Patent ID: 8504407

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for measuring an economic impact of a business venture, the method comprising: providing an interface program executed on a non-transient computer readable medium by a processor to enable a business to login and create a supplier account; automatically prompting an entry of project income data from the business through the interface program; receiving the project income data, wherein the project income data includes supplier payment information associated with funds paid to the business and that are associated with the business venture; receiving from the business via a network interface first expenditure data associated with a first plurality of payees each associated with receiving a respective first monetary allocation from the business, wherein the first plurality of employees are associated with a first round of a supply chain associated with the business venture; creating a first plurality of payee accounts through the interface program, wherein each of the first plurality of payee accounts corresponds to one of the first plurality of payees; using the interface program to automatically generate first correspondence addressed to the first plurality of payees to prompt a first payee of the first plurality of payees to provide first survey payment data indicative of how the first payee re-spent the first monetary allocation; receiving via the network interface the first survey payment data from the first plurality of payees; receiving from the first plurality of payees second expenditure data associated with a second plurality of payees each associated with receiving a respective second monetary allocation from the first plurality of payees, wherein the second plurality of employees are associated with a second round of a supply chain associated with the business venture, wherein the first round of the supply chain is associated with a user designated local region, and wherein the second round of the supply chain is associated with a user designated non-local region; creating a second plurality of payee accounts through the interface program, wherein each of the second plurality of payee accounts corresponds to one of the second plurality of payees using the interface program to automatically generate second correspondence addressed to the second plurality of payees to prompt a second payee of the second plurality of payees to provide second survey payment data indicative of how the second payee re-spent the second monetary allocation; receiving the second survey payment data from the second plurality of payees; and automatically accessing by the interface program the first survey payment data, the second survey payment data, and the project income data to generate by the interface program an indicator useful in assessing the economic impact of the business venture based on the re-spending by the first and second plurality of payees comprising the first and second rounds of the supply chain associated with the business venture.