.

“16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the set of attribute values includes a status comprising any of: “work in process,” “deleted,” “complete”.

“17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the set of attribute values includes at least one of: (i) an invoice level, (ii) a schedule start date, (iii) a schedule end date, (iv) an invoice frequency, (v) a payment date, (vi) a payment method, (vii) a suppress output indication, and (viii) a product grouping.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Arunski, Benjamin. Multi-format electronic invoicing system. U.S. Patent Number 11361351, filed June 27, 2019, and published online on June 14, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11361351.PN.&OS=PN/11361351RS=PN/11361351

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