Patent ID: 6490568
Filing Date: 2002-12-03
Classification: G06Q,G07F

Abstract:
A system for automatically monitoring the cash flow of a merchant account and for automatically maintaining a minimum balance of the merchant account, the system comprising:a point of sale device for gathering transactional data indicative of a cash amount of each transaction between the merchant and credit card holders; and a transaction processor operable for storing the merchant account balance and variable transactional parameters of the merchant account, the transaction processor further operable for receiving the transactional data from the point of sale device in order to clear the merchant account in accordance with the variable transactional parameters, wherein the transaction processor adds up the cash amounts of the transactions from the transactional data to determine a net cash amount due the merchant and compares the merchant account balance against a merchant account minimum balance, wherein the transaction processor allocates a fraction of the net cash amount to the merchant account if the merchant account balance is less than the merchant account minimum balance and then disburses the net cash amount minus the allocated fraction of the net cash amount to the merchant, wherein the transaction processor disburses the entire net cash amount to the merchant if the merchant account balance is more than the merchant account minimum balance; wherein the variable transactional parameters include a first field for setting the number of days the transaction processor can delay disbursing the net cash amount minus the allocated fraction of the net cash amount to the merchant if the merchant account balance is less than the merchant account minimum balance, a second field for setting the effective date in which the first field shall be applied by the transaction processor, a third field for setting the merchant account minimum balance, a fourth field for setting the fraction of the net cash amount to be allocated to the merchant account if the merchant account balance is less than the merchant account minimum balance, and a fifth field for setting a minimum portion of the net cash amount to be allocated to the merchant account until the merchant account balance has reached the merchant account minimum balance.