AU2021106896A4

AU2021106896A4 - Method and system for managing ongoing bills from various service vendors or product suppliers

Info

Publication number: AU2021106896A4
Application number: AU2021106896A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Jian Wang
Original assignee: Noobill Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Noobill Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-24
Filing date: 2021-08-24
Publication date: 2021-11-25
Anticipated expiration: 2029-08-24

Abstract

Presented is an artificial intelligence based method, system and a computer program product for managing on-going bills, contracts etc. of users. The method includes receiving registration credentials inputted by the user by a bill management server for creating a user account, linking user's email accounts to the user account, obtaining permissions from the user to access the email accounts, and sending notifications to the user. The method further includes scanning and automatically importing the on-going bills of the user, and receiving forwarded bills from the user by the bill management server for performing analysis and processing of the on-going bills using artificial intelligence analysing techniques embedded in the artificial intelligence module configured therein to train and retrain the artificial intelligence analysing techniques, notify the user about the bills payable and due dates, and notify the user about a competitive and winning offer from different service vendors or product suppliers. 1/22 100 110 106 dBI 108 114a dB2 dBjn 112 F1G6. pair~~ ~N 104Newr 1 10210 FIGA

Description

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FIGA METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING ONGOING BILLS FROM VARIOUS SERVICE VENDORS OR PRODUCT SUPPLIERS TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates generally to a system and method for managing invoices, and particularly to an artificial intelligence based method, system and a computer program product for managing on-going bills, contracts, and the like ofusers.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Invoices, contracts or like documents from various service vendors and/or product suppliers are an important if not indispensable part of our lives and today's business transactions. Generally speaking, an invoice or bill is a commercial document issued by different service vendors (such as water suppliers, electricity suppliers etc) or product suppliers (such as grocery suppliers, office logistics suppliers) to general public and organizations/businesses subscribed to their services. The issuance of the invoice from the service vendors and product suppliers to the public and organizations subscribed to their services signifies that payment is due from the public and organization receiving the invoices according to the agreed terms of the invoice.

[0003] Organizations typically receive large volumes of invoices/bills such as utility bills. Traditionally, ordinary users/public or organizations have to manually review and pay those invoices, and such processes are fraught with problems and is time consuming. One problem with the manual review of bills is to properly track records of due dates for payable bills to avoid late fees and potentially service shut-off Another problem is the inability of the organization to carefully review the invoices for accuracy, e.g., comparing current charges to those of prior invoices also such a review would be too costly needing hours of work. Another problem could be rise in service charges by service vendors or rise in product prices by the product suppliers from time to time and lack of availability of competent manpower with the organization that could compare service charges/product prices of existing service vendor or product supplier with the other service vendors or product suppliers in the market.

[0004] Further, with the development of Internet, e-mail has been widely used and has become an integral part of business and personal communications. As such, many users have multiple email accounts for work and home use from different email servers (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.). Commonly, in today's digital world most of the service vendors and product suppliers deliver bills/invoices to user's email that users have provided while opting for the products or services. Lots of these products and services related bills could be result of on-going services or products purchases received by users from the service vendors and product suppliers. It is very hard for the users to navigate through or scan all of these bills since they keep on accumulating and take a timely action such as remit payment by due date on the invoice.

[0005] In an attempt to address above mentioned problems and any other problems, inventor herein proposes an artificial intelligence based method, system or a computer program product for managing on-going bills, contracts, and the like documents of general users and organizations. The proposed computer implemented method not only automates management of bills but also sends automated due date and payment reminders on the due bills to the users. Additionally, the proposed method also compares existing service charges or product prices users are paying to their existing service vendors or product suppliers with service charges or product prices offered by other alternative service vendors or product suppliers in the market and help the users to easily shift from one service vendor or product supplier to the other service vendor or product supplier. Furthermore, the proposed solution also forecasts to the users about unusual costs, incorrect charges imposed by the service vendors or product suppliers.

SUMMARY

[0006] It will be understood that this disclosure in not limited to the particular systems, and methodologies described, as there can be multiple possible embodiments of the present disclosure which are not expressly illustrated in the present disclosure. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[00071 Embodiments of the present invention describe a computer-implemented method for managing on-going bills of a user. The method comprises receiving, by a bill management server, a plurality of registration credentials inputted by the user over a client app installed on a user communication device for registering and creating a user account for the user; linking, by the user, one or more email accounts of the user held with one or more email servers with the user account to complete the user account set up process; and obtaining, by the bill management server, one or more permissions from the user to at least access the one or more email accounts of the user, and send notifications;

[0008] The method further comprising scanning and automatically importing, by the bill management server, the on-going bills from the one or more email accounts of the user; forwarding, by the user, one or more of the on-going bills directly to the bill management server.

[0009] The method further comprising analysing and processing, by the bill management server, the on-going bills of the user using a plurality of artificial intelligence analysing techniques embedded in the artificial intelligence module of the bill management server to perform at least one of train and retrain the plurality of artificial intelligence analysing techniques; notify the user about the bills payable and due dates related to the payable bills; and notify the user about a more competitive and winning offer from one or more service vendors or product suppliers; and managing, the bills payable at least by the user and/or the bill management server, in response to the processing of the on-going bills. The notification sent to the user about the more competitive and winning offer guides the user in signing up with the one or more service vendors or product suppliers. The method of analyzing and processing of the ongoing bills of the user by the bill management server comprising: receiving, the on-going bills of the user as attachments from the one or more email accounts linked to the user account, the reception of the on-going bills is by at least automatic importation, through the forwarded emails by the user, and directly by the service vendors or product suppliers; and opening each of the on-going bills and creating a bill account with respect to each of the on-going bills, if the bill account for the service vendor or product supplier and adding the bill to the bill account if the bill account doesn't pre exists, if the bill account for the service vendor or product supplier pre-exists then adding the bill to the bill account, wherein the creation of the bill account, and addition of the bill to the bill account is carried automatically by the artificial intelligence module, or is done manually by an admin at the bill management server.

[0010] The method further comprising using and/or creating, by the user at least an existing group and/or a new group to categorize the bills related to the services or products that the user receives upon processing by the server.

[0011] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description below, in light of the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, show certain aspects of the present invention and, together with the description, help explain some of the principles associated with the invention. In the drawings:

[0013] FIG.1A illustrates a computing environment or general implementation of a system for managing on-going bills, contracts etc. of users, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0014] FIG.1B is a schematic diagram illustrating elements of the system that facilitates in managing on-going bills, contracts of users, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0015] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functional blocks facilitating operations of a bill management server, according to an exemplary embodiment;

[00161 FIG. 3 is a general block diagram for a system architecture of a computer system implemented as the bill management server that manages existing and ongoing bills, ofusers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

[00171 FIG.4 illustrates an exemplary user interface displayed by the client app that helps a user link his/her e-mail accounts with his/her registered account with the bill management server, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[00181 FIG.5 illustrates an exemplary user interface displayed by the client app that helps the user to check his bills, bills related emails, review and update user's account information, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0019] FIGS.6-7 illustrates exemplary user interfaces displayed by the client app that helps the user to use groups or create different groups and categorize the services that they are receiving from different service vendors or product suppliers, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0020] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary user interface displayed by the client app that helps the user to set up a payment method, a bill recurrence frequency, reminder for the bills payable, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0021] FIG. 9 illustrates a notification window/interface displayed by the client app that reminds the user about the bills payable and their due dates, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0022] FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary user interface displayed by the client app to the user notifying the user about a more competitive offer for a service from some new service vendor that the user can avail by changing his existing service vendor, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary user interface displayed by the client app to the user upon opting to sign up with the new service vendor upon accepting the offer from displayed to him/her, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[00241 FIGS. 12-16 illustrates a dashboard window available to an admin at the bill management server, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] FIG. 17 illustrates an interface available to the admin of the bill management server to view all the users registered with the bill management server and view the accounts that require user's attention, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] FIG. 18 illustrates an interface available to the admin of the bill management server to view information related to the user account, different service types user has subscribed to, different bill accounts added under a specific service type, and different bills, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[00271 FIGS. 19A-19B illustrates user interfaces available to the admin of the bill management server to view the imported or forwarded bill from the users, view user details, add bill account and bill details based on the bill; and

[00281 FIG. 20 illustrates a flow diagram for a method for managing on-going bills, contracts etc. of users, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] As used in the specification, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" may also include plural references. For example, the term "a computer" may include a plurality of computers. Those with ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and are not necessarily drawn to scale. There may be additional components or processes described in the foregoing application that are not depicted on the described drawings. In the event such a component or process is described, but not depicted in a drawing, the absence of such component and process from the drawings should not be considered as an omission of such design from the specification.

[00301 Before describing the present invention in detail, it should be observed that the present invention utilizes a combination of components or processes/methods, which constitutes an artificial intelligence based method, system or a computer program product for managing on-going bills, contracts, and the like of users. Accordingly, the components or processes have been represented, showing only specific details that are pertinent for an understanding of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those with ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific component level details and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure. Further, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide an understandable description of the invention.

[00311 References to terms "one embodiment", "an embodiment", "another embodiment", "an example", "another example", and so on, indicate that the embodiment(s) or example(s) so described may include a particular feature, structure, characteristic, property, element, or limitation, but that not every embodiment or example necessarily includes that particular feature, structure, characteristic, property, element or limitation. Furthermore, repeated use of the phrase "in an embodiment" does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Further, the words "comprising", "having", "containing", and "including", and other forms thereof are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. In the context disclosure, the terms, "service vendor", "service provider", "product supplier", they all relate to same entity or different entity. If the terms "service vendor and product supplier" is used in the description than it should be understood that there are two entities 'service vendor' and 'product supplier' orjust a single entity amongst the two.

[0032] The method, system or a computer program product based on an artificial intelligence for managing on-going bills, contracts, and the like documents of users will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, particularly FIGS.1-20.

[00331 Referring to the FIG. 1A-1B, a computing environment or general implementation of a system 100 for managing on-going bills, contracts or the like documents of users and elements of the system 100 are shown, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 includes a user or a customer 102, and one or more service vendors or product suppliers 114, 116 offering products and services to the user 102 on an on-going basis for which the service vendors or product suppliers 114, 116 are paid by the user 102. The service vendors or product suppliers 114, 116 are paid by the user 102 upon receiving bills/invoices from the service vendors or product suppliers 114, 116. According to an embodiment, the service vendors or product suppliers 114, 116 may preferably send the bills//invoices to the customer 102 via email. In today's digital world, it is more convenient for the customers to communicate with the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116 over the e-mail, and thus the users 102 mainly receive the invoices/bills over their email. However, it is also possible that some users may prefer receiving the bills delivered to them via physical mail. Further, for the purpose of the proposed invention, the bills/invoices refers to the bills/invoices related to on-going services or products that are delivered to the user 102 by various service vendors or product suppliers 114, 116 and not to any one time bill that the user's may receive for some specific services that they receive. The examples of the service vendors 114 may include but not limited to water suppliers, electricity suppliers. schools. The examples of the product suppliers 116 may include but not limited to grocery suppliers, office logistics suppliers. The examples of the on-going bills may include but not limited to the utility bills, water bills, internet bills, school bills and so on. The service vendors and the product suppliers 114, 116 may use one or more computing devices such as devices 114a, 116a respectively to connect to and communicate over a network 112. In context of the present invention, the network 112 include, but are not limited to a local area network, a wide area network, a radio network, a virtual private network, an intemet area network, a metropolitan area network, a satellite network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low energy, a wireless network, and a telecommunication network. Examples of the telecommunication network include, but are not limited to a global system for mobile communication (GSM) network, a general packet radio service (GPRS) network, third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 4G, 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), an enhanced data GSM environment (EDGE) and a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

[00341 The user 102 uses a user communication device 104 having computing capabilities. The user communication device 104 preferably includes but not limited to a mobile phone, a tablet. The system environment 100 further includes a bill management server 106 (also referred to as "server" hereafter), and one or more data stores 110 such as dBl,...dBn communicatively linked to the server 106. The server 106 and the data stores 110 may communicate with each other over the same network 112 or over a different network. The server 106 is preferably operable by a server admin 108. The server admin 108 may use any suitable computing device such as for example computer, laptop, mobile etc. The user 102, the service vendors 114,116, the server 106 communicate with each other over the network 112.

[00351 The server 106 is generally a computer, a software framework, or a combination thereof, that may provide a generalized approach to create the application server implementation for realizing the present invention. The server 106 according to one embodiment may be a cloud server. The server 106 of the present invention is configured to host and make available a client app or a bill management app 126 to the user 102 (via the network 112) registered with it, so that the user 102 can access the services of the server 106 over the client app 126 installed on the user communication device 104 (as seen in FIG. 1B). The general implementation of the user communication device 104 is seen in FIG. 1B. The communication device 104 may include at least a processor 118, one or more memory, such as memory 120, a transceiver or communication module 122, a display 124, the bill management app (or a client app) 126, one or more third party e-mail app/web browser e-mail application 128 installed in the memory 120. The functionality of these components such as the memory 120, the display 124, the memory 120 are considered to be known by a person skilled in the art and thus detailed description for these components is omitted for the purpose of conciseness of the description. The user 102 can access the services of the server 106 via the client app 126 as will be described in detail with respect to at least FIGS. 4-11.

[00361 Although the present disclosure is explained by considering that the system 100 is being implemented using the server 106 and the client app 126, it may be understood that the system 100 may also be implemented in a variety of computing systems, such as a mainframe computer, a network server, cloud, and the like. The server 106 may be realized through various web-based technologies such as, but not limited to, a Java web-framework, a .NET framework, a PIIP (Hypertext Preprocessor) framework, or any other web application framework. The server 106 may be configured to operate on one or more operating systems such as Windows, Android, Unix, Ubuntu, Mac OS, or the like.

[00371 The server 106 of the present invention typically includes at least one processor, an input/output (I/O) interface, and a memory. The processor may be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions. Among other capabilities, the processor is configured to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions or program instructions stored in the memory (any computer-readable medium known in the art). Preferably, one or more set of instructions/programs that defines the functions of the server 106 would be stored in the memory which will then be executed by the processor to make the functionality of the server 106 realizable. The 1/O interface comprising a variety of software and hardware interfaces, for example, a web interface, a graphical user interface, and the like. The 1/O interface may allow the server 106 to interact with the user 102, the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116 through the user communication device 104, the computing devices 114a, 116a associated with the user 110, and the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116 respectively. Further, the 1/O interface may enable the server 106 to communicate with other communication devices, such as web servers and external data servers such as external third-party email servers. The I/O interface may further facilitate multiple communications within a wide variety of networks and protocol types, including wired networks, for example, LAN, cable, etc., and wireless networks, such as WLAN, cellular, or satellite. In one embodiment of the invention, the user 102 may access the server's functionality in the form of one or more user interfaces and perform various operations using the client app 126 installed over the user communication devices 104 enabled via the I/O interface and various communication interfaces. The system architecture or implementation for the server 106 is very briefly described here; the same would be described in more detailed with respect to the FIG.3 described below.

[00381 Referring to FIG.2 and FIG. 3, functional blocks facilitating operations of the bill management server and system architecture of a computer system implemented as the bill management server are shown. The functional blocks facilitating operations of the bill management server 106 may include at least a notification module 202 adapted for sending notification to the user about the bills payable and due dates related to the payable bills, and notification to the user about a more competitive and winning offer from one or more service vendors or product suppliers. The notifications are sent as pop up messages on the client app installed on the user communication device, messages (eg. SMS), emails and any combinations thereof Other functional block associated with the server 106 includes data stores 110. The data stores 110 may include suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces, and/or code, executable by the circuitry that may be configured to perform one or more data management and storage operations such as receiving, storing, processing, and transmitting queries, data, or content. In an embodiment, the data stores or database servers 110 may be a data management and storage computing device that may be communicatively coupled to the bill management server 106 via the network 112 to perform the one or more operations. In an exemplary embodiment, the data stores 110 may be configured to at least manage and store user related information, and information related to the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116. The user related information may include but not limited to a name of the user, address of the user, an email, a phone number, assigned service types to the user, bill accounts related to the user that holds different bills, one or more identity verification details, added payment methods, transaction details. The information related to the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116 includes but not limited to name of the service vendor and product supplier, address of the service vendor and product supplier, an email and a phone number related to the service vendor and product supplier, transaction details, offers from the service vendor and product supplier. The data stores 110 may be configured to receive a query from the server 106 for retrieval of the stored information, For example, query on retrieval of an identity of the user communication device 104 to help the user auto login onto the client app 126 installed thereon Based on the received query, the data stores 110 may be configured to communicate the requested information to the server 106. Examples of the data stores 110 may include, but are not limited to, a personal computer, a laptop, or a network of computer systems

[00391 Yet another important functional block of the server 106 comprises an Artificial Intelligence (AI) module 204 to perform analysis. The AI module 204 comprises a plurality of artificial intelligence (AI) analysing techniques or algorithm. According to an embodiment, one or more of these Al techniques/ algorithm may recognize the existing service vendors and product suppliers 114,116 and the bill accounts associated with the user 102, recognize on-going bills the user receives and auto fills the bills related information to auto create new bill accounts and fill in and add new bills to existing bill accounts or to the newly created bill accounts of the user 102 (auto form filling feature) that would be described in more detail in the description to follow. In some other embodiment, the creation of the new bill accounts and adding of the bills to the existing bill account and the newly created bill account may happen manually. Further, based on the auto analysis or periodic review of the expending done by the user 102 on various services and the products from various service vendors and product suppliers 114,116,one or more Al techniques may suggest better competitive offers from other existing service vendors and products suppliers in an attempt to help the users 102 do some savings.

[0040] As described above, the server 106 of the FIG. 1 may be implemented in the computer system. Likewise, the user communication device 104, the service vendor and product supplier related computing devices 114a, 116a associated with the user 102, and the service vendor and product supplier 114, 116 may be implemented using the computer system or a portion of the system. Such implementation may use hardware, software, firmware, non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon, or a combination thereof and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems. Hardware, software, or any combination thereof may embody modules and components used to implement the method described in the FIGS. 12-20. As seen in the FIG.3, the computer system/server 106 includes a processor 302 that may be a special purpose or a general-purpose processing device. The processor 302 may be a single processor, multiple processors, or combinations thereof Further, the processor 302 may be connected to a communication infrastructure 304, such as a bus, a bridge, a message queue, the network 112, multi-core message-passing scheme, and the like. The computer system/server 106 further includes a main memory 306 and a secondary memory 308. Examples of the main memory 306 may include RAM, ROM, and the like. The secondary memory 308 may include a hard disk drive or a removable storage drive (not shown), such as a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, a compact disk, an optical disk drive, a flash memory, and the like. Further, the removable storage drive may read from and/or write to a removable storage device in a manner known in the art. In an embodiment, the removable storage unit may be a non-transitory computer readable recording media. The computer system/server 106 further includes an input/output (1/0) port 310 and a communication interface 312. The I/O port 310 includes various input and output devices that are configured to communicate with the processor 302. The communication interface 312 may be configured to allow data to be transferred between the computer system/server 102 and various devices that are communicatively coupled to the computer system/server 106. Examples of the communication interface 312 may include a modem, a network interface, ie., an Ethernet card, a communications port, and the like. Data transferred via the communication interface 312 may be signals, such as electronic, electromagnetic, optical, or other signals as will be apparent to a person skilled in the art. The signals may travel via a communications channel, such as the network 112, which may be configured to transmit the signals to the various devices that are communicatively coupled to the computer system/server 106. Computer program medium and computer usable medium may refer to memories, such as the main memory 306 and the secondary memory 308, which may be a semiconductor memory such as dynamic RAMs. These computer program mediums may provide data that enables the computer system/server 106 to implement the method illustrated in the FIGS. 12-20. In an embodiment, the present invention is implemented using a computer implemented application. The computer implemented application may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into the computer system/server 106 using the removable storage drive or the hard disk drive in the secondary memory 308, the O port 310, or the communication interface 312.

[0041] Referring to the FIGS.4-11, exemplary interfaces displayed on the client app 126 configured on the user communication device 104 are shown. In order to access the server's 106 functionality, the user 102 first should download and install the client app 126 hosted by the server 106.

[0042] Once the user 102 opens up the client app 126, the app 126 prompts the user 102 to sign up or login to the App 126. In case the user 102 is signing up with the server 106 (and is not a registered user already), the user 102 is prompted to enter a mobile number; the mobile number is then verified by sending verification to the user 102. Once the mobile number of the user 102 is verified, the user 102 is prompted to set a passcode or password of his/her choice. The user 102 may also be asked for permissions to send notifications to the user 102 by the server 106. Once the user 102 allows notification, the user 102 is able to receive alerts, sounds, icon badges etc. through the app 126 sent via the server 106. If required, the user 102 is able to turn off notification settings. The notification could be for due bills payable by the user 102, the notification could be about more affordable service providers so that the user 102 can decide and switch over from existing service vendor to the more affordable service vendor. Further, during the sign up process, the user 102 may be asked to provide an email address for communication with the server 106.

[00431 Referring to FIG. 4, besides capturing information related to the user 102 in order to create a user account, the user 102 is also prompted to link his/her one or more email accounts (such as Gmail account, Outlook account etc.) to his registered account with the server 106 to complete account set up process. The user 102 is provided with a tab 402 to link one or multiple email accounts he/she holds with the one or more email servers (such as Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and so on). In the process of linking the email accounts to the user account, the user 102 may be asked to provide permission to the server 106 to access the user's email accounts. Once the permission to access the email accounts of the user 102 is granted to the server 106 by the user 102, the server 102 is able to automatically scan and import the on-going bills of the user 102 from his/her one or more email accounts for processing. Further, the user 102 is also provided with another option 404 that enables the user 102 to forward any bills to the server 106 or server admin 108. The user 102 may be provided with a dedicated email address to which the user 102 can forward any bills that he wants to be managed.

[0044] Referring to FIG. 5, an exemplary user interface 500 displayed by the client app is shown, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The interface 500 helps the user 102 to check his bills, bills related emails, review and update user's account information. As seen, upon selecting emails tab 502, the user is able to view all the invoice bills related emails 502a. The user 102, if the need be is able to filter the results of the displayed emails using a search bar 102b. The user 102 can filter results using the service vendor's name, date for example. Additionally, if the user 102 wants to view his bills and due dates related to his payable bills, he can click on bills tab 504. The bills tab 504 also helps the user 102 to view outstanding instructions against the bill that the user 102 has provided. The outstanding instructions may include but not limited to payment method, payment account, reoccurrence frequency of the bill, reminder setting. The bills tab 504 will also help the user 102 to view the bill as PDF file, view service vendor or product supplier's contact number so that the user can contact them if the need be. The user 102 will also be provided with an option to mark the bill as paid. Additionally, if the user 102 wants to edit his profile or account information, the user 102 can do so by selecting accounts tab 506. The user 102 can move onto a home screen by clicking on a home button/tab 501.

[0045] Referring to FIGS.6-7, exemplary user interfaces 600 displayed by the client app that helps the user 102 to use existing groups or create customized groups and categorize the services that they are receiving from different service vendors are shown, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG.6 in particular shows home screen presented to the user upon selecting the home tab 501. The app may showcase pre-existing groups 602 such as for example, a personal group and other existing groups (such as pets, car, home in FIG.7), and provide a tab 604 to create new group. User can select the ungrouped services from the displayed pre-existing service list 608 and then add them to a particular selected group. The services may for example may include but not limited to electricity/utility services, entertainment services, internet services, insurance services, stocks broking services, mutual fund services, gas services and so on. For example, the user 102 can add Netflix, Disney, and Elysian En under personal group so that all of the expenses incurred after entertainment and utility services are accounted under the personal expenses. Additionally, the user 102 can create a new group, if the existing groups are not suitable for the user 102. The new group can be created by selecting the tab 604. The interface 600 also provides an option of a search bar 606 that helps in searching through the available groups and services and selecting the desired groups and services.

[0046] Referring to FIG.8, an exemplary user interface 800 displayed by the client app to the user 102 for setting up a service account is shown, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The interface 800 helps the user 102 in setting up the service account for a specific service offered by a particular service vendor by adding in a payment method, a bill recurrence frequency, reminder for the bills payable etc. As shown in FIG.8, the interface shows different bills 801for electricity services, the user can select a tab 802 to set payment method as direct debit or manual. Upon selecting the payment method type using the tab 802, the user 102 can set up the payment method account. The payment account could be debit/credit card details, bank account details etc. In an example, the user may be required to enter last 4 digits of his card and bank name. In another example, the user 102 may be required tolink his bank account details. After adding the payment account details using a tab 804, the user can set bill reoccurrence frequency using a tab 806. Such frequency may be weekly, monthly, bi-weekly and so on. After setting the bills re occurrence frequency, the user 102 can set up reminder for the bills that are payable so that the user 102 do not miss any due dates. The reminder can be set as a reminder of 3 days before the due date, a reminder of 5 days before the due date and so on. Optionally, if the user 102 do not want any reminder to be sent, the reminder can be set as off Further according to other embodiment, the interface 800 may showcase spending trend of the user 102 for various services that the user is subscribed to.

[00471 Referring to FIG. 9, a notification window/interface 900 displayed by the client app is shown, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The notification interface 900 reminds the user 102 about the bills payable and their due dates. For example, interface 900 shows an alert or notification notifying the user about 'Globird Energy' being due in 3 days 901, another in 4 days 903, and S'ynergy Energy 'being overdue 902. There might be other notifications for example for the bills paid etc.

[00481 Referring to FIG. 10, an exemplary user interface 1000 displayed by the client app to the user 102 noticing the user about a more competitive offer for a service from some new service vendor that the user can avail for cost saving is shown, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As seen, the user 102 is first notified about a competitive service from alternative service vendor based on the Al technique employed by the server 106 that analyses the user's spending pattern and service cost the user 102 is incurring for purchase of specific services. In the example shown, the user 102 may be a subscriber of the energy services and may be utiizing service of a specific energy service provider/vendor, the server 106 via the app may notify user about better service offer from alternative service provider for the same service. In the example shown, the interface shows 'elysian energy' would be able to provide the same service for 16-22% lesser service cost and if the user 102 wishes to make a switch over from the existing energy service provider to the newly suggested service provider then the user 102 can select a next button 1002. Once the user selects the next button 1002, the user 102 will be further notified about the benefits and simplicity of making a shift from existing service vendor to a newly suggested service vendor as shown in FIG. 11. Based on the notification and recommendation, if the user 102 wants to shift from existing service provider to a new service provider, the user can do so by selecting a 'sign me up' tab 1102 shown in FIG.11. Once the user 102 confirms registering or enrolling for the service from new service vendor, the user 102 is prompted to enter some details about the user, payment details, and is required to verify his/her identity.

The server 106 can also help the user 102 with sign up process with the new service vendor by auto suggesting the information that is already stored in the datastores 110.If the sign up data that's required is already present in the datastores 110, the server 106 wi self-fill up the sign up form that the user 102 is required to fi up for subscribing with the new service vendor. This may save the time of the user 102 that's required in filling up sign up form.

[0049] Referring to FIGS. 12-16, a dashboard window available to the admin 108 at the bill management server 106 is shown, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Particularly, FIG. 12 shows an interface 1200 showing linked emails 1202 that are imported from the user's email accounts. These linked emails 1202 that are imported are emails containing bills that needs to be analysed and processed by the server 106 using the Al module comprising one or more Al techniques or algorithm trained and continuously being trained to extract information from the bills to auto fill some forms. The left hand side window/panel 'A' of the interface 1200 show the imported linked emails 1202, wherein the right hand side window/panel 'B' of the interface 1200 shows the content of each of the imported linked emails with bills. Each of the emails content will preferably include a bill as an attachment or bill directly present as a body of the email. As seen in FIGS. 19A-19B, the bill attachment 1204 when opened willdisplay the bill 1901 on the panel 'A' and the information 1902 related to the user 102, bill accounts 1904 associated with the user 102 on the panel 'B'. Further, the forms for adding up any new bill accounts for the user and bills will available on the panel 'B'. According to one embodiment, the bill accounts and bills are added manually by the admin 108 handling the server 106. The admin 108 can manually see the bill and fill in the details on the right hand side panel and select the add bill account tab 1905 and add bill tab 1906 to add the bis. In another embodiment, the bill 1901 is passed through the one or more trained Al techniques or algorithm to extract relevant data from the bill (such as bi type, service provider name, due date, invoice date, service address etc) based on various trained machine learning or Al modals fed in machine learning algorithm and then based on the extracted data decide to create a new bill account or not to create a bill account for the user and then add the bill under specific bi account. In this method, the bill account creation fields 1905a, and the bill creation fields 1906a as shown in FIG. 19B are auto filled by the trained machine learning modals.

[0050] Referring to FIG. 13, the dashboard 1300 provides an option to the admin 108 to see the bills forwarded by the user 102. The admin 108 can click on 'by user' tab 1302 to see all the bills related e-mails containing bills forwarded by the user 102. The forwarded e-mails will be displayed under panel 'A' and the e-mail contents will be displayed under panel 'B' similar to what is discussed in relation to FIG.12 above. In the example shown, no emails are seen forwarded by the user 102 to the server 106.

[0051] Referring to FIG. 14, the dashboard 1400 provides an option to the admin 108 to see the bills shared by the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116. Usually, when the user 102 switches from one existing service vendor to a new service vender based on the recommendations from the server 106 (as discussed with respect to FIGS. 10-11), the user 102 is provided with a new e-mail and the bills that the new service vendor sends to the user 102 is sent to the server 106. The admin 108 can click on 'by supplier' tab 1402 to see all these bills related emails containing bills sent by the service vendors and product suppliers 114,116 to the user 102. The e-mails received from the suppliers will be displayed under panel 'A' and the e-mail contents will be displayed under panel 'B' similar to what is discussed in relation to FIG.12 above. In the example shown, in order to view the bills 1402 from the supplier, the admin 108 can select received email under the panel 'A', and then click on view attachment tab 1404 under panel 'B'. The bills from the service vendors may also be available for view on the interface 500 shown in FIG.5.

[0052] Referring to FIG. 15, the dashboard 1500 provides an option to the admin 108 to see the bills that have been archived after being processed by the server 106. If the need be, the admin 108 can click on 'achieve' tab 1502 to see all the bills related e-mails that are archived and open any needed bills. The archived e-mails of bills will be displayed under panel 'A' and the e-mail contents for view will be displayed under panel 'B' similar to what is discussed in relation to FIG.12 above.

[00531 Referring to FIG. 16, the dashboard 1600 provides an option to the admin 108 to see unmatched e-mails. If the e-mails that the server 106 receives from the user 102 doesn't match with the user related information stored in the datastores 110 of the server 106 then the emails with the bills will be marked as unmatched emails and be available under "unmatched" or "not matched" tab for view by the admin and will not be analysed or processed by the server 102. If the need be, the admin 108 can click on 'notmatched' tab 1602 to see all the bills related e-mails that are declared unmatched and remain unprocessed. The archived emails of bills will be displayed under panel 'A' and the e-mail contents for view will be displayed under panel 'B' similar to what is discussed in relation to FIG.12 above.

[0054] Referring to FIG. 17, an interface 1700 available to the admin 108 of the bill management server 106 to view all the users registered with the bill management server and view the accounts that require user's attention is shown, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Basically the user interface 1700 is customer dashboard that shows all the available registered user names, their email addresses and phone numbers, date of creation of the accounts, a toggle button to mark each user's account as requiring attention or not. In order to view the complete user profile one can click on a view detail button 1702. Once the admin clicks on the view detail button 1702, the admin 108 can view a detailed profile of the user 102. In an example shown in FIG. 18, interface 1800 shows detailed information related to the user 102 named as 'SPP'. The information includes basic information 1802 such as email address, phone, chat ID, server assigned email address and so on. The information further includes service types 1804 such as for example, utility, gas, electricity. The information further includes bill accounts 1806 under each of the service types associated with the user 102. The information further shows bills 1808 under each of the bill accounts 1806.

[0055] Referring to FIG. 20, there is shown a flow diagram 2000 for a method for managing on-going bills, contracts etc. of users, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The method starts at step 2002 with a step of receiving the user registration credentials and registering a user account for the user 102 by the bill management server 106. For this to happen, the user 102 is provided with a client app installed on the user communication device 104 When the user 102 signs up for the first time with the server 106 over the app, the user 102 is asked to enter user credentials or information such as name, phone number, email etc. Next at step 2004, the user 102 is prompted to link his/her one or more email accounts (such as Gmail account, Outlook email account etc) that the user 102 holds with one or more email servers. The email accounts are linked to the user account created by the server 106 to complete the user account set up process. Next at step 2006, the bill management server 106 obtains one or more permissions from the user 102 to at least access the one or more email accounts of the user, and send various notifications to the user 102. The notifications can be in the form of direct emails, messages, and/or pop up messages via the app. Next at step 2008, the bill management server 106 scans and automatically imports the on-going bills from the one or more email accounts of the user 106. The bill management server 106 may also receive the on-going bills directly from the user 102. The user 102 is enabled to forward the on-going bill related emails to the server 106 as shown in step 2008.

[00561 Next at step 2010, the bill management server performs analysing and processing of the received on-going bills from step 2008 using a plurality of artificial intelligence analysing techniques embedded in the artificial intelligence module 204. The analysis and processing is done by multiple trained machine algorithms feedback modals that automatically extract relevant data from the received on-going and fills in the forms and stores in the data stores 110 to create user account, and bills. Time to time the accuracy of this data extraction and filling is tested by the admin 108 in order to feedback any required corrections to make algorithms self-leam about the errors and eliminate the same from next processing. The analysing and processing of the received on-going bills helps the server 106 not only helps the user 102 train and retrain the plurality of artificial intelligence analysing techniques or algorithm but also notify the user about the bills payable and due dates related to the payable bills; and about a more competitive and winning offer or better service offers from one or more service vendors or product suppliers. At next step, upon processing the on-going bills, the processed bills or bills payables are managed by the user and/or the bill management serve 106.

[00571 The various actions, acts, blocks, steps, or the like in the flow diagram may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some embodiments, some of the actions, acts, blocks, steps, or the like may be omitted, added, modified, skipped, or the like without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0058] Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

EDITORIAL NOTE 2021106896

There are 2 pages of claims only.

Claims

CLAIMS WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A computer-implemented method for managing on-going bills of a user, the method comprising:

receiving, by a bill management server, a plurality of registration credentials inputted by the user over a client app installed on a user communication device for registering and creating a user account for the user; linking, by the user, one or more email accounts of the user held with one or more email servers with the user account to complete the user account set up process; obtaining, by the bill management server, one or more permissions from the user to at least access the one or more email accounts of the user, and send notifications; scanning and automatically importing, by the bill management server, the on going bills from the one or more email accounts of the user; forwarding, by the user, one or more of the on-going bills directly to the bill management server; analysing and processing, by the bill management server, the on-going bills of the user using a plurality of artificial intelligence analysing techniques embedded in the artificial intelligence module of the bill management server to perform at least one of: train and retrain the plurality of artificial intelligence analysing techniques; notify the user about the bills payable and due dates related to the payable bills; and notify the user about a more competitive and winning offer from one or more service vendors or product suppliers; and managing, the bills payable at least by the user and/or the bill management server, in response to the processing of the ongoing bills.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising using and/or creating, by the user at least an existing group and/or a new group to categorize the bills related to the services or products that the user receives upon processing by the server.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the notification sent to the user about the competitive and winning offer guides the user in signing up with the one or more service vendors orproduct suppliers.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing and processing of the ongoing bills of the user by the bill management server comprising: receiving, the on-going bills of the user as attachments from the one or more email accounts linked to the user account, the reception of the on-going bills is by at least automatic importation, through the forwarded emails by the user, and directly by the service vendors orproduct suppliers; and opening each of the on-going bills and creating a bill account with respect to each of the on-going bills, if the bill account for the service vendor or product supplier and adding the bill to the bill account if the bill account doesn't pre-exists, if the bill account for the service vendor or product supplier pre-exists then adding the bill to the bill account, wherein the creation of the bill account, and addition of the bill to the bill account is carried automatically by the artificial intelligence module, and/or is done manually by an admin at the bill management server.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the bill management server comprising one or more data stores communicatively linked thereto for at least: storage of user related information, the user related information comprising at least name of the user, address of the user, an email, a phone number, assigned service types to the user, bill accounts related to the user that holds different bills, one or more identity verification details, added payment methods, transaction details; and storage of information related to the service vendors and product suppliers, the information related to the service vendors and product suppliers comprising at least name of the service vendor and product supplier, address of the service vendor and product supplier, an email and a phone number related to the service vendor and product supplier, transaction details, offers from the service vendor and product supplier.