Patent Application
20070299755
This invention relates to a system and method for monitoring organizational use of an adjudicated third party payment at the point of service (e.g., purchase card) in lieu of more elaborate procurement channels, and more particularly, to a system and method for analyzing performance metrics, usage compliance, and audit implementation and tracking for organizational purchase card programs.
Private and governmental institutions (“sponsors”) are increasingly turning to purchase card programs that are accepted by vendors in the same manner as credit cards. Purchase cards have the advantage of quickly effecting the transfer of funds and lend themselves to use in person, over the Internet, faxed order forms, and telephone orders. The purchase card transaction is greatly simplified over traditional procurement transactions requiring a purchase order, invoice, and payment or similar procedure.
Vendors throughout the world accept purchase cards without question because they are familiar with commercial credit cards and they understand how to accept them. The account holders of a purchase card benefit by being able to decide what to purchase, when to buy it, and from whom, and can monitor funds availability. The sponsor of the account holders benefits by saving time, money and resources, especially for low dollar value, high-volume procurements made with purchase cards.
Accountability for usage of the purchase card is often managed by the third-party facilitator that issues the purchase cards and mediates the transactions between vendors and sponsors that use the purchase cards. For instance, the purchase card is often not a revolving credit card, but rather works as a debit card with a dollar amount fixed to the card, which is reduced by the amount of each purchase. If the cost of the item exceeds the balance on the card, the transaction cannot be completed. There may also be restrictions on the use of the purchase card, which reflect the account's budget and the sponsor's restrictions, if any. The third-party facilitators for purchase accounts also provide transaction summaries that are also useful for the organizations to review and audit to avoid misuse of the purchase cards.
Much development has occurred in the handling of credit card and purchase card transactions. Purchasing Card (“PCard”) programs have provided documented gains in productivity and effectiveness for organizations that utilize them. Implementing a Purchasing Card program in an organization, however, can be a difficult task for the administrator as it deals with change in many areas of the business where the administrator has no control. The sponsors often have inadequate insight into the use of the purchase card with regard to traditional procurement channels, especially when seeking to identify groups or individuals that are under- or over-utilizing their purchase card.
Consequently, a significant need exists for an approach for giving a sponsor organization insight into the use of their purchase card by cost centers in order to optimize the economic savings thereof and to better utilize purchase card capabilities throughout the organization while achieving greater control over the use of the purchase card.
The invention overcomes the above-noted and other deficiencies of the prior art by providing a Purchase Card Maximization method, apparatus, and program product that interactively analyzes purchasing decisions made during the period in analysis, thereby evaluating the efficiency of a purchasing function of an organization and identifying areas for improvement, and also advantageously performing auditing and compliance verification functions.
In one aspect of the invention, purchase account transactions of an organization having a plurality of account holders authorized to perform purchase account transactions and traditional procurement transactions are analyzed to determine a value of traditional procurement transactions, to determine a value of purchase account transactions, and to calculate a performance measure based on the values of the traditional procurement transactions and purchase account transactions. Thereby, a clear metric may be applied to cardholders and cost centers of an organization to better manage use of purchase accounts.
In another aspect of the invention, a method is described that includes associating account holder records to one of a number of hierarchically related cost centers, receiving purchase account transactions and traditional procurement transactions for the account holders and calculating a performance measure for each cost center based on the assigned values of the traditional procurement transactions and purchase account transactions. Thereby, the typical hierarchical nature of an organization and the large number of account holders are handled in a way that is meaningful for analysis.
A major benefit of the use of the Purchase Card Maximization method is an increase in the number of transactions put on the card. Other benefits include time savings for a Program Administrator, rebates if the amount on the card reaches a certain amount, better control, easier communication within the organization, convenience, good look and feel, etc.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention shall be made apparent from the accompanying drawings and the description thereof.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and, together with the general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
a-14b show an example of an interface which might be presented to a user to allow rules to be defined by modifying parameters in a library of pre-existing rules.
a-15b depict an interface which can be used to model the effects of a rule without putting the rule into place.
a-17b depict an interface which could be used to select one or more questions.
a-18b depict an interface which could be used to select one or more actions.
In
There are three primary sources of data for the CardMax system 10. PCard Purchasing Data (“PCard Transaction Data”) 14 that provides a list of purchases made during a specific period. Generally the PCard transaction data 14 includes the date of purchase, the vendor, the amount and the identifying codes (e.g. Cost center) used by the organization. The second source of data is General Ledger (GL) Accounting Data, or “non-PCard transaction data” 16, that provides a list of expenses logged during a specific period that includes the date of expense, the vendor, the amount and identifying information about the expense. The third source of data is Control/Selection Data 18 that provides a list of codes that should be accepted as valid categories of expenses and lists of cost centers and cardholders by which to group transactions. The GL Accounting Data 16 may include many types of expenses that may not be applicable to PCard purchases, which may be filtered by the control/selection data 18 so that only applicable expenses are included and analyzed.
The enterprise network 12 is illustrative of an organization having a segregated procurement and accounting system 20 that includes a firewall-protected portion 22. The non-PCard transaction data 16 resides in the firewall-protected portion 22 upon a purchasing application 24 used for procurement actions. The control/selection data 18 resides within an accounting application 26 that is also within the firewall protected portion 22. The purchase card maximizer 10 also resides within the firewall-protected portion 22. Each of the applications 10, 20, 26 interface to a database (DB) server 28 and hence to a DB storage medium 30, both of latter also residing in the firewall protected portion 22.
The illustrative depiction of
The interactions between account holders 40-44, vendors 46, the customer service terminal 36, and the web server 32 are depicted as passing through a communication network 58, which may include or comprise in its entirety one or more of a digital network (e.g., Internet), telephone network, wireless network, local area network, wide area network, and other means apparent to those skilled in the art having benefit of the present disclosure.
The customer (e.g., CardMax administrator) is able to configure the purchase card maximizer 10 through the service terminal 36, such as selecting data formats, excluding certain vendors from analysis, creation of certain data extracts. The CardMax administrator is also able to generate performance reports for a given time frame, showing by demographic group the amount and number of purchases made through the purchasing card and those made through other means. They will make it easy to highlight areas of the organization that are effectively using the purchasing card and those that have opportunity for improvement. The CardMax administrator is also able to generate improvement reports for an area of the organization, specifying actions that can be made in the future to improve PCard performance. It will also be appreciated that comparisons may be made between different organizations for benchmarking purposes. This capability enables comparisons by demographics, such as type of industry or length of time the PCard program has been implemented.
In
The pages and modules 60 and 61 include hypertext pages implemented in ASP+ (also called ASP.NET), which is the next generation of Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP), a feature of their Internet Information Server (IIS). Both ASP and ASP+ allow a Web site builder to dynamically build Web pages on the fly by inserting queries to a relational database in the Web page. ASP+ is different than its predecessor in two major ways: it supports code written in compiled languages such as Visual Basic, C++, C#, and Perl, and it features server controls that can separate the code from the content, allowing WYSIWYG editing of pages. Although ASP+ is not backward compatible with ASP, it is able to run side by side with ASP applications. ASP+ files can be recognized by their .aspx extension. The pages and modules 60 include a Web.config ASP.NET configuration file that contains configuration data on each unique URL resource used in the project.
A Default.aspx page is a welcome page with the short description of the tools and methodology to analyze the performance of the purchase card program. Interface controls are accessed from the Default.aspx page, specifically Scripts.vb, a simple data class that contains support functionality for the user interface, and a Styles.css Styles Class that contains information used for support the style of the user interface. A Footer.ascx User control is used to display copyright line at the bottom of all Web pages. A Header.ascx User control is used to display header information at the top of all Web pages. This control is also responsible for creating submenu information corresponding to each Web page. A MenuColumn.ascx User control is used to display menu information.
The scripts.vb data class in turn accesses a number of sub-pages: A Logon.aspx Page Class is used to authenticate a customer's supplied User name/password credentials against a database. A pcmCalcCycle.aspx Page Class is used to calculate purchase card performance for the chosen cycle. A pcmCCTreeAdd.aspx Page Class is used to add a new Cost Center to the Cost Center Hierarchy. A pcmCCTreeBld.aspx Page Class is used to set a Cost Center Hierarchical display. A pcmCCTreeExcl.aspx Page Class is used to exclude Cost Centers that are not participating in the purchase card program for the cycle. A pcmCCTreeRpt.aspx Page Class is used to display Cost Center performance by analyzing applicable purchases through a Cost Center Hierarchy. A pcmCCTreeRpt2.aspx Page Class is used to display and compare Cost Center performance for the two different cycles. A pcmChart.aspx Page Class is used to display purchase card performance charts for the chosen Cost Center from a Cost Center hierarchy. A pcmConfig.aspx Page Class is used to give user ability display and change configuration parameters, add new cycle and update existing cycle. pcmCostCenter.aspx Page Class is used to display filtered Cost Center list in order to update it. A pcmDataLoad.aspx Page Class is used to perform initial data load, load list of Valid GL Codes, load GL data for Cycle, load purchase card transactions data for Cycle. A pcmNews.aspx Page class is used to provide current news of interest to CardMax administrators. A pcmPref.aspx Page class provides controls for modifying the use interface. A pcmReport.aspx Page Class is used to display newly created purchase card reports or load existing reports. A pcmVendor.aspx Page Class is used to display filtered Vendor list in order to exclude/include vendors from/into purchase card program. An ErrorPage.aspx Page Class is used to return to the user information that invalid event has occurred. A pcmAuditLog.aspx Page Class is used to display filtered Cardholder list in order to analyze Cardholder's activity within predetermined Cycle period. A pcmCHTreeDisp.aspx Page Class is used to display Cardholder's activity through a Cost Center Hierarchy within predetermined Cycle period. A pcmReceiptLog.aspx Page Class is used to display filtered Cardholder list in order to obtain Logged/Non-Logged Receipts information. A pcmCHMgmt.aspx Page Class is used to manage and assign Cardholder information. A pcmCalcComply.aspx Page Class is used to calculate compliance measurements for a cycle.
The components 62 are implemented in Visual Basic (VB), which is a programming environment from Microsoft in which a programmer uses a graphical user interface to choose and modify preselected sections of code written in the BASIC programming language. A ConfigDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to update/query Config table within the Purchase Card Maximizer (PCM) database in DB storage 30. A CostCenterDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to add/update/query Cost Center Management tables within the PCM database. A CycleDB.vb-Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to add/query Cycle Management tables within the PCM database to generate cycle results. A DataMgmtDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to add/update/query Data Management tables within the PCM database. A LookupDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to add/update/query Lookup tables within the PCM database. A ReportDB.vb Report Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to add/update/query Report tables within the PCM database. A TreeRoutinesDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to create Cost Center Hierarchical display. A UserDB.vb simple data class encapsulates details about a particular PCM User. A VendorDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to update/query Vendor tables within the PCM database. A WaitForReport.vb class module checks report status in order to display the report in needed format. An Audit.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to perform analysis of the activity of groups of cardholders within predetermined cycle period. A CardholderDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to analyze the information about cardholder's activity. A MasterDB.vb Business/Data Logic Class encapsulates all data logic necessary to navigate a user to their specific instance of the CardMax database. The applications 64 include programs that effect the preparation of the analyses. A GLCodes.exe application loads a list of valid GL Codes into the PCM database. A CHDetail.exe application loads Cardholder Data into the PCM database. A CHEmail.exe application loads Cardholder Email Addresses into the PCM database. A GLDetail.exe application loads GL Data for the cycle into the PCM database. A PCDetail.exe application loads purchase card transaction data for the cycle into the PCM database. A ProcessPCM.exe application detects and executes any request from the user to load data into the PCM database, to create reports, or to create charts. A ChartPCM1.exe application creates purchase card performance charts and stores them in the PCM database in JPG format. A RptsPCM1.exe application creates purchase card performance reports and store them in the PCM database in PDF format.
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Additionally, in some situations, a PCard maximizer 10 might be configured to gather data related to audits of purchase card transactions, and the software used in the step of initializing a purchase card customer into the system 124 might be implemented in such a way as to facilitate the gathering of audit data. For example, in some situations a user might be presented with an interface which allows the user to define a plurality of rules which could be used in audits of purchase card transactions. Such rule definition might take place in a variety of manners.
As a potential extension on the interface depicted in
As an example of another tool which could potentially be used to facilitate the process of rule definition, consider the interface shown in
In block 126, cost centers are managed, which includes setting a hierarchical representation or display (e.g., relationships between cost centers), and modifying individual costs centers (e.g., adding, editing, or deleting). It will be appreciated that purchase account holders are assigned to cost centers as part of initializing or editing their information. It should also be appreciated that organizing the hierarchical representation in terms of cost centers is simply an exemplary form of organization, and that other hierarchies could also be defined. For example, in instances in which a PCard maximizer is implemented to facilitate auditing, the hierarchy could be defined in terms of the audit or organization, rather than in terms of cost centers. As such, there could be a hierarchy in which the positions in the hierarchy are determined by the organization chart of the sponsor of the purchase card program (e.g., department heads could be placed above managers, who could in turn be placed above employees). As another alternative, there could be a hierarchy in which positions on a hierarchy are assigned according to audit responsibilities (e.g., final reviewers might be placed above intermediate reviewers, who might be placed above auditors, who might be placed above the specific purchase cardholders they are responsible for). Further, in implementations where a PCard maximizer is used to facilitate audits, the hierarchy could be used to define the scope of rules. For instance, a rule applied to a node in the hierarchy might automatically be applied to that node and all descendants of that node. Of course, other variations, such as node by node rule definition and assignment could also be used. Thus, the description of a hierarchy determined by cost centers, and the description of the use of that hierarchy, should be understood as being illustrative only of possible applications for the techniques disclosed herein, and not limiting on the scope of claims included in this application, or in other applications claiming the benefit of this application.
In block 128, transaction data for the cycle to be processed and analyzed are uploaded into a PCM database. This uploading includes loading a list of valid general ledger (GL) codes from the control/selection data table 18. It also includes loading GL data (i.e., non-purchase account transactions) from the general ledger expenses database 16. It also includes loading purchase account transactions data for this cycle from the purchase account transactions database 14, which typically has been retrieved from a third party. In block 130, exclusions for the cycle are set, wherein cost centers or vendors that are not participating in participating in the purchase account operation are excluded in order to focus on transactions that are appropriate for analysis.
In block 132, purchase card performance of the organization for the cycle is calculated. The vendors that have been excluded are not included in the results. The cost centers that have been excluded are calculated, but are not included at reporting or charting time. With the amounts calculated, then in block 134, the purchase card program performance is analyzed. Advantageously, analyses may include measuring and displaying cost center performance for the cycle by analyzing applicable purchases through a cost center hierarchy, comparing performance across two different cycles, and highlighting areas of the organization in need of improvement.
In block 136, the cardholders' activity is analyzed, which advantageously may include displaying cardholders for the cycle by auditing current cardholders activity through a cost center hierarchy, and displaying filtered cardholder list in order to obtain Logged/Non-Logged Receipts information.
Of course, it should be understood that utilizing a PCard maximizer for auditing Logged/Non-Logged Receipts for cardholders organized into a hierarchy of cost centers is intended to be an illustration only of a potential application of the techniques described herein, and that other applications could be implemented by those of ordinary skill in the art without undue experimentation. For example, in some circumstances, a transaction audit rule might be defined which limits the types of vendors where a purchase card could be utilized (e.g., no purchases at adult entertainment facilities). In such a case, the vendors for each purchase card transaction could be categorized, with forbidden expenditures being flagged as audit violations. Similarly, it is possible that, instead of (or in addition to) auditing purchase card transactions, rules might be used to audit the structure of the organization sponsoring the purchase card program. For example, there might be an account management rule which states that no one cost center will have more than ten purchase card holders associated with it.
As yet a further variation which might be made to facilitate auditing using a PCard maximizer, consider the interfaces of
As yet a further variation which might be made to facilitate auditing using a PCard maximizer as described above, in some circumstances, a PCard maximizer might be implemented in a manner which is adapted to comprehensiveness of audits. For example, by applying predefined sets of audit rules to transaction data collected by the system, it is possible to perform a 100% automated audit on all transactions made through a purchase card program. However, in some cases, it might be desirable to avoid having a 100% automated audit. For example, there might be an internal policy which requires that a sponsor of a purchase card program manually review at least some minimum amount (e.g., 10%) of transactions during any audit. In such a case, the PCard maximizer might be configured with a rule which states the percentage (or absolute number) of records to be manually reviewed in a given period, and the system might then randomly select records for manual review until the sponsor organization's requirements had been met. As another example, in a case where a sponsor organization has a policy which includes review of certain transactions (e.g., intermediate reviewer sign off on responses to violations), the PCard maximizer might track whether the necessary review had taken place, and might issue reminders, either to the tardy reviewer, or to that individual's supervisor, when the review had not taken place within a given time period (e.g., two weeks after being reported). Further similar modifications and extensions could also be made. Thus, the discussion of auditing set forth herein should be understood as being illustrative only, and should not be treated as limiting on claims included in this application or in other applications claiming the benefit of this application.
The sub-page selections on the mode task bar 142 are changed to reflect the mode selected. For configuration management mode, the sub-page selections are a home key 152, a logoff key 154, a configuration key 156, a cycle maintenance key 158, a cost center management key 160, and a cardholder management key 162. In a sub-page frame 164, an example of a graphical cost center hierarchical representation 166, which is presented in response to selecting cost center management mode key 160, depicts cost centers of an organization and an approach to cost center management (e.g., relating cost centers to one another). Although not depicted, another interface is presented for each sub-page selection link. For instance, selection of the configuration link 156 would also entry or modification of parameters for use in the PCard maximizer: Audit Percent Per Cycle, Audit Score Count, Audit Score Labels, Cardholder Audit Tree Level, Legend Descriptions, Mandatory Audit Cycle, Maximum Cycles Without Audit, Metric Dollar Limit, Metric Low Limit, and Metric Warning Limit.
2. Perform Initial Data Load
Load List of Valid GL Codes
Load GL Data for Cycle
Load purchase card Transaction Data for Cycle
3. Set Exclusions for Cycle
Exclude Vendors that do not apply to purchase card Transactions
Exclude Cost Centers that are not participating in the purchase card program for this cycle
4. Calculate Cycle Results
Calculate purchase card performance for the cycle
Vendors that have been excluded are not included in the results
Cost centers that have been excluded area calculated, but will not be included at reporting or charting time
5. Manage Cost Center
Set cost center hierarchical display
Add new cost center to the cost center hierarchy
Edit cost center
6. Provide the tools to analyze purchase card program performance
Measure and display cost center performance for the cycle by analyzing applicable purchases through a cost center hierarchy
Compare two different cycles performance
Provide reports to highlight areas in need of improvement
7. Provide the tools to analyze Cardholder's activity
Display cardholders for the cycle by auditing current cardholders activity through a cost center hierarchy
Display filtered Cardholder list in order to obtain Logged/Non-Logged Receipts information.
Edit Configuration Parameters
Audit Percent Per Cycle
Audit Score Count
Audit Score Labels
Cardholder Audit Tree Level
Legend Descriptions
Mandatory Audit Cycle
Maximum Cycles Without Audit
Metric Dollar Limit
Metric Low Limit
Metric Warning Limit
In use, non-purchase card transaction data 16 and purchase card transaction data 14 are analyzed by a purchase card maximizer 10 for an organization, which includes excluding vendors and/or cost centers that are not applicable for purchase account use (e.g., referencing control/selection data 18). Opportunities are identified by cost center for cost savings that could be realized through increased use of a purchase account. By virtue of the foregoing, the interests of the organization are furthered by hierarchically analyzing purchase account usage for the organization.
While the present invention has been illustrated by description of several embodiments and while the illustrative embodiments have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications may readily appear to those skilled in the art.
This application is a continuation-in-part and claims priority from U.S. Ser. No. 10/340,296, filed Jan. 10, 2003.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10340296 | Jan 2003 | US |
| Child | 11780887 | Jul 2007 | US |
