Patent ID: 8392317

Claim:
A method of facilitating an electronic auction of prepayment of an invoice, comprising; facilitating, through a contract facilitator, approval of the invoice with definite terms between a supplier and a buyer; informing, by a cash optimizer, the supplier whether the invoice is available for meeting a defined cash need of the supplier; receiving, by the supplier, a prepayment offer from the buyer; providing the prepayment offer to a cash optimizer, wherein the cash optimizer provides the supplier with information to aid the supplier in determining whether to take the prepayment offer from the buyer, or submit the invoice with proposed prepayment terms to an exchange platform; if the supplier decides to submit the invoice, then the supplier electronically submitting the invoice with proposed prepayment terms to the exchange platform; the exchange platform providing an electronic auction of the invoice with proposed prepayment terms to a plurality of bidders and receiving a bid from at least one of the plurality of bidders; if a winning bid is received, electronically facilitating payment of the invoice between the winning bidder and the supplier.