Patent ID: 7627499

Claim:
A transaction-processing system for facilitating transactions involving merchant offerings among parties including shippers and carriers, aspects of each transaction being characterized by transaction-based documents that are respectively provided by different parties to the transaction, the system comprising: a transaction databank having a plurality of anchor locations, each anchor location for storing a plurality of transaction-profile attributes that correspond to a transaction; and a programmed computer arrangement remotely situated relative to the different parties and programmed to: identify attributes for a common transaction, the identified attributes being carried by at least two respective transaction-based documents as respectively provided from the different parties to the common transaction, use the identified attributes from the at least two respective transaction-based documents to construct a plurality of transaction-profile attributes in a particular one of the anchor locations, the constructed transaction-profile attributes identifying the common transaction, and in response to an additional transaction-based document for the common transaction carrying the identified attributes, use the constructed transaction-profile attributes in the particular anchor location and data in the additional transaction-based document to audit and advance progress toward completion of the transaction, wherein the programmed computer arrangement is programmed to compare elements of the transaction information, including the identity of at least two parties to the transaction, and to authenticate the transaction using a set of data that includes the identities of the two parties, wherein the identity of at least one of the parties is provided to another one of the parties.