Abstract:
Systems, methods and program products for automatically generating authenticated electronic receipts at a point-of-sale terminal for both merchants and customers. These electronic receipts can then be used in place of paper receipts for expense accounting, for tax purposes, for routing to accounting and taxation departments, and for real-time analysis of cash-flow and budgeting. The invention prevents loss of paper receipts, always provides a legible receipt, removes employee subjectivity, provides extensive transaction details, removes entry errors, reduces physical storage requirements, promotes continuous expense tracking and eases expense-reporting procedures. In addition, the point-of-sale terminal can integrate the electronic receipt with other available coded data and information about the method of payment such as an image of the check, or the serial number of the paper currency bills used. The other available coded data can make categorization of the data for separation into budget, accounting, or tax categories easier.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Technical Field  
           [0002]    The present invention relates generally to transaction receipts, and more particularly, to generation of an electronic receipt at a point-of-sale.  
           [0003]    2. Related Art  
           [0004]    Business management requires careful tracking of expenses incurred by employees on behalf of the business. Expenses made by employees can take a variety of forms such as travel and meal expenses. Conventional expense tracking includes an employer requiring employees to report expenses, and an accounting and taxation department of the employer to collect expense reports submitted by employees including the paper receipts. The accounting and taxation department then organizes and reviews the expense reports including paper receipts and determines where money is being spent for tracking and tax purposes. In some cases, the employer provides an electronic expense reporting system into which employees can enter expense report data.  
           [0005]    The above approach to expense reporting suffers from a number of drawbacks relating to use of paper receipts. First, the approach requires an employee to retain paper receipts for submission as part of the expense report. Since receipts are usually small pieces of paper, it is not an infrequent occurrence that they become lost or are destroyed. Once paper receipts are no longer available, the benefit of tracking expenses is lost. Second, in some cases, an employer provides an electronic reporting system that requires an employee to enter expense data from paper receipts. Entry into an electronic reporting system, while easing expense-reporting burdens in some ways, creates a number of problems. One problem is that even the most conscientious user is apt to make entry errors. For example, one of the benefits of an electronic reporting system is that it allows entry of expense categorizations. Unfortunately, entry of these categorizations is prone to keying errors just like any other data entry, and more importantly, is subject to the employee&#39;s subjectivity. Since most employees are unaware of the details and meaning of the myriad of expense categorizations that an accounting and taxation department provides, mis-categorization occurs frequently. Where an electronic reporting system is not provided, the accounting and taxation department must evaluate paper receipts, which tends to promote discontinuous expense tracking and end-of-tax-year rushes to collect data. Third, in many cases, an employee must provide line-item details for accurate expense reporting purposes because of paper receipts&#39; limitations, e.g., because of size, to communicate all transaction details. In this regard, any expense reporting system, electronic or otherwise, is prone to cheating because of the reliance on employees to honestly expound on the transaction details that the paper receipts purport to record. Fourth, paper receipts, like all paper-based document systems, require large amounts of storage space, which adds further expenses to a business.  
           [0006]    In order to minimize the above shortcomings of paper receipts, many businesses allow employees to use credit cards to pay for business expenses. In many cases, credit card charge data may be provided in electronic form to a credit card holder in the form of date, merchant, total bill and, perhaps, an expense category. This information may then be linked to a particular expense account for tracking. While this information is helpful, credit card systems are generally incapable of collecting, storing and providing the extensive transaction details often required for proper expense reporting, e.g., line-item(s) purchased, number of items purchased, purchaser identification, item(s) description, etc. Internet merchants have been known to provide more extensive transaction data in electronic form such as date, merchant and item(s) purchased. Not all purchases, however, can be made using a credit card or over the Internet. For example, some purchases must be made at point-of-sale terminals with cash or check where the paper receipt is the only transaction record available. Surprisingly, in many cases, merchants may want to collect the extensive expense reporting data regarding a transaction for biometric evaluation, but are unwilling to burden customers with all the requisite queries.  
           [0007]    In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for generation of an electronic receipt at a point-of sale that solves the problems of the related art.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    This invention includes systems, methods and program products for automatically generating authenticated electronic receipts at a point-of-sale for both merchants and customers. These electronic receipts can then be used in place of paper receipts for expense accounting, for tax purposes, for routing to accounting and taxation departments, and for real-time analysis of cash-flow and budgeting. The invention prevents loss of paper receipts, always provides a legible receipt, removes employee subjectivity, provides extensive transaction details, removes entry errors, reduces physical storage requirements, promotes continuous expense tracking and eases expense-reporting procedures. In addition, the point-of-sale terminal can integrate the electronic receipt with other available coded data and information about the method of payment such as an image of the check, or paper currency bills used. The other available coded data can make categorization of the data for separation into budget, accounting, or tax categories easier.  
           [0009]    A first aspect of the invention is directed to a method of providing a receipt to a customer at a point-of-sale, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a receipt instruction including a receipt destination instruction; generating an electronic receipt; and transmitting the electronic receipt to the receipt destination.  
           [0010]    A second aspect of the invention is directed to a point-of-sale terminal comprising means for transacting a sale; and means for generating an electronic receipt adapted for transfer to a receipt destination.  
           [0011]    A third aspect of the invention is directed to an electronic receipt comprising: a primary key including a unique transaction identifier.  
           [0012]    A fourth aspect of the invention is directed to a database comprising: data including a receipt destination identifier and a corresponding electronic receipt destination for receiving an electronic receipt for a purchase made by a customer.  
           [0013]    A fifth aspect of the invention is directed to a computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for a point-of-sale terminal, the program product comprising: program code configured to transact a sale; and program code configured to generate an electronic receipt.  
           [0014]    The foregoing and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of embodiments of the invention. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]    The embodiments of this invention will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein like designations denote like elements, and wherein:  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 shows a point-of-sale terminal electronic receipt generation environment.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of operation of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0018]    For purposes of clarity only, the following description includes the following headers: I. Overview—Electronic Receipt; II. Point-of-Sale Terminal Generation of Electronic Receipt; III. Receipt Destination; IV. Operation; and V. Conclusion.  
         [0019]    I. Overview—Electronic Receipt  
         [0020]    This invention discloses automatically generating authenticated digital receipts in point-of-sale terminals for both merchants and customers. These receipts can then be used in place of paper receipts for expense accounting, for IRS/state proof of expenditure, for routing to bookkeepers/accountants, and for real-time analysis of cash-flow and budgeting. The point-of-sale terminal can integrate the digital receipt with other available coded data and information about the method of payment such as an image of the check, credit card face, paper currency used for payment (or serial number of the bills) or a combination thereof. The other available coded data can make categorization of the data for separation into budget, accounting, or tax categories much easier.  
         [0021]    With reference to the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a point-of-sale terminal electronic receipt generation environment  10  in accordance with the invention. In this environment, a customer  12  approaches a point-of-sale terminal  14  (hereinafter “POS terminal  14 ”) to pay for some product(s) and/or service(s) at POS terminal  14 . Customer  12  may pay using any now known or later developed methods. For example, customer  12  may use cash  16 , a check  18 , a credit card  20  and/or a smart card  22 . Customer  12  may also use other well known payment mechanisms such as a gift certificate, store credit, etc. Customer  12  may also include a personal digital assistant  24  (hereinafter “PDA  24 ”) for communicating with POS terminal  14  and/or another payment method. As known in the art, PDA  24  may be any handheld computer system, and may include a communication mechanism (not shown) such as an infrared projector/receiver.  
         [0022]    A general overview of environment  10  will now be described—the details of operation will be described below. At the outset, customer  12  approaches POS terminal  14  and may be waited upon by a POS terminal operator (not shown) who takes the customer&#39;s payment. Alternatively, in some instances, customer  12  may be allowed to operate POS terminal  14 . In any event, customer  12  pays for the product(s) and/or services by presenting suitable payment. POS terminal  14  includes any now known or later developed components for conducting the sales transaction. For instance, POS terminal  14  may include: keyboard, central processing unit (CPU), monitor, bar code scanner, telecommunications system, credit card authentication system, smart card authentication system, PDA communications system, cash drawer, etc. Once POS terminal  14  concludes the sales transaction, an electronic receipt  26  is generated in accordance with the invention. A conventional paper receipt (not shown) may also be generated in a known fashion.  
         [0023]    Electronic, or digital, receipt  26  may include any minimal amount of available data that constitutes a primary key (i.e., unique value) in a database to identify a corresponding transaction. In one embodiment, data that may constitute a primary key may include a unique transaction identification. A unique transaction identification may include, for example, a combination of merchant identifier and at least one of a purchase date and a purchase time. However, any combination of available data that creates a unique value (primary key) sufficient to differentiate transactions may be used. Electronic receipts  26  can also be augmented via additional information, such as the merchant id, transaction amount, date, or any other available data, to create other forms of primary keys, or to provide information beyond that which is needed to constitute a primary key. To illustrate, a more robust electronic receipt  26  may include the following fields:  
                                       :begin receipt.   /* Required field */       :purchase date.   /* Required field */       :time.   /* Optional Field. If provided, should be of the form           HH:MM:SS, using a 24-hour clock */       :merchant ID.   /* Required field */       :issuedby.   /* Optional: Issuing agent, if different from           merchant. */       :addr.   /* Optional: Repeating line; one “:addr.” tag for each           line of the address. */       :phone.   /* Optional: Phone number of the merchant. */       :web.   /* Optional: URL of the merchant. */       :fax.   /* Optional: Fax number of the merchant. */       :source.   /* POS terminal number, clerk ID, or other unique           identifier for the transaction. */       :transid.   /* Optional: Transaction ID, if available, for this           unique transaction. */       :document.   /* Optional: Document number, or other unique           identifier for the transaction, e.g., plane ticket. */       :buyer.   /* Optional: Repeating line; one “customer” line for           each line of character data about the customer. */       :merchant add.   /* Optional: Repeating line; one “:merchant add.”           line for each additional merchant line. */       :payment type.   /* Required. Integer value, with one of the following           values: */           /* 00 = Cash */           /* 01 = Check */           /* 02 = Charge */           /* 03 = Gift Certificate */           /* 04 = Refund or Exchange */           /* 05 = N/C */           /* 06 = Other */           /* 07-99 Reserved for additional payment types */       :trans type.   /* Optional. Character field, indicating the transaction           type (in person, phone, fax, e-mail, web, etc. */       :chargecard.   /* Optional. Character value of chargecard type, e.g.:           “VISA: xxxx xxxx xxxx 3816” */       :purchase total.   /* Required. Total cost of the transaction. */       :total tax.   /* Required. Subtotal of the tax associated with the           transaction. */       :total tip.   /* Optional: Total Tip, if any. */       :num items.   /* Required. Positive Integer. Number of items in the           transaction. */       :item value.   /* Required. The number of ‘:item’ tags must match           the ‘:num items’ tag value. */       :item description.   /* Required. The number of ‘:item description’ tags           must match the ‘:num items’ tag value. */       :item date.   /* Optional: The number of individual items, if           applicable, e.g., the date of the charge, on a hotel. */       :item type.   /* Optional: Character field, indicating charge, credit,           etc. Assumed to be charge if not specified. */       :image   /* Optional: Image of paper currency or check used for           payment */       :end receipt.                  
 
         [0024]    Many retailers such as grocery stores have store cards presented by customers at purchase time to obtain discounts. The relevant information could be collected at the time of applying for the store card or entered later, for example, via a web-based system or other entry system, for the account on the store card.  
         [0025]    II. Point-of-Sale Terminal Generation of Electronic Receipt  
         [0026]    With continuing reference to FIG. 1, the details of POS terminal  14  will now be described. POS terminal  14  includes: an imager  40 , a check/currency inserter  42 , a receipt instruction receiver  44  including a receipt destination retriever  46 , an electronic receipt generator  48  including an authenticating data generator  50 , a transmitter  52  and other components  54 . It should be recognized that while one POS terminal  14  has been illustrated, that a number of terminals  14  may exist within environment  10 . For example, in a large retailer, a number of POS terminals  14  exist.  
         [0027]    Imager  40  is configured to receive cash  16  in the form of paper currency or bills, and/or checks  18  for scanning into images. Cash  16  may be authenticated in accordance with copending U.S. Ser. No. ______, incorporated herein by reference. As also disclosed in the copending application, check or bill images  58  may be inserted by check/currency inserter  42  into paper receipt  28  or electronic receipt  26 , for recordation purposes.  
         [0028]    Receipt instruction receiver  46  is configured to receive a receipt instruction  60  from customer  12 , and may include a destination retriever  62  (hereinafter “retriever  62 ”), described in further detail below. A “receipt instruction”  60  includes a receipt destination identifier  64  and a content identifier  66 . In terms of communication form, receipt instruction  60  is received by receipt instruction receiver  46  in a physical form or an electronic form. In terms of the former, receipt instruction  60  may be verbally stated by customer  12  and entered to POS terminal  14  by an operator. In terms of electronic form, receipt instruction  60  may be gathered from a credit card  20  (i.e., when the credit card number is used to retrieve other data), gathered from a smart card  22 , transmitted by a customer PDA  24  or some other mechanism of electronic communication.  
         [0029]    Receipt destination identifier  64  (hereinafter “RDI  64 ”) is any form of data that expressly indicates, or may be used to determine, where an electronic receipt  26  generated for a transaction for a particular customer  12  is to be sent, i.e., a receipt destination  65 . If RDI  64  expressly states receipt destination  65 , RDI  64  may take the form of, for example, an Internet protocal (IP) address, a mailing address to receive a saved form (i.e., a CD or diskette) of electronic receipt  26 , or any other address capable of being used by POS terminal  14 , or its associated merchant, for forwarding electronic receipt  26 . If receipt destination  65  is not expressly stated, RDI  64  may include, for example: a customer identification such as the customer&#39;s name; a credit card number; a smart card identification; a PDA identifying transmission (e.g., infrared beam); the customer&#39;s employer&#39;s name or identification; a merchant&#39;s customer identification; etc. In this case, retriever  62  functions to access a receipt destination database  68  that includes data including RDI  64  and a corresponding receipt destination  65 . For example, for each customer identification (e.g., IBM 123456) used as an RDI  64 , a corresponding receipt destination is stored (e.g., IP address 9.99.10.192).  
         [0030]    Electronic receipt generator  48  (hereinafter “generator  48 ”) is configured to gather any data desired by a customer  12  per content instruction  66  to be provided in electronic receipt  26 , and generate electronic receipt  26 . For example, based on the illustrative electronic receipt above, generator  48  would gather: the transaction date and time; merchant name; issuing agent, if different from merchant; merchant address; and the other parameters listed above. If an agreed upon electronic receipt format (e.g., a standard such as used in electronic data formats (EDF)) is in use, generator  48  may function to build an electronic receipt  26  in the same fashion for all customers. Alternatively, personalized electronic receipts  26  based on content instruction  66  may also be possible. In this case, content instruction  66  may be used, for instance, to recall a preferred electronic receipt format from a content database  70  that includes such data. Each electronic receipt format may be generated using, for example, the extensible markup language (XML) or a similar language for providing user defined fields.  
         [0031]    Authentication data generator  50  may also be implemented to provide transaction authentication data  72 . “Transaction authentication data”  72  is any data that can be used to confirm electronic receipt  26  has not been altered, and may include, for example, receipt contents, date, time, merchant identification, or other data capable of being used to prove the authenticity of electronic receipt  26 . Authentication data  72  may be stored at a merchant system  74  for access by receipt destination  65  or transmitted separately to receipt destination  65 .  
         [0032]    Transmitter  52  is provided to communicate electronic receipt  26  to receipt destination  65 . As indicated, electronic receipt  26  may also be communicated to receipt destination  65  and/or merchant system  74 . In addition, transmitter  52  may also communicate authentication data  72  to receipt destination  65 . Further, as noted above, authentication data  72  may be stored at merchant system  74  for access by receipt destination  65 . Transmitter  52  may include any now known or later developed mechanism for communicating electronic data such as a modem, digital signal line (DSL), or other well-known telecommunications system, infrared beam communicator, a local area network, wide area network, etc.  
         [0033]    Other components  54  provide any other mechanisms necessary for operation of POS terminal  14  such as mechanisms for transacting a sale, e.g., keyboard, central processing unit (CPU), monitor, bar code scanner, telecommunications system, credit card authentication system, smart card authentication system, PDA communications system, cash drawer, etc.  
         [0034]    III. Receipt Destination  
         [0035]    With continuing reference to FIG. 1, receipt destination  65  may include a variety of devices and entities, or a combination thereof. For example, receipt destination  65  may include customer PDA  24 . That is, electronic receipt  26  is transmitted (by transmitter  52 ) back to customer  12  at POS terminal  14 . Receipt destination  65  may include an expense accounting system  80  such as a customer employer expense reporting system, a customer personal expense tracking system (e.g., Quicken®, Microsoft Money®, TurboTax®) and/or a customer accountant expense tracking system. Electronic receipt  26  provides immediate information for cash flow and budget purposes to expense accounting system  80 .  
         [0036]    Each of these systems may be similar to conventional systems but include mechanisms to take advantage of electronic receipt  26 . For example, expense account system  80  may include any now known or later developed mechanism for receiving electronic receipt  26  and automatically applying its content to appropriate application/field(s) of receipt destination  65 , e.g., inputs of customer PDA  24 , a customer employer expense reporting system such as Quickbooks®, or a customer personal expense tracking system such as Quicken®, Microsoft Money®, TurboTax®, or other application. In another example, expense account system  80  may include an expense categorizer  82  capable of organizing each item on electronic receipt  26  into an expense category, e.g., clothing, food, entertainment, etc. In another example, expense account system  80  may include a tax data collector  84  for gathering any data in electronic receipt  26  that may be significant for tax purposes, e.g., sales tax, a deductible expense, a deductible donation, medical expenses, large gifts, etc. Although particular modules are not shown, receipt destination  65  may also provide, via a customer&#39;s personal expense tracking system, tracking of personal expenses, tax related expenses and deductions, and general money management. For example, in addition to the above categorizing of expenses, receipt destination  65  may also include mechanisms for setting targets (i.e., budget) for expense category spending and an ability to compare incurred expenses to targets and flag excesses. Joint account holders can utilize receipt destination  65  (i.e., expense tracking systems: personal, through an account or other service provider system) to maintain accurate, up-to-date balances for joint account(s). In this fashion, receipt destination  65  may be used to coordinate spending by a number of individuals, and prevent debt problems. Accordingly, expense tracking may no longer be dependent upon an individual remembering to enter check amounts or credit card purchases to have an instantaneous view of a balance.  
         [0037]    Receipt destination  65  may also include a tax authority  86  such as the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a state tax department, foreign equivalent of preceding or a combination thereof. Any of the above-described information could be forwarded directly to an account (e.g., a customer employer&#39;s client account for billing—not shown), and also tax authority  86 , as appropriate. Receipt destination  65  may also include appropriate receipt storage  88  for long term archiving.  
         [0038]    With regard to receipt destination database  68 , content database  70  and receipt storage  88 , it should be recognized that these memories may comprise any now known or later developed data storage system and/or transmission media, including magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), a data object, etc., and may reside at a single physical location comprising one or more types of data storage, or be distributed across a plurality of physical systems.  
         [0039]    IV. Operation  
         [0040]    Referring to FIG. 2, operation of the above-described invention will now be described. In step S 1 , a receipt instruction  60  is received by POS terminal  14 . Receipt instruction  60  including a receipt destination instruction (RDI)  64  and, perhaps, a content instruction  66 . Step S 1  may include retrieving receipt destination  65  from a receipt destination database  68  based on RDI  64 . In step S 2 , an electronic receipt  26  is generated by generator  48  of POS terminal  14 . Step S 3  represents an optional step of generating receipt authentication data  72  at POS terminal  14  using authentication data generator  50 , and transmitting receipt authentication data  72  using transmitter  52  to receipt destination  65 . In step S 4 , electronic receipt  26  is transmitted to receipt destination  65 . This step may also include automatically applying the contents of electronic receipt  26  to receipt destination  65 , e.g., an expense accounting system  80  such as a customer personal expense tracking system. Steps S 5  and S 6  represent optional steps. In step S 5 , tax data is collected from electronic receipt  26  by tax data collector  84  of receipt destination  65 . In step S 6 , an expense categorizer  82  of receipt destination  65  organizes an item on electronic receipt  26  into an expense category.  
         [0041]    V. Conclusion  
         [0042]    It should be recognized that the components of the above-described invention have been illustrated and described as being in particular locations, that they may be located at different points within the environment and accessed via high-speed communications. Accordingly, the location of components should not be considered limiting.  
         [0043]    In the previous discussion, it will be understood that the method steps discussed are performed by a processor, such as a CPU of POS terminal  14 , executing instructions of program product stored in memory. It is understood that the various devices, modules, mechanisms and systems described herein may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, and may be compartmentalized other than as shown. They may be implemented by any type of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein. A typical combination of hardware and software could be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein. Alternatively, a specific use computer, containing specialized hardware for carrying out one or more of the functional tasks of the invention could be utilized. The present invention can also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods and functions described herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able to carry out these methods and functions. Computer program, software program, program, program product, or software, in the present context mean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form.  
         [0044]    While this invention has been described in conjunction with the specific embodiments outlined above, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the embodiments of the invention as set forth above are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.