Accounting process

A computerized accounting process and system capturing customer transaction data, creating transaction codes or references at the time of the transaction and generating accounting reports for the customer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a business process for producing accounting information, as well as apparatus and software for performing the business process.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Currently, the source documents forming the basis of all accounting procedure, namely bank deposits and withdrawals, whether by transfer, check or cash transaction, are captured on one hand by the banking institution or institutions facilitating the transaction, and on the other hand by the person or business (client) making the transaction. This duplicate capturing is time consuming and prone to human error and at least on the client side, subject to delay. Essentially, banks, accountants and business duplicate information into different financial systems. These functions cost all parties concerned a considerable amount of time and man hours with concomitant increase in service or running costs as well as improved accuracy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of this invention to provide a business process as well as software and a system for preventing the duplication of this basic bookkeeping function and in so doing reducing accounting fees, reducing time spent by bookkeeping personnel and permit more effective management of expenses. A further objective would be to permit a banking institution to produce detailed and summarized financial information such as a statement of income and expenditure, a cash flow statement and a trial balance for a client at any time and prepare financial statements very quickly if required or to enable the client to do so with the bank's assistance.

According to the invention, an accounting process to be performed on or with the aid of a computer comprises the following steps:capturing of certain transaction data by a banking institution,creating and/or allocating one or more transaction codes or reference to the transaction at the time of the transaction, andimporting and/or exporting the captured data and code into one or more accounting software programs for generation of accounting reports.

Transaction data contemplated for capture includes data found on source documents including but not limited to cheque stubs, internet payment advice, invoices, bank statements, deposit and withdrawal slips or funds transfer slips as well as banking devices, for example, credit card terminals, ATM transactions, as well as data emanating or originating from the following processes, systems and devices used to carry out financial transactions.Internet Banking WebsiteWebsiteHTML enabled softwareE-MailPayment Transaction Acquiring devicePoint of Sale TerminalMagstripe Card ReaderDebit CardsCredit CardsSmartcardsBank Issued CardsLoyalty CardsGSM DevicesGPRS Devices3G DevicesMobile PhonesMobile Phone technology enabled readersSIM CardsSIM Card ReadersFixed Line PhoneSMSMMSSet Top BoxDebit OrderStop OrderChequesCheque RequisitionsDeposit SlipsEFT SlipsInter Account Transfer SlipsBank Generated TransactionsBank DraftElectronic Payment SystemsATM'sBank—over the counter transactionsBan—Virtual TransactionsTelexSwiftBank SystemsClearing HousesNetworks

Whether data is imported or exported will depend on the point of capture of the data, the location of the accounting program and/or accounting reports relative to the point of capture, and the method of transferring the data to the general ledger or other accounting reports.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a first accounting software program is located on a computer or the like device linked to the bank computer system and the software program may perform a synchronizing of the data to ensure compatibility with a variety of accounting programs, prior to exporting the data to the client accounting program and/or the bank accounting program. This may be required where the system of the invention is implemented to current or pre-existing system, computer or devices.

In this embodiment of the invention, the client's general ledger and trial balance may be produced by the bank and retained for its uses, including keeping up-to-date financial statements and ratios for continuous evaluation of client's credit-worthiness.

The client may receive the formatted transaction data for generation of a general ledger and trial balance by its own accounting software—the typical situation for a small to medium enterprise.

Alternatively, the client as an individual or small business may receive a general ledger and trial balance for use by its own accounting personnel for generation of management documents to financial statements, or even full financial statements generated by the bank.

Data and/or accounting information may be transferred to the client by internet, e-mail, sms, mms or similar data transfer means, while bank systems may be adapted to collate data received as a result of transactions carried out in the bank, at automatic teller machines, by telephone or mobile telephone and internet transaction as well as receiving customer information from a customer accounting system, for example journals, depreciation, corrections and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The operation of the accounting process of the invention may be illustrated with reference to the accompanying diagramsFIGS. 1 to 4.FIG. 1shows capturing code and producing accounts for individuals or a small business bank system.FIG. 2shows data capturing and transfer to customer to produce financial reports for large corporations and individuals.FIG. 3shows a bank capturing data and transferring to the bank to produce financial reports.FIG. 4shows a bank capturing bank-related data and transferring that data to a customer; the customer capturing customer-related data and transferring that data to the bank; and the bank data and the customer data being synchronized and mirrored in the bank and accounting environment.

FIGS. 5 and 6illustrate a specific example of a cheque as a source document, and the illustration of examples of accounting information which may be generated using the system of the invention.

With reference toFIG. 1, there is detailed Example 1 of an embodiment of the invention for individuals or small businesses. In step S100there is a transaction that takes place, e.g., credit card payment, cheque payment, internet payment, cash payment/withdrawal, deposites, and receiving an internet transfer. In step S200there is a data capture which may use a source document and code and a source device and code.

In step S300there is data processing, including formatting. Step S400shows transaction statements. This step follows step S300. The step S500shows the bank system, summarized financial information, income and expenditure, general ledger, trial balance, financial statements. Step S500is shown as following either of steps S300and S400.

Step S600shows the customer following either of the steps S400and S500.

By integration, step S700follows step S500so that the information from step S500is introduced into the banking system and supplied to the bank portfolio data, management data, credit worthiness data at step S800.

In summary, the bank captures data, and produces accounting information and reports for the customer.

With reference toFIG. 2, there is detailed an Example 2 embodiment of the invention for small-medium businesses, individuals or large corporates where the bank captures data, and software synchronizes it before transferring the data to the customer's accounting system for the customer's system to produce accounting info and reports.

Similar to the embodiment ofFIG. 1, in step S100there is a transaction that takes place, e.g., credit card payment, cheque payment, internet payment, cash payment/withdrawal, deposites, and receiving an internet transfer. In step S200there is a data capture which may use a source document and code and a source device and code.

In step S300there is data processing including formatting, including formatting. Step S400shows transaction statements. This step follows step S300.

Step S600shows the customer accounting system following either of the steps S300and S400. In this embodiment coded data is sent to the customer from step S300.

Step650provides summarized financial information, income and expenditure, general ledger, trial balance, and financial statements.

In this embodiment there is a feedback loop shown. See steps S700and S800whereby the banking system is connected at an output of step S650. In this embodiment, step S800directly follows each of steps S650and shows the bank portfolio data, management data, credit worthiness data at step S800.

FIG. 3shows Example 3 where the bank captures data, and the customer also captures data such as journals and corrections, this appropriately formatted information is then sent to bank which produces accounting information and reports.

In steps S105, S200, and S300there is respectively a transaction that takes place, data capture, and data processing including formatting, including formatting. See that step S105refers to coded transactions and includes charges and corrections.

In this embodiment step S505refers to the normal banking environment, and step S510the bank accounting environment which includes mirrored information that is sorted according to codes, and basic accounting functions. Step S605shows the customer doing journal or amendments via the internet. By step S605inputting into step S510, there is the capture of the customer's input data.

Step S515follows step S510and shows journals and corrections, as well as more advanced accounting functions. Step S515feeds into step S520which is Results including general ledger, trial balance, and financial statements.

Thus, through these steps the bank captures data or the customer captures data and transfers the captures data to the bank so that the bank can produces financial reports.

The embodiment ofFIG. 4shows Example 4 where the bank captures data, and the customer also captures data such as journals and corrections, the data is formatted and the information/data is synchronized between the accounting systems of the customer and the bank. In other words, the Customer produces accounting info and reports, and this can be mirrored on both bank and customer system.

As inFIG. 3, steps S105, S200, and S300there is respectively a transaction that takes place, data capture, and data processing including formatting, including formatting.

In this embodiment step S305refers to the data being synchronized.

As to the normal banking environment, see step S510which includes mirrored information that is sorted according to codes, basic accounting functions, and also splitting of VAT. Steps515and S520follow step S510.

Steps S325, S330, and S335are bidirectionally linked respectively to each of Steps S510, S515, and S520(as shown inFIG. 4) so that bank and customer data issynchronized and mirrored in the bank and the accounting environment.

As noted above,FIGS. 5 and 6illustrate a specific example of a cheque as a source document. There is also the illustration of examples of accounting information which may be generated using the system of the invention.

A number of advantages are apparent to both the client and to the bank as follows:

1) The bank is able to provide the client with not only a statement of transactions, but also summarized financial information, accounting reports and financial statements, while permitting integration of the financial statements into the banking system for up to date or even real-time monitoring of client credit-worthiness.

2) The bank is able to generate additional income for this service which may take the form of a monthly administration fee or a per-transaction charge.

3) The client automatically keeps up-to-date accounts.

4) Customer capturing is reduced.

According to another aspect of the invention, in order to execute the embodiments disclosed above, there is provided a computer readable memory, encoded with data representing a computer program which is usable to direct a programmable device comprising means for inputting transaction data and a code allocated thereto, means for synchronizing the data and code to ensure compatability with accounting software programs and means for importing and/or exporting the synchronizing data into one or more accounting software programs.

The means for inputting transaction data may be a computer, cell phone, automatic teller machine or credit card machine or the like, including but not limited to:Internet Banking WebsiteWebsiteHTML enabled softwareE-MailPayment Transaction Acquiring devicePoint of Sale TerminalMagstripe Card ReaderDebit CardsCredit CardsSmartcardsBank Issued CardsLoyalty CardsGSM DevicesGPRS Devices3G DevicesMobile PhonesMobile Phone technology enabled readersSIM CardsSIM Card ReadersFixed Line PhoneSMSMMSSet Top BoxDebit OrderStop OrderChequesCheque RequisitionsDeposit SlipsEFT SlipsInter Account Transfer SlipsBank Generated TransactionsBank DraftElectronic Payment SystemsATM'sBank—over the counter transactionsBan—Virtual TransactionsTelexSwiftBank SystemsClearing HousesNetworks

In one embodiment of the invention, additional means may be provided to generate a general ledger and/or trial balance prior to export. In the simplest form, where the software of the invention does not have accounting functionality (i.e. it simply permits data input and formatting, before exporting), then the means for generating the general ledger or other reports may comprise an accounting software program.

In a further embodiment of the invention, further additional means may be provided to generate financial statements prior to export. In this situation, where the software of the invention is not accounting software, it may include a module or functionality for processing the inputted data into financial statements. It may include typical management accounting information as well as graphs.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer program element comprising computer program code means to cause the computer to execute a procedure to import transaction data linked to a transaction code from an input device, synchronize the data to ensure compatability with one or more accounting programs, and to import and/or export the synchronized data to one or more accounting programs.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, there is provided a method, apparatus or program for inputting business transaction data together with a transaction code, comprising:

a central controller including a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory operatively connected to the CPU,

at least one terminal adapted for communicating with the central controller, for transmitting and/or receiving transaction data and one or more transaction codes,

the memory in the controller containing a program adapted to be executed by the CPU for synchronizing the data to ensure compatability with a variety of accounting software programs,

wherein the central controller is adapted to transmit the synchronized data to the same or different terminals for generation of a general ledger, trial balance and other financial statements.

In all of the above embodiments of the invention, the transaction code allocated to each transaction may include a sub-code to indicate whether or not the transaction is subject to Value Added Tax, General sales tax or other taxation. Alternatively, each transaction may be allocated a second code for this purpose.

The allocated transaction code may further comprise a specific code, for example, electricity, groceries, entertainment or vendor specific code may be used for example, Escom (trademark), Telkom (trademark), Woolworths (trademark). Alternatively, if a code is not specified a default code is used, for example entertainment.