Patent Issued for Systems and methods for managing and reducing spending (USPTO 11748821): United Services Automobile Association

2023 SEP 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Burch, Ingeborg (San Antonio, TX, US), Catsifas, Christine (San Antonio, TX, US), Mendivil, Marty Lee (San Antonio, TX, US), Trahan, Meagan Marie (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on December 15, 2016, was published online on September 5, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11748821, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to spend management software applications, and more specifically, to systems and methods for managing and reducing spending using spend management software applications.

“Budgeting refers to a quantitative expression of a plan for a period of time. People may set budgets for expenses to save money and build a savings account, investment account, or the like. For example, people may budget a certain amount of money out of a paycheck that they want to spend in a month after they pay their recurring bills (e.g., utilities, mortgage, rent, car payment, etc.) and/or put money in savings. However, as time passes during the month, people may lose track of the amount of money they have spent or how close they are to spending the budgeted amount of money. As a result, people may spend more than desired for the month. Also, budgeting at such a holistic level may be difficult to accomplish for some people.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“Present embodiments are generally related to a spend management application that enables monitoring budgets for designated time periods and providing feedback during the time period to help keep users on track, as well as performing other actions. In some embodiments, the spend management application may receive a target spend amount for a selected spend category (e.g., restaurants, retail, entertainment, etc.) over a timeframe and perform an action based on progress made toward the target spend amount. For example, the action may include providing alerts indicative of the amount of progress made toward the target spend amount in the selected timeframe. In this way, the user may curb their spending in the spend category if they are approaching the target spend amount for the selected timeframe. Additional or alternative actions may include displaying congratulatory messages when the user spends less than the target spend amount, transferring the difference (e.g., money) between the target spend amount and the actual amount spent from one account (e.g., checking) to another (e.g., savings) at the end of the timeframe, or the like. In some embodiments, the spend management application may track historical spend data and provide recommended target spend amounts based on the historical spend data for particular spend categories. It should be noted that the spend management application enables granular spend management and reduction at the spend category level, as opposed to holistically tracking all spend categories at the same time, which may be overwhelming to users. That is, some embodiments may enable users to focus managing and reducing expenses one spend category at a time. Although, in some embodiments, multiple spend categories may be tracked.

“Turning now to the figures, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a system 10 that may be utilized to manage and reduce spending using a spend management application 12. The spend management application 12 may be implemented as instructions stored on one or more memories 14 of a computing device 16. The instructions may be executed by one or more processors 18 of the computing device 16 to cause the one or more processors 18 to perform various functions described below. The computing device 16 may be a general purpose computing device, such as a laptop computer, a personal computer, a tablet, a mobile device, or a smart phone. The spend management application 12 may be downloaded from a software distribution platform or website via a public network (e.g., Internet) or a private network (e.g., local area network), installed via a storage device (e.g., compact disk, jump-drive, etc.), or the like.

“The spend management application 12 may include instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause a graphical user interface (GUI) to be displayed on a display 20 of the computing device 16. In some embodiments, the spend management application 12 may include instructions that cause the processor to communicate with a financial institution server 21 to retrieve, edit, add, or delete certain transaction data associated with an account of the user. For example, the spend management application 12 may receive various inputs 23 related to an account, a spend category, a target spend amount, a timeframe, and the like, and may manage and reduce spending by tracking transactions, account balances, and the like received from the financial institution server 21. Further, the spend management application 12 may be wholly implemented on the computing device 16, wholly implemented in a cloud-based computing system 22, or partially implemented on both the computing device 16 and the cloud-based computing system 22. Accordingly, the computing device 16 may include communication circuitry 24 (e.g., wireless or wired) that enables communication with the cloud-based computing system 22 and/or the financial institution server 21.

“The processor 18 may be any type of computer processor or microprocessor capable of executing computer-executable code. The processor 18 may also include multiple processors that may perform the operations described below. The memory 14 may be any suitable articles of manufacture that can serve as media to store processor-executable code, data (e.g., previous target spend amounts, historical spending, etc.), or the like. These articles of manufacture may represent non-transitory, computer-readable media (e.g., any suitable form of memory or storage) that may store the processor-executable code used by the processor 18 to perform the presently disclosed techniques. It should be noted that non-transitory merely indicates that the media is tangible and not a signal. Generally, the processor 18 may execute the spend management application 12 that enables a user to manage and reduce spending.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media storing computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: receive a selection of at least one spend category out of a plurality of spend categories to track and a target spend amount for the at least one spend category for a timeframe; track one or more transactions associated with the at least one spend category based on filtering the one or more transactions of a plurality of accounts into respective bins based on merchant category codes assigned to the one or more transactions during the timeframe; display a list of the one or more transactions included in a bin associated with the at least one spend category: display an alert periodically over a configurable time period during the timeframe, wherein the alert comprises an actual amount spent for the one or more transactions relative to the target spend amount; receive an input selection to remove a transaction from the bin associated with the at least one spend category that is incorrectly filtered into the bin associated with the at least one spend category or add a transaction to the bin associated with the at least one spend category that was incorrectly filtered out of the bin associated with the at least one spend category, wherein the one or more transactions are updated based on removing the transaction from the bin or adding the transaction to the bin; monitor an available spend amount based on the actual amount spent relative to the target spend amount for the timeframe; monitor an overdrawn threshold value of a monitored account of the plurality of accounts based on the available spend amount; and transfer a difference amount from the monitored account to a second account of the plurality of accounts in response to expiration of the timeframe, the actual amount spent being less than the target spend amount, and the available spend amount in the monitored account after transferring the difference amount being above the overdrawn threshold value.

“2. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the alert comprises a bar graph, wherein the bar graph comprises an indication of a pending amount spent based on tracking the one or more transactions and differences between the target spend amount, the actual amount spent, and the pending amount spent.

“3. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 2, wherein the alert provides a numerical indication of the difference amount that is available to be spent for the timeframe.

“4. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: display a congratulatory message in response to expiration of the timeframe and the actual amount spent being less than the target spend amount; display a message suggesting the target spend amount be reduced in response to the actual amount spent being less than the target spend amount; or both.

“5. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the merchant category codes indicate a type of business or service provided by a merchant and is associated with a transaction by the merchant at a time the transaction is made.

“6. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: track historical spending data for each of the plurality of spend categories based on the one or more transactions; and after the timeframe expires, display a new target spend amount for the at least one spend category based on the historical spending data.

“7. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to display the historical spending data for each of the plurality of spend categories to enable selection of a spend category to track for which more than a threshold of an actual amount was spent.

“8. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to edit the target spend amount during the timeframe based on a received input.

“9. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: receive input to quit tracking the at least one spend category; receive an input selection of a different spend category out of the plurality of spend categories to track and a new target spend amount for the timeframe; and track subsequent transactions associated with the different spend category during the timeframe.

“10. The one or more non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the plurality of spend categories comprise entertainment, retail, restaurants, travel, or some combination thereof.

“11. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, by one or more processors of a computing device, inputs related to a selection of at least one spend category out of a plurality of spend categories to track and a target spend amount for the at least one spend category for a timeframe; tracking, by the one or more processors, historical spending data for each of the plurality of spend categories based at least in part on one or more transactions; tracking, by the one or more processors, one or more transactions associated with the at least one spend category based on filtering the one or more transactions of a plurality of accounts into respective bins based on merchant category codes assigned to the one or more transactions during the timeframe; monitoring, by the one or more processors, an available spend amount based on an actual amount spent for the one or more transactions relative to the target spend amount for the timeframe; monitoring, by the one or more processors, an overdrawn threshold value of a monitored account of the plurality of accounts based on the available spend amount; transferring, by the one or more processors, a difference amount from the monitored account to a second account of the plurality of accounts in response to expiration of the timeframe, the actual amount spent being less than the target spend amount, and the available spend amount in the monitored account after transferring the difference amount being above the overdrawn threshold value; and after the timeframe expires, displaying, by the one or more processors, a new target spend amount for the at least one spend category based at least in part on the actual amount spent and the historical spending data, wherein the new target spend amount is a percentage less than the actual amount spent.

“12. The method of claim 11, comprising displaying, by the one or more processors, an alert that includes the actual amount spent relative to the target spend amount during the timeframe periodically over a time period, wherein the alert comprises representing the actual amount spent relative to the target spend amount as a graph or as a percentage.

“13. The method of claim 11, comprising receiving, by the one or more processors, only one spend category and tracking transactions only associated with the only one spend category.

“14. A computing system, comprising: a server configured to provide transaction data associated with a plurality of accounts; and a computing device communicatively coupled to the server, the computing device comprising one or more processors configured to: receive the transaction data from the server; receive a selection of at least one spend category out of a plurality of spend categories to track and a target spend amount for the at least one spend category for a timeframe; track one or more transactions associated with the at least one spend category based on filtering the transaction data of the plurality of accounts into respective bins associated with each of the plurality of spend categories based on merchant category codes of the transaction data during the timeframe; monitor an available spend amount based on an actual amount spent for the one or more transactions relative to the target spend amount for the timeframe; monitor an overdrawn threshold value of a monitored account of the plurality of accounts based on the available spend amount; and transfer a difference amount from the monitored account to a second account of the plurality of accounts in response to expiration of the timeframe, the actual amount spent being less than the target spend amount, and the available spend amount in the monitored account after transferring the difference amount being above the overdrawn threshold value; and cause display of an editable display box comprising a new target spend amount that is a percentage less than the actual amount spent in response to receiving an additional selection of the at least one spend category to track after the timeframe expires.

“15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are configured to display an alert on a configurable basis that includes the actual amount spent relative to the target spend amount during the timeframe periodically over a configurable time period and an indication of the difference amount.”

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

For more information, see this patent: Burch, Ingeborg. Systems and methods for managing and reducing spending. U.S. Patent Number 11748821, filed December 15, 2016, and published online on September 5, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11748821)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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