Patent ID: 7840495

Claim:
A system for the payment of petty cash disbursements comprising: a private network for managing the payment of petty cash disbursements, the private network comprising: a master account set up within the private network, said master account linked to a bank account via a main processor, said bank account having a predetermined amount of funds deposited therein by a funding entity; a first level of one or more subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts set up within the private network and linked to said master account via the main processor, each of the first level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts having a first amount of pre-paid funds deposited therein, wherein each first level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card account is associated with a card held by a user for making purchases up to the first amount of pre-paid funds, wherein purchases made using said card are approved by a credit card processor linked to the main processor; and a second level of one or more subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts set up within the private network and linked to one or more of said first level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts via the main processor, each of the second level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts having a second amount of pre-paid funds deposited therein, wherein each second level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card account is associated with a card held by a user for making purchases up to the second amount of pre-paid funds, wherein purchases made using said card are approved by the credit card processor linked to the main processor; wherein the first amount of pre-paid funds are unique to each of the first level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts, and wherein the second amount of pre-paid funds are unique to each of the second level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts; wherein the funding entity has the authority to authorize the transfer and deposit of pre-paid funds to said master account to cover purchases made using that master account and to any subordinate pre-paid purchasing card account linked to said master account, either directly or indirectly; wherein an owner of any of said pre-paid purchasing card accounts has the authority to authorize the transfer of pre-paid funds from its own account to any subordinate pre-paid purchasing card account linked thereto; and wherein said cards associated with any of said first level or second level subordinate pre-paid purchasing card accounts are re-usable within other private networks set up within the system.