Patent ID: 8429037

Claim:
An accounts payable system comprising: a host system in electronic communication with one or more client systems, wherein the host system comprises at least one processor and an electronic memory in communication with the at least one processor, wherein the electronic memory comprises instructions that when executed by the at least one processor causes the at least one processor to: receive invoice data describing a first invoice and vendor data comprising a plurality of vendor profiles, wherein each vendor profile describes a vendor; determine whether the invoice data describes a purchase order; match a first vendor identified by the first invoice to at least one vendor described by the vendor data, wherein the matching of the first vendor to the at least one vendor comprises: comparing data identified by the first invoice and describing the first vendor to at least a portion of the plurality of vendor profiles; conditioned upon finding a first vendor profile selected from the plurality of vendor profiles that exactly matches the first vendor, associating the first vendor with the first vendor profile; conditioned upon a failure to find a vendor profile selected from the plurality of vendor profiles that exactly matches the first vendor, for each of the plurality of vendor profiles: conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor number with less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor's vendor number identified by the first invoice, labeling the vendor profile as a near match; conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor number with more than the predetermined difference relative to the first vendor's vendor number, but a vendor name identified by the first invoice with less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor's vendor name, labeling the vendor profile as a near match; conditioned upon the vendor profile having a vendor name with more than the predetermined difference relative to the first vendor's vendor name, but a remit address identified by the first invoice having less than a predetermined difference relative to the first vendor's remit address, labeling the vendor profile as a near match; retrieve a vendor profile from the vendor data, wherein the vendor profile describes the first vendor; when the invoice data does not describe a purchase order and the vendor profile indicates that the vendor does not use purchase orders, match the first invoice to a recurring invoice type, wherein the matching the first invoice comprises comparing a second set of multi-dimensional criteria describing the at least one recurring invoice type to the first invoice; conditioned upon successfully matching the first vendor to the at least one vendor and upon successfully matching the first invoice to a recurring invoice type, transmit payment of the invoice to the first vendor; conditioned upon unsuccessfully matching the first vendor to the at least one vendor, transmitting to a client system data describing at least one near match.