Patent Publication Number: US-2012047051-A1

Title: Automated centralized settlement system

Description:
(a) TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention generally relates to a system for centralized and automated processing settlements, and more particular to an automated centralized settlement system applicable to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. 
     (b) DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     Running a business would produce accounts receivable and accounts payable and these accounts receivable and payable need to be balanced. Accounts receivable (A/R) are accounting transactions dealing with the billing of a customer for goods and services the customer has ordered. When payment from the customer is actually received, an A/R entry in the accounting system should be settled. On the other hand, accounts payable (A/P) are accounting transactions dealing with the debt owed to a supplier for goods and services ordered from the supplier. 
     Conventionally, to balance accounts receivable, an accountant, based on the information about a customer check or wire transfer, queries the A/R entries already created in the accounts receivable system, selects one or more entries, calculates manually the entries&#39; amounts, and then enters the various amounts to settle these entries. 
     On the other hand, conventionally there are two ways to balance accounts payable. One is to settle the entries one by one. The accounts queries the A/P entries already created but still open according to the supplier&#39;s invoice or purchase receipt, manually selects the entries to be settled, enters the amount to pay, and the accounts payable system calculates the total amount to pay. The other way is to settle the entries periodically where, at the end of a fixed period such as a month, all open A/P entries for a supplier are summarized and the net amount to pay is manually calculated. 
     The conventional settlement processes described above are not only troublesome but also prone to errors. The other disadvantages of the manual settlement process are as follows. First, conventionally, a receiving party would send a collection note by email or post mail to a paying party. When the parties have differences in terms of the details, they need to communicate over the phone or through emails. After the details are agreed by both parties, the paying party will make the payments one by one. Usually a lengthy checking and communication process is inevitable. 
     Secondly, the paying and receiving parties usually have difficulty in knowing the real-time payment and reception status. Moreover, the checking processes are not documented and disputes might occur in the future. In addition, after checking, it is not uncommon that the accounts are not immediately settled, leading to accounting errors. 
     Further more, when the business grows, the foregoing disadvantages become even more severe as the number of customers and suppliers increase. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An automated centralized settlement system is provided herein, which is a common platform among an enterprise&#39;s organization units and agents where all accounts receivable and payable data is centralized and settled so that error rate and cost of manual processing could be significantly reduced. Further more, as all settlements are conducted and all data is stored in a single platform, a system administrator could monitor transactions among the organization units and agents, and examine history records. 
     The automated centralized settlement system is coupled to various accounts receivable systems and the accounts payable systems. The automated centralized settlement system contains a receiving module, a processing module, and an output module. The receiving module is for the reception of accounts receivable data from a receiving party via an accounts receivable system, and of accounts payable data from a paying party via an accounts payable system. The processing module produces balance data from the accounts receivable and payable data, and the balance data is output by the output module. 
     The foregoing objectives and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts. 
     Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing an automated centralized settlement system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram showing the details of a processing module of the automated centralized settlement system of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram showing an automated centralized settlement system according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing an automated centralized settlement system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated, the automated centralized settlement system  1  contains a receiving module  10 , a processing module  20 , and an output module  30 . 
     When running a business, accounts receivable and payable would be produced between various organization units and/or collaborating agents. Each of the organization units or agents could be a paying party or a receiving party, and may have its own accounts receivable and payable systems. The automated centralized settlement system  1  provided by the present invention is a common platform among these accounts receivable and payable systems for automated settlement among the organization units and the agents. Therefore, the various accounts receivable systems  2  and the accounts payable systems  3  are all coupled to the automated centralized settlement system  1  so that all settling processes are carried out in the automated centralized settlement system  1 . In  FIG. 1 , only one accounts receivable system  2  and one accounts payable system  3  are shown but there could be more, depending on the number of organization units and agents. The accounts receivable systems  2  and the accounts payable systems  3  could be independent or they are integrated in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. 
     The receiving module  10  is for the reception of accounts receivable data from a receiving party via an accounts receivable system  2 , and of accounts payable data from a paying party via an accounts payable system  3 . As explained, the so-called receiving party and paying party could be an enterprise&#39;s organization unit or an agent collaborating with the enterprise. In other words, the respective accounts receivable and payable systems  2  and  3  of these organization units and agents could automatically send the accounts receivable and payable data to the automated centralized settlement system  1 . Subsequently, the processing module  20  produces balance data from the accounts receivable and payable data, and the balance data is output by the output module  30 . 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram showing the details of the processing module  20  of the automated centralized settlement system  1 . As illustrated, the processing module  20  contains a reception processing unit  21 , a payment processing unit  22 , a report unit  23 , a calculation unit  24 , an alarm unit  25 , a clock unit  26 , and a storage unit  27 . 
     The reception processing unit  21  is to handle the accounts receivable data and all accounts receivable remittances are posted here. The payment processing unit  22  is to handle accounts payable data and all accounts payable remittances are posted here. The report unit  23  is to produce various reports based on the accounts receivable and payable data for the utilization of the receiving party, the paying party, and the system administrator. 
     The calculation unit  24  calculates and produces balance data from the accounts receivable and payable data according to business logic. The so-called business logic could be based on general accounting principle or some self-defined accounting formulation. Each balance data entry contains a net amount between corresponding accounts receivable and payable data entries. The output module  30  then delivers each balance data entry to corresponding accounts receivable and payable systems  2  and  3 . 
     The alarm unit  25  would produce an alarm message if the corresponding accounts receivable and payable data is of different currencies. The automated centralized settlement system  1  is configured with a default currency (e.g., US dollar). When an accounts receivable or payable data is of a different currency, the alarm unit  25  would produce and sends an alarm message to the corresponding receiving or paying party, so as to inform the receiving or paying party to conduct currency exchange and the exchange rate to use. The receiving or paying party could determine if it agrees with the specified exchange rate. If it agrees, the processing continues; otherwise, the settlement is aborted. 
     The clock unit  26  is to keep track of time so that the automated centralized settlement system  1  would automatically perform settlement processes once every a period of time. For example, if the period is a month, the automated centralized settlement system  1  would carry out the settlement processes each month so as to save the overhead (e.g., wire transfer fees) of the receiving and paying parties. 
     The storage unit  27  is to store the accounts receivable and payable data and the balance data, along with the various logs for the interaction between the accounts receivable and payable systems  2  and  3 , and the automated centralized settlement system  1 . As such, a system administrator could easily retrieve all settlement-related history records from the storage unit  27 . 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram showing an automated centralized settlement system according to another embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated, the automated centralized settlement system  1  contains an additional network module  40 . 
     The network module  40  is to allow the receiving and paying parties to communicate over Internet. Conventionally, when they have differences, the receiving and paying parties have to rely on emails or telephones. The network module  40  provides another two-way communication means. When both parties require communications, they could post communication messages such as questions, exchange rates, etc. in a web page. Alternatively, the communication messages could be delivered by Instant Messaging (IM) means to speed up the communication process, thereby enhancing the settlement speed. 
     In addition, the network module  40  could deliver electronic invoices to the paying parties, thereby saving the postage and delivery time. By the on-line transmission of electronic invoices, the transmission records could be automatically stored in the automated centralized settlement system  1  for future examination and retrieval. 
     As described above, the automated centralized settlement system  1  is a common platform among the receiving and paying parties where their accounts receivable and payable data are centralized and processed and balance data is produced. The balance data is then distributed to corresponding accounts receivable and payable systems  2  and  3  for the cancellation of outstanding entries. As such, the error rate and cost of manual processing could be significantly reduced. 
     Further more, the automated centralized settlement system  1 &#39;s network module  40  allows the receiving and paying parties to query and confirm various transactions, to communicate, and to transmit electronic invoice through a web page. As such, the receiving and paying parties could check processing status at any time, and the system administrator could monitor transaction status among organization units and agents, and to examine history records at any time. 
     While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.