Patent ID: 7266525

Claim:
A method for a customer to obtain an early payment discount for an order from a supplier by paying the supplier by a funds provider via a settlement bank, the method comprising the steps, executed by at least one computer, of: establishing by the customer a settlement bank agreement with the settlement bank for settling the order placed by the customer with the supplier by paying the supplier using funds provided by the funds provider; establishing by the customer a funding agreement with the funds provider, the funding agreement including a service fee and a rate of interest to be paid by the customer to the funds provider; negotiating by the customer an early payment discount with the supplier for orders placed by the customer with the supplier, the early payment discount made available when the supplier receives payment for the customer's order within a predetermined time, and the early payment discount based on a fiscal attribute of the customer; after the early payment discount has been negotiated between the customer and supplier, transmitting from the customer an order message to the supplier, the order message including at least an order by the customer for an item from the supplier; receiving by the customer a shipping notification from the supplier in response to the order message, the shipping notification indicating that the order has been filled; after the shipping notification is received by the customer from the supplier, transmitting by the customer a payment message to the settlement bank to make a discounted payment to the supplier for the order on a first date using funds from the funds provider, the discounted payment being an amount equal to a cost for the order less the early payment discount; and after the first date, paying by the customer to the funds provider by a second date a negotiated payment equal to the discounted payment plus the service fee and an interest amount calculated from the rate of interest based on a time period between the first and second dates.