CA2863303A1 - Automated accounting entry and processing system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

The system of the invention aims to optimize the process of accounting entry for businesses. Via a Web environment, it can automate the extraction of transaction data from paper or electronic documents and transmit accounting entries to the user's accounting system. The system also makes it possible to classify all the transaction documents in a secure place and to use the data to generate performance indicators.

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION
SYSTEM AND METHOD OF SEIZING AND ACCOUNTING PROCESSING
AUTOMATED
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and input method and automated accounting treatment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Accounting entry requires a lot of time and energy to business owners. Often the volume of transactions of business is too weak to leverage integrated accounting systems with their suppliers and their customers. The same goes for systems allowing automate the retrieval of information from documents that must process a large amount of information to be profitable. These companies must therefore do the book entry manually, which is expensive and does not allows not have a fair idea about the current financial situation of their business.
Following manual entry, contractors no longer have time / energy for analyze their results; they therefore refer to state analyzes financial Annual. There is therefore a need for a computerized accounting system that can reduce business reaction time and increase value added administrative work.

[0003] There are integrated accounting systems available on the market that can automate the transfer of sales data from the company to the accounting system according to a logic of correspondence with accounts, but not purchase data. These systems can harvest their data via an integrated computer system. However, these systems must be installed directly on the workstations of the companies, what makes sure that they are very expensive. They are profitable only for the companies with a large volume of transactions to process.

[0004] Thus, in view of the current technical difficulties, there is therefore a need in this area for an accounting system and accounting automated which is relatively simple and inexpensive.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a system which allows to use character recognition software in an environment Web and so deal with the buying and selling transactions of several different users with the same system.

According to a preferred embodiment, the system according to the invention allows to offer a personalized account to each user who ensures the communication with its accounting system while pooling the character recognition technology. Preferably, the system according to the invention thus makes it possible to benefit all users integrated learning in the system of character recognition and thus optimize the processing of documents. Preferably, the system according to the invention also offers a significant competitive advantage by spreading the costs of the character recognition module across all users, which makes even a small business volumes transaction can make its investment profitable.

[0007] Preferably, the system according to the invention optimizes the process of accounting entry for small businesses. Via a web environment, the system makes it possible to automate the extraction of transaction data from of paper or electronic documents and to transmit the writings to the accounting system of the user. The system allows also to classify the set of transaction documents in one place secure and use the data to generate indicators of performance.

[0008] Advantageously, the system is developed in an environment Web. Thus, the database, the integrated software and the applications developed are all preferably based on a web server. The users can log in with a secure online account for use the different modules of the system. This approach makes it possible to group a large volume of documents to be processed and thus make the use profitable tools data extraction.

[0009] Other objects, advantages and functions of the present invention will become more apparent in the following description of modes of possible achievements, given as examples only, in relation to following figures.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0010] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing the various modules used for entering and processing accounting data from automated manner, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Correspondence of codes and lists

[0012] Referring to Figure 1, a module of FIG.
correspondence of codes and lists 100, a module for processing transactions 200, a connection module 300 with an accounting system of the user 10, a filing system 400, a standardized database 500, and a dashboard and results of analyzes 600, according to a production of the present invention. The connection established with the system accountant of the user 10 thanks to the synchronization module 305 allows to import into the user's account the general ledger codes and its list of suppliers and customers 101. This information is synchronized when the use of the accounting system.

The account correspondence module 103 allows the user to create a correspondence between his accounts and those of the standard charter 102.
This match is saved for each user in a memory 104 and can be modified, for example if an account is modified, deleted or added.

The system adds another matching layer to bind a item or a specific product and account using a 105 module.
match is established through the user's choices in module 207 and is used in module 206. It is therefore possible for an item of determine automatically its correspondence with the account of the user and the account standard.

[0015] Processing of transactions

At the opening of his account, each user receives an address default email 202. This email is the single gateway every documents that are deposited in the system. For paper documents, the user can scan them with a scanner and then send via the account 201 email.

A document receiving module 203 serves to recover the e-mail attachments and automatically assign them to the user who sent them. These documents are transferred to the database 500 and are accessible to the user in the type identification screen.
document 204. This screen is designed to direct documents in the right channel analysis.
Sales receipts and supplier invoices go to the analysis by the OCR 205. Other types of documents go into the classification 401.

OCR Optical Character Recognition System 205 is an already existing software that is integrated into the invention. The documents of transaction are forwarded to OCR 205, which extracts the targeted information by the system (total amount, taxes, product line detail, number of document, etc ...). The software is also able to recognize the provider or the customer through the document information.

This information will then be stored temporarily in a correspondence module 206. This correspondence module 206 uses the correspondences previously established by the user 105 to connect the items of the transaction with the user accounts and the standard accounts of the system.

The results of the data extraction and the correspondences of account are submitted to the user in the data validation and 207. The user can then ensure that the supplier or customer chosen is correct, correct the information extracted by OCR 205 and validate the Suggested account matches. Once validation is complete, three actions take place:

The changes in the correspondences between the items and the accounts are recorded to reflect changes for next documents 105.

The information associated with the standard accounts of the system (quantity, amount, etc ...) are sent to the standardized database 500.

The information associated with the customer's accounting codes (quantity, amount, etc ...) are sent temporarily in the confirmation module writings 301

Connection module with the accounting system

The validated information 207 is transferred to the module of choice of the type of payment 301. The user can then decide to group together invoices or payments and determine the method of payment that was used (check, direct debit, accounts payable, etc.) Once the method of payment confirmed, the data is prepared for accounting entry 302 and made available to the accounting system via a 303 web service or a application 304. The choice of the connection mode is made according to the system accountant that is used by the user.

The accounting system can then recover the prepared data.
302. There will also be a synchronization module 305 which will allow ensure that the lists in module 101 are up to date with those in the system accounting.

Classification system

When identifying the type of documents in module 204 all documents that are not identified as invoices or receipts are sent to the filing system in the predefined folders that are awarded 401.

All transaction documents are classified following the validation provider / customer and related data. These documents are transferred to the ranking system in the ranking module automatic accounting documents 402. This module 402 makes it possible to classify automatically transactions according to the data provided during the validation, ie the financial year, the supplier / customer, the date of the document, the total amount and document number and type of document. This module 402 also includes a search tool to find transactions according to the criteria mentioned above.

[0030] Standardized database

The standardized database 500 collects all the news transactions that are validated by the user in module 207. These data are used to feed analysis tools and indicators adapted to the profile of the user 600.

The claims must not be limited in their scope by the preferred embodiments illustrated in the examples, but must to receive the broadest interpretation that is consistent with the description in its together.

Claims (4)

claims 1. A web-based computer system that includes one or more computers configured for:
access the user's accounting system (10), through a connection module (300) for sending and receiving accounting system data (10);
receive transactional documents from multiple users (202) in a processing module (200) for assigning them automatically to each user (203); and send transactional documents in a module of optical character recognition (205) to extract data and associate them with a user's accounting chart through a account code matching module (100) which is apt to be connected to the accounting system (10) via the connection module (300). 2. The system according to claim 1, comprising a module of account code and list matching (100) comprising:
a module (101) for importing and exporting to the the user's accounting system (10) an account chart, lists of suppliers and customers, batch lists and product lists;
a module (104) making it possible to establish a correspondence between the account codes and user lists and account codes and the standard lists of the system (102);
a module (105) for assigning to a product a specific correspondence to the account code of each user. 3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, comprising a module of validation of the data (207) extracted by the recognition module optical character (205) which makes it possible to:
transfer validated data to a database standardized (500) and a connection module with a system accountant (300);
transfer an automatically processed document to a automatic classification of accounting documents (402) which classifies each document according to its characteristics. 4. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the connection module (300) comprises:
a module allowing the user to determine the method of payment used for the transaction (301);
a data preparation module for the accounting entry (302) compatible with the user's accounting system (10) and which makes available the data for the user's accounting system (10) via a web service or application;
an account synchronization module (305) which allows to import and export information from the system user account (10) in order to maintain the module of the account code matching (100).