Patent ID: 7424455

Claim:
A method for providing purchase card transaction processing services to a plurality of merchants, the method comprising: associating, using a merchant financial account record system, a merchant account record with a merchant, the merchant account record including a plurality of fields for storing merchant-specific information, at least a portion of the merchant-specific information relating to merchant direct access authorization, and wherein the merchant account record system is managed at least in part by an entity which provides purchase card transaction processing services to the merchant; processing, using the merchant financial account record system, a non-monetary transaction to update the merchant account record associated with the merchant, including: identifying the merchant account record to be updated; receiving input data including information identifying which of the plurality of fields is to be updated and new data to be stored in the identified field; receiving a request for immediate updating of the identified field; updating the identified field to store the new data, wherein updating the field is performed substantially without delay upon receiving the request; providing an external user interface, in operative communication with the merchant account record system and configured to: receive, from a requested merchant, a request for direct access to a requested record portion of at least one of the merchant account records, wherein the requesting merchant is one of the plurality of merchants, and the requested portion comprises the updated identified field; verify, using the merchant direct access authorization, whether the requested merchant is authorized to view the requested record portion; and where the requesting merchant is authorized, grant access to the requesting merchant to the requested record portion; and subsequently using the merchant-specific information from the updated merchant account record to process a monetary purchase card transaction submitted by the merchant.