Patent ID: 8655736

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving purchase order records from one or more buyer agents, wherein the purchase order records include one or more orders for inbound shipments from one or more vendor locations to one or more locations associated with the one or more buyer agents by respective target ship dates; in a computer, processing the received purchase order records based on a stored schedule of delivery dates for outbound shipments using one or more temporal and spatial process parameters, wherein the outbound shipments are from a first location associated with the one or more buyer agents to a second location associated with the one or more buyer agents and the process parameters specify conditions under which the received purchase order records are identified as compatible with the outbound shipments; based on the processing, identifying one or more of the received purchase order records as compatible with one or more of the outbound shipments, wherein the identifying comprises determining that at least one of the compatible purchase order records has a target ship date different from a delivery date of the one or more of the outbound shipments; responsive to the identifying, providing a buyer agent with a request for authorization to change the target ship date of the at least one of the compatible purchase order records to the delivery date of the one or more of the outbound shipments, wherein providing the request for authorization to change the target ship date comprises providing a user interface displaying details of the at least one of the compatible purchase order records along with one or more other purchase order records; receiving authorization from the buyer agent to modify the at least one of the compatible purchase order records via the user interface, wherein the receiving authorization comprises receiving input from the buyer agent via one or more fields or buttons displayed as part of the user interface; and responsive to receiving authorization from the buyer agent, modifying the at least one of the compatible purchase order records, wherein the modifying comprises: changing the target ship date of the at least one of the compatible purchase order records to be the delivery date of the one or more of the outbound shipments.