Patent ID: 7110952

Claim:
A method for maintaining accounting data comprising the computer implemented steps of: (a) providing a database for storing desired accounting data; (b) calling, by telephone, a user so as to begin a telephone call to receive certain accounting data to store to the database; (c) using an automated voice interface to the database during the telephone call, for spoken communication by the user, over a communication line, prompting the user to enter said certain accounting data primarily by speaking into a phone connected to the telephone call using natural language speech utterances (i) instead of the user keyboarding (ii) instead of requiring the user to log onto a global network and (iii) in effectively a direct, spoken manner instead of intermediate transfer of data by the user, the voice interface receiving audible signals indicative of words spoken by the user into the phone in response to said prompting; wherein said prompting includes (i) asking the user to confirm information and/or (ii) prompting for information one data point at a time, such that the step of prompting provides an exchange of information between the user and the database; (d) obtaining from the received audible signals certain accounting data corresponding to the words spoken by the user into the phone; (e) storing the obtained certain accounting data in the database; and (f) serving an individually targeted message to the user through the phone over the communication line, said individually targeted message having contents unrelated to any of status of the telephone call and account status of the telephone call.