Patent ID: 8498921

Claim:
A system for determining a brokerage commission owed by a client of a brokerage firm, the system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memory units in communication with the one or more processors, wherein the one or more memory unit store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, program the one or more processors such that the one or more processors are configured to: calculate the cumulative principal volume (“PV”) of transactions made by the client through the firm over a first time period, wherein the first time period is multiple days and has a predetermined start date and a predetermined end date, and wherein the PV for an individual transaction made by the client is based on the dollar value for the individual transaction, and the cumulative PV for the first time period is based on a sum of the individual PVs for each transaction made by the client over the first time period; calculate the cumulative PV of transactions by the client over a billing time period, where the billing time period is multiple days and has a predetermined start date and a predetermined end date, and wherein the first time period includes the billing time period, and wherein cumulative PV for the billing time period is based on a sum of the individual PVs for each transaction made by the client over the billing time period; and calculate the brokerage commission owed by the client for the billing time period, such that the client is billed in arrears for the transactions made by the client over the billing time period, and wherein the brokerage commission is based on a commission rate schedule and the calculated cumulative PV of the client's transactions over the billing time period, wherein: the rate schedule comprises two or more tiers that have different, non-overlapping cumulative PV ranges and each tier has an associated commission rate; the brokerage commission owed by the client for the billing time period is calculated based on a multiplication of (i) the associated commission rate for the tier whose cumulative PV range includes the cumulative PV of the client's transactions over the first time period by (ii) at least a portion of the client's cumulative PV for the billing time period; and the associated commission rates diminish by tier with increasing cumulative PV ranges.