Patent ID: 8719121
Filing Date: 2014-05-06
Classification: G06Q,H04M

Abstract:
1. A system for automated construction of a proposed time record entry (PTRE) in response to user-driven events and with reference to a database of valid billing references, comprising: a client machine associated with a timekeeper, the client machine having a display screen and a first processor of the type suitable for executing software; an email server having a second processor of the type suitable for executing software; and the following software modules, each software module executing on at least one of the client machine and the email server; an email parser module operative to extract syntactic structures from an email that is free of information which encodes or includes a billing reference; an event handler module operative to detect a prescribed interaction with the email by the timekeeper using the client machine, the event handler including an action log that stores a current status of the email which identifies a state of the prescribed interaction with the email, wherein the state of the prescribed interaction with the email comprises one of “opened,” “forward,” or “reply”; a heuristic engine module communicatively coupled to the parser and operative to associate the email with the billing reference from the database using at least a portion of the extracted syntactic structures and to process and output information related to a header, a body, or both portions of the email; an automated time-record entry generator module operative to construct the PTRE for the timekeeper so as to include at least: (i) the billing reference that has been associated with the email by the heuristic engine module, (ii) an hours-worked value in a time field, and (iii) information related to that email message in a narrative field of the PTRE which is different than the hours-worked value in the time field, wherein the automated time-record entry generator module is further operative to replace or modify the narrative field of a previously constructed PTRE to indicate the current status of the email and thereby indicate a degree of interaction by the timekeeper with the email in the narrative field of the PTRE, and wherein the information in the previously constructed narrative field is replaced or modified without user intervention using the output information of the heuristic engine related to the header, the body, or both portions of the email; and a user interface module operative to present, on the display screen associated with the timekeeper using the client machine, the constructed PTRE after the prescribed interaction has been detected and in view of the current status of the email, to receive an instruction from the timekeeper to accept, modify or cancel the PTRE, and to output any accepted or modified PTRE in response to the instruction.