The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 16, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 08, 1998
David G. Heindel, Woodinville, WA (US);
Todd Alan Buiten, Kent, WA (US);
Bert Speelpenning, Kirkland, WA (US);
Bassam A. Saliba, Kirkland, WA (US);
Jeffrey L. Keith, Woodinville, WA (US);
Eric G. Jakstadt, Woodinville, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
An electronic billing system provides a set of tools for a biller to create and design a customized billing statement. The system includes a statement designer that enables the biller to create a template for the billing statement. Once the statement is designed, the biller provides the statement format and billing data to a third party billing service center, which generates the electronic billing statements in the biller-designed format and electronically distributes the billing statements to consumers. To assist the biller in creating statement templates, the biller integration system maintains industry schema tables that are tailored to particular industries. The tables provide a default set of predefined billing categories for a given industry that the biller might wish to use in its template. The biller integration system and service center are each equipped with a gateway to facilitate the exchange of the statement template and billing data. Each gateway has a parcel manager to reliably transfer parcels and track the parcels as they go from computer to computer. Through this parcel handling and monitoring system, the biller integration system keeps the biller informed as to the location and status of the statement templates, the billing data, any forthcoming payments, and so forth.