Patent Application
20090006249
The present invention relates to a process of and system for advancing credit for cash collections and, more particularly, relates to the advancing of credit to commercial establishments based upon amounts of cash collected by those commercial establishments during their normal business operations.
With today's fast-paced mentality, individuals and businesses expect instructions and tasks to be quickly acted upon in a wide-range of activities. For example, consumer transactions, via the Internet and at retail stores, are conducted substantially quicker today than years ago due to the use of more sophisticated technology. Similarly, banking transactions occur rapidly, such as the transfer of funds between accounts or electronic transfers to pay for goods or services. Many other examples also are available. There are, however, numerous areas that have not yet been substantially impacted by current technology and other advances. One such area entails the use of physical cash (i.e., coin and currency), in particular, the use of cash by customers who purchase goods or services at retail establishments. In such types of transactions, while the speed at which the transactions themselves take place are relatively short (e.g., a few minutes), the speed at which the cash is subsequently used by the businesses that accepted the cash is enormously slow. More specifically, retailers who take-in relatively large amounts of cash usually employ cash handling services to periodically pickup the cash (e.g., using an armored car service) and to arrange for that cash to be deposited into a bank. Usually, the cash first is transferred to a cash handling facility that counts and processes the cash before it is transferred to a bank. The retailer then is credited with the cash deposit and, upon being credited, is able to utilize the funds. This entire process—from receiving the cash from customers to receiving the bank credit—unfortunately often spans several or more days. Hence, while modern developments have benefited businesses by enabling a multitude of tasks to be carried at remarkably fast rates, companies still currently are unable to make use of their cash collections until the cash undergoes generally several days of processing and handling.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide retailers with the ability to expeditiously enjoy the benefit of their cash collections.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process that provides credit to retailers at the time of their cash collections as opposed to when the cash is deposited into a bank.
It is another object of the present invention to enable retailers to enjoy the benefit of their cash collections independent of cash pickup schedules, cash vault cut-off windows and other schedules imposed by third parties.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects, the present invention entails a process that includes collecting cash by a retailer over a period of time, such as a business day, depositing the collected cash into an electronic safe located at the retailer (e.g., at the retailer's store), calculating at a designated time, such as at the end of day, a total amount of cash that is deposited into the safe over that period of time, and electronically transmitting a data file that identifies the calculated total amount of cash deposited into the safe over that period of time in order to enable for the retailer to be credited by a bank or other financial institution with the total amount that is indicated in the data file.
As an aspect of the invention, a facility (called process facilitator herein) receives the electronically transmitted data file, and arranges for the retailer to be credited by the bank with the amount of cash deposits indicated in the data file.
As a further aspect of the invention, the retailer receives the credit before the cash is removed from the retailer's safe.
As another aspect of the invention, the cash in the retailer's safe is picked-up and then counted at a cash processing facility, and the credit previously provided to the retailer is adjusted if there is a discrepancy between the previously credited amount and the cash count ascertained by the cash processing facility.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the process is carried out over multiple business days, and the total amount of collected cash is calculated at the end of day of each business day, and a file that identifies the total amount is transmitted each business day.
As a further aspect of the invention, the cash within the retailer's safe may remain in the safe over those multiple business days.
As another aspect of the invention, the cash pickup schedule need not coincide with when the cash totals are calculated and transmitted for subsequent credit to the retailer. As yet a further aspect, the amounts identified in the file are broken down by amounts of cash collected over each business day, the credit is provided on a business day basis, and a report is provided to the retailer regarding the amount of credit provided to the retailer broken down by business day.
In yet a further embodiment of the invention, the retailer has multiple locations and cash is collected at each of the retailer's locations and deposited into a respective safe or safes at each of the retailer's locations. At the end of day for each location, the total cash deposit at the respective location is ascertained and transmitted, and the retailer is credited with the total cash deposits of all of its locations based upon the data in the transmitted files.
As an aspect of the invention, the “end of day” times at which the cash deposits are ascertained at each retailer location may be different.
Various other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description of the invention.
The following detailed description, given by way of example and not intended to limit the present invention solely thereto, will best be appreciated in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote like elements and parts, in which:
The present invention pertains to the advancing of credit to commercial establishments, such as retailers, based upon amounts of cash that are collected by those commercial establishments during their normal business operations. In general, the present invention expedites funds availability, improves cash flow and provides other features and benefits to commercial establishments that routinely take-in substantial amounts of cash.
In accordance with the present invention, the general system/process entails multiple entities. As used herein, an entity generally is a company providing goods and/or services, such as a bank, an armored car service, a retail store (e.g., a department store, a grocery store), a transportation provider (e.g., an airline, a bus company), etc. For convenience, the generic term “retailer” is used herein to refer to a company that provides goods and/or services in exchange for money and where that retailer sometimes (perhaps often) accepts physical cash (paper currency and coin) in exchange for such goods and/or services. A retailer may be disposed at a single location or at multiple locations (e.g., sometimes referred to as a “chain”). As various examples only, a retailer may be a department store, a grocery store, a gas station, or a bus company, each of which may have one or more physical store locations. As set forth herein, the terms “commercial establishment” and “retailer” are interchangeably used to refer to such a company that provides goods and/or services in exchange for money and where physical cash is accepted.
Referring now the drawings,
Prior to describing the inventive process/system, a discussion of a typical, existing cash collection process is helpful in understanding the benefits of the present invention. As is well known, cash that is collected by a particular retailer may be picked-up by an armored car service which in turn brings the cash to a cash processing facility. The cash processing facility generally counts the cash and deposits the counted cash within a bank. The cash is recounted by the bank and the retailer's bank account is credited with the amount of the deposit. As is appreciated, in such a typical, existing cash collection process, retailers encounter a lag, often a period of several days if not more, between when the retailer acquires funds in the form of cash and when the retailer is able to utilize those funds. For large retailers, the amount of cash collected on a daily basis may total in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps more. These funds are unusable, and do not bear interest, during this lag period. Even for businesses that collect relatively small amounts of cash, the cumulative affect of non-use, for example, over a 12-month period, of these funds result in a measurable and meaningful impact on such businesses.
As described herein, the present invention provides for a novel process/system for advancing credit to retailers based on amounts of cash collected by those retailers during their normal business operations. By advancing such credit, retailers are able to enjoy the benefit of cash collections almost immediately, thereby enabling retailers to immediately bear interest on such funds or to otherwise immediately utilize such funds in manners suitable for the retailers' successful operations.
The safe that receives the cash preferably has the capability to recognize the denomination of the currency and the capability to accumulate the cash deposit totals (the terms “cash deposits” and similar terms and “cash collections” and similar terms are interchangeably used herein) for a predetermined period of time, such as a business day. As one example, a suitable safe that may be employed with the herein-described process of the present invention is the Brink's CompuSafe 4000® safe, which is shown in
During the course of the retailer's business day, additional cash is collected during transactions with additional customers and the collected cash is continuously deposited into the retailer's safe. A retailer may have a single safe at a single location, multiple safes within a single location or multiple safes at multiple locations. No matter the case, cash is collected and deposited with each safe, and the amounts deposited are maintained by the safes.
At a certain time of each day, preferably (although not necessarily) at the close of the retailer's business day, the deposit totals of each of the retailer's safes are calculated, as shown as step 120 in
In any of the examples provided above, it is appreciated that the amount of cash collected by a retailer generally is a function of the size of the retailer, the number of locations (e.g., retail stores) of the retailer, the types of goods/services that are provided, the relative amount of use of credit/debit cards by the retailer's customers, and other factors. In any event, and as illustrated herein, the inventive process for advancing credit to retailers may be applied to retailers of any size who accept payment in the form of cash.
As mentioned above, deposit totals are calculated at a certain time of each day. The time of day may be defined by the retailer's standard time of close of business day, or the respective store's end of business day. The time may be manually identified each day. For example, a retailer's employee may manually instruct the safe to “close-out” the business day. Further, another time may be selected that does not coincide with the retailer's business day. In a further variation, deposit totals are calculated every other day, every third day, or at other periods of time. In any event, deposit totals are calculated (or calculated/maintained by the safes during the course of the retailer's operations) at a given point of time. For convenience hereinafter, such given point of time is referred to as “end of day.”
Upon calculating the deposit totals at the end of day, the safe at one retailer location (e.g., 10a shown in
In a variation of that represented by step 130 as described above, the retailer's safe (or safes for multiple locations) transmits information, either once at the end of day or periodically throughout the day, to another system within or controlled by retailer 10, such as a computer system, to enable that other system to create the above-mentioned data file, which is then transmitted to process facilitator 50. The information may be transmitted to a temporary electronic storage medium located at retailer 10, or may be transmitted securely, for example, to retailer 10's main processing facility (e.g., via an intranet, via a website, etc.). Appropriate data may be transmitted multiple times and periodically within, for example, each business day from the retailer's safe, either directly or indirectly, to a system within or controlled by retailer 10 or to a system within or controlled by process facilitator 50.
The safe (or safes for multiple locations) within retailer 10 transmits the total amount of cash that has been collected since its previous data transmission, with the last transmission representing such amount at the above-defined end of day. Then, the system to which all of the transmissions are sent calculates, based on all of the data transmissions, the amount of the deposit totals for that safe within retailer 10. In yet another variation, one or more computing systems controlled by retailer 10 or, alternatively, controlled by process facilitator 50 remotely access the retailer's safes, pulling cash totals at predetermined times.
Process facilitator 50 includes a suitably programmed computing system (or systems) that receives the electronically transmitted data files. Transmission may occur in any known manner, such as via the Internet, telephone system, a private communications network or other suitable manner. Preferably, transmissions are encrypted to ensure proper security and privacy. Since electronic data transmission and encryption, as well as the hardware/software that are capable to carry out such transmission and encryption, are well known, further description thereof is omitted herein except where necessary for an understanding of the present invention.
The computing system within process facilitator 50 gathers and accumulates the cash deposit totals of all locations of retailer 10 (e.g., 10a, 10b, 10c, etc.) based on the information contained in the data files transmitted from each location. As each transmission is received, process facilitator 50 processes each data file, each representing a respective location of retailer 10. Upon receiving all of the transmissions, process facilitator calculates the total cash deposit for all locations of retailer 10. The gathering and calculating (accumulating) of the total cash deposit for retailer 10 for that particular business day/time period is represented as step 140 in
Upon calculating the total cash deposit for all locations of retailer 10, for the relevant time period, process facilitator 50 electronically transmits an encrypted data file containing the total cash deposit information, along with retailer 10 identification information, to bank 40, as represented as step 150 in
As described, retailer 10 may have multiple locations (e.g., 10a, 10b, 10c), wherein a safe (or other device) at each location calculates the cash deposit totals at the respective location at the identified end of day and thereafter creates and transmits to process facilitator 50 a respective data file with the deposit total information (along with appropriate retailer location identification data). The “end of day” for each location may occur at the same time of day or may occur at different times of day. For retailers with a relatively large number of stores located, for example, throughout a country or region, different locations may likely have different “end of day” times. As one example, certain retailer locations may have different times of operation, may have the same times of operation but operate in different time zones, or a combination of the two.
The herein-described inventive process for advancing credit for cash collections beneficially is well suited for large-scale retailers having many locations with different times of operation. Safes at each location accumulate the cash totals for the respective location and at a designated “end of day” for such location create a data file that contains the deposit totals for that location. Over the course of, for example, a 24 hour time period, process facilitator 50 receives and processes these data files from the retailer's different locations and upon receipt of data files from all of the retailer's locations, calculates a cash deposit total for all locations and transmits this total to the retailer's bank, which in turn credits the retailer's bank account with such total.
As illustrated in the above example, the retailer may be provided with a credit each day based upon cash collections that occur over different periods of time within the retailer's different store locations. Each end of day may represent the time at which a respective retailer location closes. Or, one or more locations of the retailer may close at a time that differs from the respective location's end of day. Still yet, one or more locations of the retailer may be open 24 hours, that is, not be closed at all. In such cases, a credit may be provided for cash collected at one location at the end of that business day, while a credit may be provided for cash collected at another location at the end of the next business day. For example, cash collected at 8:00pm at a location Y on January 5 will be credited to the retailer at the end of that business day (i.e., at the end of January 5). However, cash collected at 8:00pm at a location X on January 5 will not be credited to the retailer until the end of the next business day, that is, on January 6. If this is not desired, then the “end of day” of particular locations may be modified. But, in any event, it is seen that the herein-described inventive process for advancing credit for cash collections is sufficiently flexible to accommodate retailer locations that have different operating schedules, that operate in different time zones, that perhaps have different cash flow needs, and/or that may have or that desire to have different end of day times. In each of these cases, the present invention enables retailers to receive credit on a basis that is more closely aligned with the volume of their cash collections, and that is not dictated by the schedule that the cash is picked-up for deposit into a bank or other third party schedule, as further discussed below.
As described herein, process facilitator 50 receives data files that collectively identify the cash collections at all of the retailer's locations and thereafter ascertains the total credit to be provided to the retailer (e.g., for that business day). In a variation, process facilitator 50 may impose a predefined cut-off time by which data files from all locations of the retailer must be received. Then, at such cut-off time, process facilitator 50 calculates the total cash deposit for those locations that have transmitted the respective data files and transmits such total cash deposit information to bank 40 for subsequent credit to retailer 10 in the amount indicated. In such case, advance credit still is provided even if all of the retailer's locations are unable, for whatever reason, to transmit the data to process facilitator 50. As one example, technical difficulties at a location may prevent or otherwise delay proper processing at such location. No matter the case, the present invention provides advance credit of all, or at least a part, of a retailer's cash deposits. If only a part of the retailer's cash deposits are credited, the non-reported cash deposits may be credited at a later time, such as at the end of the next “end of day.”
As mentioned above, the herein-described inventive process for advancing credit for cash collections expedites funds availability to a retailer. As described above, the “end of day” occurs at a certain point in time. In such case, the retailer is credited once each day for the cash that is collected generally during the preceding 24 hour period. The herein-described process, however, may be carried out multiple times a day, such as at every 12-hour period. Conversely, the process may be carried out less than once per day, such as every other day. For example, smaller retailers (e.g., with only a single location or a few locations) may accumulate relatively little cash each day and, thus, carrying out the process every two or three days may be sufficient for such smaller retailers.
In yet another variation, a retailer with multiple locations may, in a sense, be treated as multiple retailers. For example, credit may be provided after retailer locations in one part of the country report their deposit totals and then, separately, credit is provided after the other retailer locations report their deposit totals. Such a subdivision may be based on geographic criteria or other basis.
In each of the variations described herein, a retailer is credited with the total cash deposits accumulated over a period of time (e.g., each business day) based on deposit totals as reported by each of the retailer's locations. Accordingly, the present invention enables a retailer to enjoy the benefit of its cash receipts almost immediately upon collecting cash from its customers. The cash itself, however, still remains at the retailer location(s) even after the retailer is credited with those cash receipts. Co-pending application Ser. No. 60/953,557, filed Aug. 2, 2007, owned by the assignee of the present application and incorporated herein by reference, is directed to facilitating novel cash collections deposits (i.e., handling of the physical cash itself) and deposit tracking and such process or portions of such process may employed in conjunction with the herein-described inventive process for advancing credit for cash collections. In any event, regardless of whether the invention described in co-pending application Ser. No. 60/953,557 is employed, generally an armored car service provider 20 (
In accordance with the present invention, crediting as described herein does not need to coincide with a business day. In addition, and as mentioned above, a retailer is credited with its cash collections in advance of, sometimes several days or more prior to, when the actual cash reaches the bank. As a particularly beneficial feature of the present invention, a retailer can be provided with credit for its cash collections on a more frequent basis than when those cash collections are picked-up, for example, by an armored car service. For example, for relatively small retailers, a retailer's cash deposits are picked up by an armored car service every other day, or every third day, or based on a cash volume basis, or based on another basis, whereupon that retailer may be credited in accordance with the present invention with its cash collections on a daily basis. In such case, a retailer obtains the benefit of daily credit without incurring the expense of daily cash pick-up. Thus, the present invention disassociates the time and frequency of a retailer's cash pickup schedule from the time and frequency of when that retailer is credited for its cash collections. More specifically, a retailer is able to enjoy the benefit of its cash collections on a basis that is independent of when those cash collections are actually picked up, when the cash is processed by a third party cash processing facility, or when the cash is deposited into a bank.
In accordance with the present invention, retailer 10 is credited with its cash collections based on a schedule that is independent from the schedule at which the collected cash is picked-up by an armored car service (e.g., armored car service 20 shown in
Turning now to
At a prescheduled or manually scheduled time, armored car service provider 20 picks up the sealed bag from retailer 10, as represented as step 420 in
Cash processing facility 30 carries out certain procedures during its handling of each sealed deposit bag. As one example of the procedures carried out by cash processing facility 30, an authorized personnel at cash processing facility 30, who preferably is logged onto a secure website of process facilitator 50 by use of a unique User ID and password, identifies each sealed deposit bag by utilizing a barcode scanner that reads the barcode on the outside of the sealed deposit bag. Upon recognition of the unique barcode by the system, the status of the sealed deposit bag is designated “Received” (or other suitable designation) and the date and time of the status change is recorded.
After the sealed deposit bag is “received” by cash processing facility 30, cash processing facility 30 verifies the contents of the deposit bag (called, for convenience, “verification” herein), as shown as step 440 in
Each sealed deposit bag prior to verification (i.e., upon receipt of the sealed deposit bag) and also during verification is identified by the use of bar-code technology, which includes use of a bar-code on each deposit bag and suitable bar-code reader equipment. However, other identification technology may be employed, including RFID technology in which each deposit bag contains an RFID chip containing a unique ID (preferably embedded within the deposit bag itself), and suitable RFID readers disposed at the retailer and the cash processing facility and optionally by the armored car service provider. Other identification technologies may be employed. As used herein, all references to barcode, barcode readers, etc., shall include other suitable identification technology.
When the barcode is read at cash processing facility 30, both upon receipt of the sealed deposit bag and during verification, as mentioned above, all information pertinent to the identity of retailer 10, which is pre-stored in a database, including relevant banking information (e.g., the bank account of retailer 10) and all information pertinent to the contents of the deposit bag itself are immediately made available to cash processing facility 30.
During verification, in accordance with the present invention, if cash processing facility 30 discovers an overage or shortage in the amount of cash contained in the deposit bag(s) as compared to the cash deposit total amounts previously reported by retailer 10 and previously credited to retailer 10 in accordance with the present invention, such overage/shortage is communicated to bank 40 to correct the amount of credit previously provided to retailer 10, as represented as step 450 in
Historically useful information pertinent to the overage/shortage is stored in a database, including at least the amount of the overage/shortage, the total amount of the deposit, the date and time, the identity of the manager who created the deposit, and other potentially pertinent information.
Finally, the cash is transferred to bank 40, as shown as step 460 in
In accordance with a particularly beneficial feature of the present invention, the information transmitted to retailer 10 includes an accounting of the particular business day or business days to which the credit is applied, including a credit breakdown by business day. In such instance, if a deposit amount identified in a data file transmitted from one of the retailer's safes corresponds to cash collected over multiple business days, then the data file preferably includes a breakdown by business day of the respective amounts of cash collected during each of those business days. For example, with reference again to
The features and variations described herein may be applied in instances where a retailer's business day coincides with its end of day, or where the business day does not coincide with the end of day, where the business day coincides or does not coincide with a calendar day, and/or where the end of day coincides or does not coincide with the calendar day.
In addition to the foregoing information provided to the retailer, the retailer additionally may access the system/database of process facilitator 50 to track the retailer's deposits, produce reports, view historical information including exceptions and variances, and receive statistical information including total expected daily deposits.
For retailers with multiple locations, various data and reports are producible on a store-by-store basis, if desired, to enable individual stores to access their own deposit/credit activity. Moreover, credit and deposit report data are available to the retailer on a store-by-store, select group of stores, or entity-wide basis, immediately or nearly immediately after cash collection and/or crediting the retailer with such cash collection.
As the foregoing-description sets forth, the present invention expedites funds availability, improves cash flow and provides other features and benefits to commercial establishments who take-in cash as part of their normal business operations. In particular, advance credit is provided to retailers in novel manners that enable retailers to enjoy the benefit of cash collections almost immediately, without having to wait for those cash collections to be picked-up by armored car service providers, processed and counted by third party cash processing facilities and then eventually deposited into a bank. Such post-cash collection activity commonly takes several days, if not more, during which time retailers historically are not able to utilize the cash funds that have been collected. Retailers, both large and small, are disadvantaged by this lag period. The present invention, however, enables retailers to enjoy the benefit of their cash collections shortly after the cash is received. These benefits are realized regardless of cash pickup schedules, cash vault cut-off windows and other schedules controlled by third parties.
Having described the present invention including various features and variations thereof, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including the embodiments described herein, the alternatives mentioned above, and all equivalents thereto.
This application claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/953,557, filed Aug. 2, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60953557 | Aug 2007 | US |
