Abstract:
Systems and methods for processing financial transactions at remote locations on wireless communication devices is presented. A wireless communication device is configure with executable modules such that the device can interact with a user to, first, receive a first user indication to create a data record corresponding to a financial transaction on the wireless communication device. Thereafter, the device creates a data record corresponding to the financial transaction. Information corresponding to the financial transaction on the wireless communication device is received into a data record and stored in a temporary data store on the wireless communication device. Thereafter, the wireless communication device transmits the data record to a receiving service for processing in a financial application.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application is a nonprovisional of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/950,082, filed Jul. 16, 2007, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    In a world where the art of technology is actively and favorably affecting various parts of our lives, it becomes necessary to apply this revolutionary art to all aspects of the progressive lifestyle. Specifically, the financial realm of people&#39;s lives has recently received little of technology&#39;s attention—Yes, there are some programs meant to facilitate and advocate increased financial management such as SAP®, QuickBooks®, Microsoft Money®, Quicken®, and Peachtree®—but in no way have these applications been upgraded to meet the standards of other aspects of our lives. 
         [0003]    These aforementioned aspects are often vital to society&#39;s success; conversely, they may sometimes be auxiliary indulgences used solely for entertainment purposes. An example would be the notorious iPod®, which has received much attention in recent years. From October 2001 to January 2007, seven distinct generations have been released, each with a new, innovative addition, whether it be additional storage space, a color screen, or video capabilities. 
         [0004]    On the contrary, QuickBooks, the leading financial management software in the United States, has yet to take full advantage of the recent boom in technology since its debut in 1992. Similarly, the world&#39;s first accounting software, Peachtree, has only updated its application by releasing new versions. 
         [0005]    In the current United States, poverty has become a primary concern for its citizens—In 2006, approximately 13 percent of all U.S. citizens fell under the poverty threshold. This was an abrupt and undoubtedly unfavorable change, as in 2000 only 11.3 percent were considered to be “poor.” Much of this increase in destitution can be attributed to poor management of money, as it is tough for many to juggle the different expenditures—food, clothing, rent, etc.—and to thereby balance them with an income. 
         [0006]    The logical conclusion, therefore, would be to take advantage of the recent expansion of technology, and to directly apply it to the waning state of finance. In essence, a combination of these currently antipodal worlds can only result in an advantageous outcome. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  demonstrates an illustrative environment in which aspects of the disclosed and claimed subject matter may operate, including personal wireless communication devices in communication with a wireless service which is further coupled to a receiving server over a network connection; 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram that demonstrates components (both logical and actual) of an illustrative personal wireless communication device suitable for implementing aspects of the disclosed and claimed subject matter; 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram that demonstrates components (both logical and actual) of an illustrative receiving computing device suitable for implementing aspects of the disclosed and claimed subject matter; and 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flow diagram for general entry and processing of financial/transaction information on a personal wireless communication device. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0012]    Disclosed is a system and method for financial management including an application for use with mobile devices, especially wireless phones and hybrid phone/PDA devices. Examples include, by illustration and no by limitation, RIM&#39;s Blackberry® devices, Apple&#39;s iPhone®, and the like. In addition to providing a tool to manage finance combined with the freedom of a cell phone, the disclosed subject matter provides for the wireless transfer of the client&#39;s financial information to other devices including servers, desktops, and laptops, thereby increasing the possibilities and likelihood of appropriate financial management of expenditures and the like. 
         [0013]    Another aspect of the disclosed subject matter that will vastly affect the financial world is the transfer of information of financial information to various destinations via email. For example, using the disclosed systems and methods, employees will be enabled to instantly send information (such as expenditures) and/or reports to their company&#39;s headquarters with the click of a button. This information can be in the form of tables, charts, or diagrams, and can be presented by category, date, or time period. With this variety of options, clients and corporations will be more aware of, for example, which expenses are overly exorbitant and need attention, or the time of month at which spending a bit of extra money on a nice dinner wouldn&#39;t hurt. 
         [0014]    The systems and methods allow for inputs for various categories, including expenses and incomes. Upon receiving either, the client can immediately enter the amount in the appropriate date and category, be it transportation, taxes, or food. Later, a report (suitable for the device upon which the client is using) can be viewed to see where a majority of money was spent, or whether or not the income will be able to cover the expenditures. Similarly, various reports can be generated on those services or other computing systems that receive the information from the client&#39;s device. 
         [0015]    According to aspects of the disclosed subject matter, both personal and business categories can be supported, thereby separating the two distinct categories. The client would therefore be able to avoid sending personal financial information to his/her managing company. Of course, it should be appreciated that there could be, theoretically, any number of categories to which the user may direct financial information. Thus, discussion of two categories should be viewed as illustrative and not limiting upon the disclosed subject matter. 
         [0016]    The wide base of people that would be affected by the invention is a critical aspect of its distinctiveness. In today&#39;s world, people of all varieties are well-acquainted with technology—from the curious eight year old to the sagacious grandfather, almost all members of society own the seemingly essential technologies like the cell phone. Therefore, people of all ages and situations would benefit from the disclosed subject matter; the young girl can find the best way to spend her allowance just as the jaded adult can balance his/her incomes and expenses. 
         [0017]    Problems with memory space and features are inevitable to emerge with mobile devices. However, the invention&#39;s back-end capabilities are an effective way to solve this problem: By having the option of transferring financial information to a desktop, laptop, or server, a client will always be able to manage his/her financial world most effectively while also keeping sufficient storage space on a cell phone. 
         [0018]    Yet another aspect of the disclosed subject matter includes high configurability with regard to uploading information to a server (or other computing device configured to receive. For example, the software application that resides on the cell phone (or other communication device) may be configured to automatically initiate an upload of the financial information to the receiving server when the memory usage for the financial information reaches a threshold amount of the total capacity allotted to store the financial information. Alternatively, the software application may be configured to upload the financial information in an on-demand manner according to user directives, or to automatically upload the information at a certain time of day and/or when the rates for transmitting the financial information may be lowest. Still further, the software application may be configured to upload the financial information as it is entered such that the receiving host can have real-time updates of financial expenditures. Of course, in addition to uploading information over the wireless phone network, the software may be configured to upload the information via a direct line (such as via a USB or FireWire connection) if the user would prefer. 
         [0019]    While many hand-held wireless phones now include keypads that enable a user to enter text information relatively easily, not all users will have such capabilities or want to enter a lot of financial information in that manner. Accordingly, the software may be configured to permit the user to enter entirely text based information, a combination of text and voice annotations, or voice information. As an example of a combination, a user may make an entry with an amount (say of dinner) and then provide a voice annotation as to the purpose and attendees of the dinner such that both the text-entered amount and the voice annotation are uploaded to the receiving server. 
         [0020]    Regarding  FIG. 1 , this pictorial diagram demonstrates an illustrative network environment  100  in which aspects of the disclosed and claimed subject matter may operate, including personal wireless communication devices  102  and  104  in communication with a wireless service  106  which is further coupled to a receiving server  108  over a network  110 . Also shown in the illustrative network environment  100  is a personal computing device  112 , illustrated as a laptop but which may be any type of computing device. The personal computing device  112  corresponds to a user&#39;s computer where accounting and/or financial software would typically be maintained. 
         [0021]    According to aspects of the disclosed subject matter, a user can record financial information on a personal wireless communication device at a remote location, such as the wireless telephone/PDA combination  102 , transmit the data  114  over the wireless service  106  and network  108  to a receiving server  110 , an online storage service (not shown), or the user&#39;s computing device  112 . 
         [0022]    Turning to  FIG. 2 , this figure is of a block diagram that demonstrates components (both logical and actual) of an illustrative personal wireless communication device  200  suitable for implementing aspects of the disclosed and claimed subject matter. The wireless communication device  200  includes a processor  202  that executes computer executable instructions from a memory  204 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the memory  204  may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), persistent data storage  210 , flash memory devices, and the like. The memory  204  stores executable modules  206  and  208  that may be executed by the processor  202  to carry out various functions for gathering, categorizing, and transferring financial information/data from a user to an external receiving service, server  110 , and/or computer  112 . 
         [0023]    The personal computing device  200  typically includes one or more user input devices, such as user input device  214 , by which a user interacts with the personal computing device to enter financial information. Examples of such user input devices includes a keypad, a touchpad, a camera, and the like. The personal computing device  200  further typically includes at least one user output devices, such as user output device  216 . As those skilled in the art will appreciate, an exemplary user output device is an LCD screen upon which information may be displayed. In some cased, the user output device  216  may be a speaker on the user&#39;s personal wireless communication device  200  where all output is audio output. 
         [0024]    Further illustrated in the personal wireless communication device  200  is a wireless communication interface  212 . Wireless communication interfaces are well known in the art, and may use a variety of communication technologies including, but not limited to TDMA, GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, CDMA-2000, Bluetooth, Edge, 802.11 protocols, IR, and the like. While not illustrated, the personal wireless communication device  200  may further include a wired communication interface, such as a USB communication port, Firewire port, parallel port, serial port, and the like. Using the wired communication interface, a user may cause the personal wireless communication device  200  to upload data temporarily stored on the personal wireless communication device directly to the user&#39;s computer  112 . 
         [0025]    One of the many advantages of the disclosed subject matter is that the data records that are generated for each financial transaction entry may be placed in any number of formats and/or prepared for any number of financial systems. For example, the data records may be formatted according to general ledger and accounting standards such that the records transmitted to receiving servers can be automatically (rather than manually, as is the current practice) incorporated into a business&#39;s finance system. Alternatively, the output may be configured to comply with the formats required for personal finance software such as Quicken. Additionally, the data record may be converted into a tab-delineated, text based document and emailed to a particular address. Given that the format of the data record corresponding to the financial transaction is know, information from the record can be automatically extracted and fed into charts, spreadsheets, and the like. Categorizing each entry can be used to determine the output of the system. 
         [0026]    Turning now to  FIG. 3 , this figures is of a block diagram of an illustrative receiving computing device  300  suitable for receiving and processing financial data from a personal wireless communication device  200 . The receiving computing device  300  includes a processor  302  that executes computer executable instructions retrieved from a memory  304 . As discussed above, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the memory  304  may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), persistent data storage  310 , flash memory devices, and the like. The memory  304  stores executable modules, such as executable modules  306  and  308 , that are executed by the processor  302  to carry out various functions for gathering, categorizing, and storing finance data received from a user&#39;s wireless communication device  200 . 
         [0027]      FIG. 3  is further illustrated as including a network interface that enables the receiving computing device  300  to connect to a network, such as the Internet, for receiving user finance data. While not shown, the receiving computing device  300  may also include a wireless communication interface which, like the user&#39;s personal communication device  200 , sends and receives data wirelessly, including finance data. 
         [0028]    As is well appreciated, not all personal wireless communication devices include keypads that enable a user to enter robust finance information. For example, a wireless telephone may include a 10-key numeric keypad that could be used to enter alphabetic and numeric characters. Of course, a user would find entering complete finance detail of a transaction into the wireless device to be onerous and, therefore, would not make use of the option to do so. On the other hand, a wireless telephone is well suited to receiving voice signals and, when coupled with some simple buttons presses on the wireless telephone, could store robust finance information regarding a business or personal expense. For example, after a business meal, the user may activate a program on the wireless communication device  200  to enter finance information, press a few simple buttons and/or select menu items that may include general ledgers and accounting standards to indicate whether this new entry is personal or business, that it is for a meal, and then provide an audio description of the cost by speaking into the device (while it records), enumerate the people at the meal, indicate the subject matter that was discussed, and (either by voice or by keypress) temporarily store the finance entry on the telephone (for later processing.) Still further, when the telephone is equipped with a camera, the user may also attach one or more images of the receipt to the financial entry. 
         [0029]    As mentioned above, the personal wireless communication device  200  may be configured to transfer the finance information temporarily stored on the computing device in an on-demand manner, when a storage threshold is exceeded, at a specific time of day, only when current power reserve levels exceed a predetermined threshold, according to specific user instructions, and the like as well as various combinations of the above. 
         [0030]    Turning now to  FIG. 4 , this figure is of a flow diagram illustrating a routine  400  for general entry and processing of financial/transaction information on a personal wireless communication device  200 . At block  402 , the user initiates creation of a new financial entry. The user may do this through a variety of user interactions available for the particular wireless communication device, such as but not limited to a selection of a menu, pressing a particularly configured button, and the like. 
         [0031]    At block  404 , the user optionally identifies a category for the financial entry. For example, the category may be for a personal expense, a business expense, general ledgers and accounting standards, and the like. Thereafter, at block  406 , the personal wireless communication device  200  receives the financial data from the user. As already indicated, the user may input information regarding the particular financial entry by way of keypad, voice annotation, pictures and/or video, via a stylus on a touch or pressure sensitive touchpad, or combinations of the above. 
         [0032]    After entering the information, at block  408 , the financial data associated with the entry is stored in temporary storage for later transmittal to the user&#39;s computer, a receiving service or server, or the like. At some point thereafter (whether by periodic updates, at the direction of the user, when a storage threshold is reached, or the like), at block  410  the entry is uploaded to a receiving computer and/or service where the user can further process the information. Thereafter, the routine  400  terminates. 
         [0033]    While illustrative embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.