JP2002140645A - System and method for managing electronic settlement - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently perform a series of procedures involved in a commercial transaction from a merchandise buying and selling contract to settlement and to money reception confirmation on a network and further to arrange merchandise delivery on the network without intermediary of man power. SOLUTION: An electronic settlement server 10 transmits transfer instruction information indicating that transfer should be made from the bank account of a buyer to the bank account of an electronic market site operator to the bank account management server 22 of a financial institution on the basis of buying and selling contract data received from a market server 14. When notification indicating that transfer processing is completed is received from the server 22, delivery instruction information indicating that merchandise should be sent to a buyer about the corresponding buying and selling contract is transmitted to a transparent company server 16. The server 22 also performs settlement processing to a seller by performing concentration from respective bank accounts of the electronic market site operator to main bank account and transferring a price to the bank account of the seller from the main bank account in response to an instruction from the electronic settlement server.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic payment management system and an electronic payment management method, and more particularly, to an electronic payment suitable for managing a payment for a sales contract made on a computer network such as the Internet. The present invention relates to a management system and an electronic payment management method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the rapid spread of the Internet, it has become common to conduct business transactions between companies on the Internet. That is, business negotiations between companies are performed on a Web site on the Internet, and once the business negotiations are concluded, a sales contract is also performed within the site. On the Internet, many product sales sites such as so-called electronic stores and electronic malls have been constructed, and it is becoming increasingly popular for individuals to purchase products on the Internet.

[0003]

[0005] However, in the case of business-to-business transactions, even if a sales contract can be made on the Internet, for subsequent payment, for example, the seller sends an invoice to the buyer, and the buyer The same inefficient processing as in the past, such as sending out a product after confirming that it has been deposited into the seller's account, is performed. And since the timing of the payment is left to the buyer's will, the seller cannot accurately know when to collect the payment, and it is troublesome to confirm the payment (clearing the accounts receivable) for each sales contract. There are inconveniences. Also,
If the buyer has trust in the seller, payment may be made using bills. However, since it takes time to draw out bills and manage due dates, business efficiency is still poor. Conventionally, the delivery of goods has been performed, for example, by the seller confirming the payment from the buyer and requesting an external carrier, so the seller has to arrange the delivery of the goods for each product sales contract. The seller has to put a heavy burden on the delivery of goods.

On the other hand, when an individual purchases a product using the Internet, it is possible to electronically make a payment by entering a credit card number at a product sales site. However, many users are reluctant to enter a credit card number due to security concerns such as data leakage, and credit card payments on the Internet are not widely used. For this reason, even when purchasing individual products, you can transfer money to your bank account,
In reality, inefficient payments are often made by hand, such as delivery of goods by cash on delivery. Also,
In the case of merchandise delivery, as in the case of the business-to-business transaction described above, the seller has to request the delivery company, and the business burden on the seller is also large.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances. It is an object to provide a system and an electronic payment management method. The present invention also provides an electronic payment management system and an electronic payment management method that enable arrangement of product delivery in addition to payment on the Internet without manual intervention on the network. Aim.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 is communicably connected to account management server means provided in each financial institution and managing funds of each account. Computer means,
What is claimed is: 1. An electronic payment management system for managing payment for a product sales contract made via a market server means for providing an electronic market service for making a product sales contract on a network, the electronic payment management system comprising: With reference to a database in which sales contract data including the seller account ID and the buyer account ID for specifying the settlement account of the seller and the buyer related to the product sales contract and the settlement amount of the product sales contract are recorded, For each of the sales contract data recorded in this database, the account management server means provided in the financial institution where the account specified by the buyer account ID has been opened is provided with an amount corresponding to the settlement amount by the buyer. Transfer instruction that the account specified by the account ID should be debited and credited to the specified account of the financial institution To the transfer instruction means for transmitting the information, and to the account management server means of each financial institution, a fund for debiting the funds from the predetermined account and depositing the funds into a predetermined fund concentration account of the predetermined financial institution. Concentration instruction means for transmitting concentration instruction information, and for each sales contract data recorded in the database, deduct an amount corresponding to the settlement amount from the fund concentration account to an account specified by the seller account ID. Clearing instruction means for transmitting clearing instruction information to the effect of depositing to the account management server means of the financial institution in which the fund concentration account has been opened.

[0007] The invention according to claim 2 is constituted by computer means communicably connected to account management server means provided in each financial institution and managing funds of each account, and is provided on a network. An electronic payment management system for managing payment for a product sales contract made through a market server means for providing an electronic market service for making a sales contract, comprising: Seller account ID that specifies the settlement account of the seller and buyer related to the contract, respectively.
With reference to a database in which sales contract data including the buyer account ID and the settlement amount of the product sales contract are recorded, for each sales contract data recorded in this database, an account specified by the buyer account ID A settlement instruction to the account management server means provided in a certain financial institution that the settlement amount should be deducted from the account specified by the buyer account ID and transferred to the account specified by the seller account ID It is characterized by comprising payment instruction means for transmitting information.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to the first aspect, the process specified by the transfer instruction information is performed by the account management server unit that has received the transfer instruction information. Upon receiving the transfer completion information to the effect that the transfer has been completed, as the settlement-related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received transfer completion information, a transfer completion status indicating that the transfer processing of the price has been completed is recorded in the database. It is characterized by further comprising a transfer completion recording means for performing processing.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to the second aspect, the process specified by the settlement instruction information is performed by the account management server unit that has received the settlement instruction information. Upon receiving the payment completion information indicating that the payment has been completed, a process for recording a payment completion status indicating that the payment processing has been completed in the database as payment related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received payment completion information. Is further provided.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to the first or third aspect, the account management server means that has received the clearing instruction information is instructed by the clearing instruction information. When the settlement completion information indicating that the processing is completed is received, as the settlement-related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received settlement completion information, a settlement completion status indicating that the settlement processing is completed is recorded in the database. And a settlement completion recording means for performing the above-mentioned processing.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to the third aspect, the electronic settlement management system is communicably connected to a delivery management server means for managing the product delivery means. The sales contract data includes delivery destination data relating to a delivery destination of the product related to the product sales contract, and referring to the database, when a transfer completion status is recorded as settlement related information of the sales contract data, The information processing apparatus further includes delivery instruction means for transmitting, to the delivery management server means, delivery instruction information indicating that a product related to the sales contract data should be sent to the delivery destination specified by the delivery destination data.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to the fourth or fifth aspect, the electronic settlement management system is communicably connected to a delivery management server means for managing the goods delivery means. In the case where the sales contract data includes delivery destination data relating to a delivery destination of the product related to the product sales contract, and the payment completion status is recorded as the settlement related information of the sales contract data with reference to the database. Further, there is further provided a delivery instruction means for transmitting delivery instruction information to the effect that the product relating to the sales contract data should be sent to the delivery destination specified by the delivery destination data to the delivery management server means.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to the sixth or seventh aspect, the delivery management server means sends delivery notification information indicating that delivery has been completed in accordance with the delivery instruction information. Upon receipt, further includes a delivery information recording means for performing a process for recording, in the database, a delivery completion status indicating that the delivery has been completed as delivery related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received delivery notification information. It is characterized by.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to any one of the sixth to eighth aspects, the sales contract data specifies a settlement date in a sales contract. In this case, the delivery instruction information is sent to the delivery management server means, irrespective of the contents of the payment-related information, when the sales contract data contains the settlement date, It is characterized by doing.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic settlement management system according to any one of the third to ninth aspects, a specific user is a buyer or a seller by referring to the database. Extract sales contract data,
12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising information notifying means for notifying the specific user of information including at least one of a progress status of settlement and a progress status of delivery based on the extracted sales contract data. The invention described in claim 12 relates to a method executed in the inventions described in claims 1 and 2.

[0016]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a system including an electronic settlement server 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an electronic settlement server 10 is configured by a computer system connected to the Internet 12. A server computer of an electronic market site (hereinafter, referred to as a market server) 14, a server computer of a shipping company (hereinafter, referred to as a shipping company server) 16, a large number of user computers 18, and the like are connected to the Internet 12. A user who intends to purchase or sell a product at the electronic market site can access the market server 14 from the user computer 18 and conclude a sales contract for the product. Further, the electronic settlement server 10 is connected to a server (hereinafter, referred to as an account management server) 22 that performs account management at each financial institution via a deposit account transfer system 20 standardized by the National Bankers Association. ,
An instruction to transfer funds between accounts can be issued to each account management server 22. In the present embodiment, the communication between the electronic settlement server 10 and the market server 14 is performed via the Internet 12. However, the present invention is not limited to this. May be configured to perform communication.

As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic payment server 10
Has a sales contract database 10a and a product delivery database 10b. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 show examples of registration data of the sales contract database 10a and the commodity delivery database 10b, respectively. As shown in FIG. 2, the sales contract database 10a includes a data registration date, a sales contract identification symbol (hereinafter, referred to as a contract ID), an electronic market site identification symbol (hereinafter, referred to as a site ID),
Trading contract number, financial institution name and account number of seller's settlement account, financial institution name and account number of buyer's settlement account, settlement amount, settlement date, transfer status, transfer execution date, settlement completion date, delivery status , Shipping order date, shipping date, and
This is a database in which a record including a link to the product delivery data registered in the product delivery database 10b is a record unit. Among them, the sales contract number is a number uniquely assigned by each electronic market site, whereas the contract ID is a unique ID assigned to each sales contract by the electronic settlement server 10. Each sales contract data is specified by the ID. As shown in FIG. 3, the product delivery database 10b is a database in which records including a seller name, a seller address, a buyer name, a buyer address, a product name, a model number, and a quantity are record units. As described below, the sales contract database 10a and the goods delivery database 10b are constructed based on the sales contract data received from the goods sales server 14 by the electronic settlement server 10. The sales contract database 10a and the product delivery database 10b may be integrated into one database.

In the present embodiment, the settlement of the sales contract concluded via the market server 14 is performed via the electronic settlement server 10 between the operator of the electronic market site and the operator of the electronic settlement server 10. And a site ID is assigned to each electronic market site. Each buyer has given the financial institution consent to withdraw the payment from the buyer's account in accordance with an instruction from the electronic payment server 10. In addition, the electronic market site operator, the operator of the electronic payment server 10, and the shipping company deliver the goods related to the sales contract concluded through the electronic market site from the electronic payment server 10. A contract has been made for the transportation company to follow the instructions. Further, the electronic market site operator has its own account at each financial institution, and designates one of the financial institution's accounts as the main account.

The contents of the processing executed in this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. In addition,
4 to 7 schematically show the contents of each processing in the present embodiment.

First, with reference to FIG. 4, the processing from the conclusion of a sales contract at the electronic market site to the debit from the buyer's account will be described. In the electronic market site, when a sales contract is concluded between the seller and the buyer (S100), the market server 14 stores the sales contract data relating to the contract in the site I of its own site.
D to the electronic payment server 10 (S10
2). The sales contract data includes the sales contract number, seller name, seller address, seller's settlement financial institution name / account number, buyer name,
The buyer address, the name and account number of the financial institution for settlement of the buyer, the settlement amount, the product name, the product type number, the quantity, and, if a settlement date is specified such as bill settlement, the settlement designation date is included. The transmission of the sales contract data may be performed each time a sales contract is established, or may be collectively performed at predetermined intervals, for example, once a day.

When receiving the sales contract data and the site ID from the market server 14, the electronic settlement server 10 generates a contract ID unique to each sales contract data.
Then, as shown in FIG. 2, together with the generated contract ID,
Each item included in the site ID and the sales contract data is recorded in the sales contract database 10a. At this time, the transfer status is set to “untransferred” and the delivery status is set to “undelivered”. Also, as shown in FIG. 3, the electronic settlement server 10 transmits the buyer name included in the received sales contract data,
The merchandise delivery data including the buyer address, the merchandise name, the merchandise model number, and the quantity are registered in the merchandise delivery database 10b, and the record number of the merchandise delivery data is recorded in the field of the merchandise delivery data link in the sales contract database 10a.

The electronic settlement server 10 classifies the sales contract data recorded in the sales contract database 10a for each buyer's settlement financial institution at an appropriate timing, for example, once a day, etc. The transfer instruction information on the corresponding sales contract data is transmitted to the account management server 22 (S104). That is, in the case of the example shown in FIG. 2, the transfer instruction information on the sales contract data of records # 100 and # 103 is sent to the account management server 22 of Bank B, and the transfer instruction information on the sales contract data of record # 101 is sent by C Shinkin Bank. To the account management server 22,
The transfer instruction information on the sales contract data of record # 102 is transmitted to the account management server 22 of Bank D. The transfer instruction information includes the contract ID, the settlement account number of the buyer, the settlement amount, and, if the settlement date is designated, the designated settlement date. Each account management server 2
2 performs the following processing depending on whether the received transfer instruction information includes the designated payment date.

That is, when the transfer instruction information does not include the designated settlement date, it is confirmed that the buyer's account has a balance more than the settlement amount, and the buyer's account is opened in the same financial institution. The settlement amount is transferred to the account of the electronic market site operator that has been set (S106). Then, the account management server 22 returns the contract ID of the sales contract for which the transfer has been completed, the transfer completion status information indicating that the transfer has been completed, and the transfer notification information including the transfer execution date to the electronic settlement server 10 (S108). . In addition, for a product sales contract that could not be transferred due to a shortage of the balance, transfer notification information including the contract ID of the sales contract and transfer impossible status information indicating transfer impossible is sent to the electronic settlement server 10.
Is returned (S106).

On the other hand, if the transfer instruction information includes the designated payment date, the transfer to the electronic settlement server 10 is performed on the contract ID, the designated payment date, and the specified payment date included in the transfer instruction information. The transfer notification information including the date transfer status information indicating that the transfer is completed is returned to the electronic settlement server 10 (S108). Then, when the designated payment date arrives, the payment amount is transferred from the buyer account to the account of the electronic market site operator (S106).

The electronic settlement server 10 performs the following operations based on the transfer notification information returned from each account management server 22.
Update the sales contract database 10a. That is, when the transfer notification information includes the transfer completion status information or the due date transfer status information, the transfer status of the sales contract data specified by the contract ID included in the transfer notification information is set to “transfer completed” or “due date transfer”. In addition to the change, the transfer execution date or the designated payment date included in the transfer notification information is recorded in the transfer execution date column. When the transfer notification information includes the status information of “transfer impossible”, the transfer status is changed to “transfer impossible” for the sales contract data specified by the contract ID included in the transfer notification information.

Next, a description will be given, with reference to FIG. The electronic settlement server 10 determines that the transfer status is "transfer completed" from the sales contract database 10a at an appropriate timing, for example, once a day.
Alternatively, the sales contract data that is “date transfer” and the delivery status is “undelivered” is extracted, and is directed to the shipping company server 16 based on the product delivery data linked to the extracted sales contract data. The delivery instruction information is transmitted together with each contract ID (S110). For example, in the case of the example shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the sales contract data of # 101 and # 102 are extracted, and based on the merchandise delivery data of # 26 and # 27 linked to these, the company C changes to the company D. Delivery instruction information indicating that one set of the printer MM-100 should be delivered, and two desk APs 55 from Company E to Company F
The delivery instruction information indicating that the set delivery is to be performed is transmitted to the shipping company server 16. Then, for the sales contract data for which the transmission of the delivery instruction information has been completed, the transmission date of the delivery instruction information is recorded in the field of the delivery instruction date.

The shipping company sends the seller's products to the buyer in accordance with the delivery instruction information transmitted to the shipping company server 16 (S112). When the shipping is completed, the shipping notification information including the completion of the shipping, the shipping date, and the contract ID of the sales contract for which the shipping is completed is returned to the electronic settlement server 10 (S114).

The electronic settlement server 10 updates the sales contract database 10a based on the shipping notification information received from the shipping company server 16. That is, for the sales contract data specified by the contract ID included in the shipping notification information, the delivery status is changed to “shipped”,
The shipping date included in the shipping notification information is recorded in the column of the product shipping date.

Next, with reference to FIG. 6, a description will be given of the concentration of funds deposited in the accounts of the respective financial institutions. The electronic payment server 10 transmits the fund concentration instruction information including the site ID of the electronic market site to the account management server 22 of each financial institution at an appropriate timing, for example, once a day (S120). ). The account management server 22 receiving the fund concentration instruction information transfers the balance from the account of the electronic market site operator specified by the site ID included in the fund concentration instruction information to the main account of the electronic market site operator. The process is executed (S122). As a result, funds that are distributed and deposited from the buyer account to the accounts held by the electronic market site operators at the respective financial institutions are concentrated on the main account. For example,
In the case of FIG. 6, the funds deposited from the buyer account to the accounts of the electronic market site operators of Bank A and Bank B are:
Funds are concentrated in the main account opened at Bank C. In addition, the fund concentration instruction information is transmitted to the market server 1.
4 to each account management server 22. When the concentration of funds is completed, the account management server 22
Sends the concentration completion information indicating that fact to the electronic settlement server 10.
Reply to

Next, the settlement process for the seller will be described with reference to FIG. The electronic settlement server 10 extracts, at an appropriate timing, for example, once a day or the like, from the sales contract database 10a, sales contract data in which the product shipping date is recorded (that is, the product shipping is completed). Then, for each of the extracted sales contract data, the financial institution in which the main account of the operator of the electronic market site specified by the site ID is opened (C in the case of FIG. 7).
The settlement instruction information is transmitted to the account management server 22 of the bank (S130). The settlement instruction information includes the seller's settlement financial institution name, account number, settlement amount, and contract ID of the sales contract data. The account management server 22 that has received the settlement instruction information executes a process for remitting the settlement amount to the seller's account included in the settlement instruction information (S132). When the remittance process to the seller account is completed, the account management server 22 returns to the electronic settlement server 10 the settlement completion information including the remittance process completion date and the contract ID of the corresponding sales contract data (S134). Then, the electronic settlement server 10 records the remittance processing completion date in the settlement completion date column of the sales contract data specified by the contract ID based on the received settlement completion information.

In the above description, the settlement processing is executed only for the sales contract for which the goods have been sent. However, depending on the conditions of the sales contract, the settlement processing may be performed regardless of whether the goods are sent. Is also good. That is, for example, with respect to a sales contract on the condition that liquidation processing is performed regardless of whether or not the product has been dispatched, information to that effect is recorded in the sales contract database 10a. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the settlement process is performed regardless of whether or not there is a record of the shipping date.

Next, the provision of information to buyers and sellers will be described. The electronic payment server 10 provides a buyer and seller with a web page (product delivery information providing web page) that provides information on the progress of the product delivery / transfer and information on the progress of the settlement of the price for the seller. It also functions as a server for a web page (a clearing information providing web page). That is, the electronic settlement server 10 has URLs for each web page, and the user can access the corresponding information providing web page by specifying each URL. In addition, access to each information providing WEB page is permitted only to registered users registered in the electronic payment server 10,
It is assumed that each registered user is given a user ID and a password.

First, the product dispatch information providing WEB page will be described. Buyer or seller has user computer 18
When the URL of the product delivery information providing WEB page is specified in, the electronic settlement server 10 displays an input screen for inputting a user ID, a password, a site ID of an electronic market site that has made a sales contract, and a sales contract number. Send to user computer 18. When these input items are returned from the user computer 18, the user is authenticated by the user ID and the password, and then the sales contract data specified by the site ID and the sales contract number of the electronic market site is converted into the sales contract database 10a. Extract from Then, based on the extracted sales contract data, a product delivery information providing page screen showing the status of the price transfer and the product delivery is generated and transmitted to the user computer 18.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a product delivery information providing page screen. The example shown in FIG. 8 is the record number 1 shown in FIG.
It corresponds to the sales contract data of No. 02 and is displayed in response to access from the buyer or the company F which is the seller in the sales contract. As shown in FIG. 8, on the product delivery information providing page screen, the reception date (the date of purchase and sale contract data registration in the electronic payment server 10), the date of debit from the buyer account (the transfer execution date), the product delivery instruction date, and The scheduled date and the execution date are displayed so as to correspond to the left and right for each of the product shipping dates. Note that the scheduled date is calculated based on the standard number of days required from receipt of the sales contract data to price transfer, delivery instruction, and product shipment.

In the example of FIG. 8, the reception date is September 20, 2000 for both the scheduled date column and the execution date column, the withdrawal date is September 24, for both the scheduled date and execution date, and the scheduled delivery date is September. 2
On the 4th, the execution date is September 25, and the shipping date is September 27
The date and execution date have not been shipped. When the transfer status of the sales contract data is “transfer impossible”, a warning message indicating that the sales contract cannot be fulfilled due to insufficient account balance is displayed on the merchandise delivery information providing page screen.

Next, the clearing information providing WEB page will be described. When the seller specifies the URL of the clearing information providing web page on the user computer 18, the electronic settlement server 10 transmits an input screen for inputting the user ID and the password to the user computer 18. Then, after performing user authentication using the user ID and the password returned from the user computer 18, the user identified by the user ID is extracted as the seller contract data, and based on the contract data, Generates a clearing information providing page screen indicating the progress of settlement for the sales contract and creates a user computer 1
Send to 8.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a clearing information providing page screen. As shown in FIG. 9, the settlement information providing page screen includes
For each sales contract made by the seller, the list of the site ID of the electronic market site, the sales contract number, the transfer execution date, the settlement completion date (that is, the date of payment to the seller account), and the settlement amount are displayed in a list. In this way, the buyer and the seller can check the progress of the product delivery or settlement at a glance by browsing the product delivery information providing page screen,
In addition, the seller can check the clearing progress at a glance by viewing the clearing information providing page screen.

It should be noted that, instead of providing information for buyers and sellers through the WEB page as described above, users registered in advance for buyers or sellers are communicated by communication means such as e-mail or FAX. May be provided.

As described above, according to the system of the present embodiment, when a sales contract is concluded on the electronic market site, the sales contract data is transmitted to the electronic settlement server 10, and thereafter, the settlement of the trading value is performed. A series of procedures up to and including product delivery are performed without human intervention. That is, since processing such as payment settlement and delivery arrangement, which conventionally required manual operation, can be automatically performed, it is possible to reduce the work load on the buyer and the seller. In addition, since payment is settled by debit from the buyer's account rather than by transfer by the buyer, the seller can reliably collect the payment, and the expected payment date can be predicted almost exactly. it can.

The sales contract database 10a records whether there is a transfer (payment from the buyer) and a settlement (payment to the seller account) for the sales contract of each contract ID.
The electronic settlement server 10 can notify the seller of the progress of the settlement processing of the sales contract data corresponding to the contract ID specified by each seller on the settlement information providing page screen. For this reason, the seller can automatically clear the receivables (that is, check the settlement), eliminating the need for complicated payment confirmation work, which was conventionally performed manually, and reduces the burden on the seller. It is further reduced.

Further, unless the price is withdrawn from the buyer's account, the product will not be shipped, and if the price is withdrawn, a delivery instruction will be issued automatically. In other words, it is possible to avoid the risk that the fee cannot be collected even though the product has been delivered, or that the product has not been delivered even though the price has been paid.

In the present embodiment, communication between the electronic settlement server 10 and the account management server 22 of each financial institution is
This is performed via the existing deposit account transfer system 20. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a new communication system when installing the electronic payment server 10, and the installation cost of the electronic payment server 10 is extremely small.

Further, in the case where the price is to be deducted from the buyer account to the seller account by a separate contract between the seller and the buyer, for example, as in the case of automatic withdrawal of electricity rates and subscription fees for magazines / newspapers, the seller must use each financial institution. It is necessary to carry out a procedure for transferring from the buyer account to the seller account between the buyer and the seller, but such a procedure is burdensome for a small-scale seller. On the other hand, by using the electronic payment server 10 of the present embodiment, it is possible to perform the payment by account transfer without performing the above procedure for each financial institution.

In the above embodiment, the price is transferred from the buyer account to each account of the electronic market site operator.
After concentrating the funds in the main account, it was decided to clear the seller by transferring from the main account to the seller's account, but this is not limited to this, and it is possible to transfer the price directly from the buyer account to the seller account Is also good.

Further, in the above embodiment, the same amount as the settlement amount related to the sales contract is debited from the buyer account and deposited into the seller account, but the amount deducted from the buyer account is increased by a predetermined fee from the settlement amount. Or
By reducing the amount of money deposited into the seller account by a predetermined fee, the electronic settlement server 10 may obtain commission income.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the commodity delivery instruction is issued at the stage when the price has been debited from the buyer account (ie, the transfer status has been completed).
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a product delivery instruction may be issued at the stage when payment to the seller account is completed (that is, when the settlement completion date is recorded).

In the above embodiment, the sales contract database 10a and the commodity delivery database 10b are provided in the electronic settlement server 10. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and these databases are managed by an external server. By transmitting a data recording instruction from the electronic payment server 10 to the external server, data recording / updating processing of each database may be performed.
The “processing for recording in a database” described in the claims includes transmitting a data recording instruction to an external server that manages the database in this way.

[0048]

According to the invention as set forth in claims 1 to 5, 11 and 12, for a commodity sales contract made via a market server means on a network, the settlement is made from the seller account to the buyer account. This is done by transfer.
For this reason, it is not necessary to perform a manual settlement process, and the burden on the seller and the buyer concerning the settlement can be reduced. Further, since the settlement is performed by transfer from the buyer account to the seller account, the seller can surely collect the payment, and there is an advantage that the payment timing to the seller account can be predicted almost accurately.

According to the invention of claims 6 to 8,
Since the product payment instruction is issued from the electronic payment server,
Sellers no longer need to arrange product delivery,
It is possible to reduce the burden on the seller more effectively.
Also, at the stage when the payment from the buyer account has been deducted or the payment to the seller account has been completed, the product shipping instruction is automatically performed, so that the seller can confirm the status of payment from the buyer for each sales contract (erasing the accounts receivable). ) Can be eliminated. Also, until the money is deducted from the buyer's account or the money is paid to the seller's account, the product delivery will not be performed, and the product delivery instruction will be issued at the stage when the money is debited or paid. Thus, the transaction security for both the seller and the buyer can be ensured.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, in response to a sales contract in which a settlement date is designated, such as a bill settlement,
It becomes possible to ship the product without waiting for the payment to be withdrawn.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide the buyer or the seller with information on at least one of the settlement status and the product delivery status.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram including an electronic payment server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of registration data of a sales contract database provided in an electronic settlement server.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of registration data of a product delivery database provided in the electronic payment server.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing processing from the conclusion of a sales contract at an electronic market site to the debit of a buyer's account.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a commodity delivery process.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a concentration process of funds deposited in an account of each financial institution.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a settlement process for a seller.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a product delivery information providing page screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a clearing information provision page screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Electronic payment server 10a Sales contract database 10b Product delivery database 12 Internet 14 Market server 16 Transport company server 22 Account management server

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroto Takagi 2-7-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Inside Mitsubishi Bank of Tokyo, Ltd. Address 7 Diamond Computer Service Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B055 CB00

Claims (12)

[Claims] An electronic market service for making a sales contract on a network, comprising computer means communicably connected to account management server means provided at each financial institution for managing funds in each account. An electronic payment management system for managing payment for a merchandise sales contract made through a provided market server means, wherein the seller and the buyer settle accounts related to the merchandise sales contract made through the market server means. With reference to a database in which the sales contract data including the seller account ID and the buyer account ID for specifying each and the settlement amount of the product sales contract are recorded, for each of the sales contract data recorded in this database, The account management server means provided in the financial institution in which the account specified by the account ID is opened On the other hand, transfer instruction means for transmitting transfer instruction information indicating that an amount corresponding to the settlement amount should be debited from the account specified by the buyer account ID and deposited into a predetermined account of the financial institution; Fund concentration instruction means for withdrawing funds from the predetermined account to the fund management server means, and transmitting fund concentration instruction information indicating that funds should be deposited in a predetermined fund concentration account of a predetermined financial institution; For each sales contract data recorded in the database, clearing instruction information indicating that an amount corresponding to the settlement amount should be deducted from the fund concentration account and deposited in the account specified by the seller account ID, A clearing instruction means for transmitting to the account management server means of the financial institution in which the centralized account has been established, the electronic settlement management system. 2. An electronic market service for making a sales contract on a network, comprising computer means communicatively connected to account management server means provided at each financial institution for managing funds in each account. An electronic payment management system for managing payment for a merchandise sales contract made through a provided market server means, wherein the seller and the buyer settle accounts related to the merchandise sales contract made through the market server means. With reference to a database in which the sales contract data including the seller account ID and the buyer account ID for specifying each and the settlement amount of the product sales contract are recorded, for each of the sales contract data recorded in this database, For the account management server means provided in the financial institution having the account specified by the account ID Electronic settlement comprising: settlement instruction means for debiting the settlement amount from the account specified by the buyer account ID and transmitting settlement instruction information indicating that the account should be deposited into the account specified by the seller account ID. Management system. 3. The electronic settlement management system according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the account management server unit having received the transfer instruction information, transfer completion information indicating that the process indicated by the transfer instruction information has been completed. And a transfer completion recording means for performing a process for recording a transfer completion status indicating that transfer processing of the price has been completed in the database as settlement related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received transfer completion information. An electronic payment management system characterized by the following. 4. The electronic payment management system according to claim 2, wherein when the payment completion information indicating that the process specified by the payment instruction information is completed is received from the account management server unit that has received the payment instruction information. And settlement completion recording means for performing a process for recording a settlement completion status indicating that the payment settlement process is completed in the database as settlement related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received settlement completion information. Electronic payment management system characterized by the following. 5. The electronic settlement management system according to claim 1, wherein the account management server means, which has received the settlement instruction information, sends settlement completion information indicating that the process designated by the settlement instruction information has been completed. Upon receipt, settlement completion recording means for performing a process for recording a settlement completion status indicating that the payment settlement process is completed in the database as settlement related information of the sales contract data corresponding to the received settlement completion information. An electronic payment management system, comprising: 6. The electronic payment management system according to claim 3, wherein said electronic payment management system is communicably connected to a delivery management server means for managing a product delivery means, and said sales contract data is a product sales contract. If the transfer completion status is recorded as the settlement-related information of the sales contract data with reference to the database, the product relating to the sales contract data An electronic payment management system, further comprising: delivery instruction means for transmitting, to the delivery management server means, delivery instruction information to be sent to a delivery destination specified by destination data. 7. The electronic settlement management system according to claim 4, wherein said electronic settlement management system is communicably connected to a delivery management server means for managing a commodity delivery means, and said sales contract data is a commodity. Including delivery destination data related to the delivery destination of the product related to the sales contract, referring to the database, when the settlement completion status is recorded as the settlement related information of the sales contract data, the product related to the sales contract data An electronic settlement management system, further comprising: delivery instruction means for transmitting delivery instruction information to the destination specified by the delivery destination data to the delivery management server means. 8. The electronic settlement management system according to claim 6, wherein, when receiving from the delivery management server means dispatch notification information indicating that dispatch has been completed in accordance with the delivery instruction information, the received dispatch notification information includes An electronic settlement management system, further comprising: a delivery information recording unit that performs a process for recording a delivery completion status indicating that the delivery has been completed in the database as delivery related information of the corresponding sales contract data. 9. The electronic settlement management system according to claim 6, wherein the sales contract data includes a settlement date when a settlement date is specified in the sales contract, The delivery instruction means, when the sales contract data includes a settlement date, regardless of the content of the settlement-related information,
An electronic settlement management system, wherein the delivery instruction information is transmitted to the delivery management server means. 10. The electronic settlement management system according to claim 3, wherein a sales contract data in which a specific user is a buyer or a seller is extracted with reference to the database, and the extracted data is extracted. An electronic settlement management system, further comprising an information notifying unit for notifying the specific user of information including at least one of a settlement progress state and a delivery progress state based on the sales contract data. 11. A commodity sales contract made via said market server means by computer means communicatively connected to market server means for providing an electronic market service for making a commodity sales contract on a network. An electronic payment management method for managing payment, comprising: a seller account ID and a buyer account ID for respectively specifying settlement accounts of a seller and a buyer related to a product sales contract made via the market server means; With reference to the database in which the sales contract data including the settlement settlement amount of the contract is recorded, each sales contract data recorded in this database is provided in the financial institution in which the account specified by the buyer account ID is opened. To the account management server means, the amount corresponding to the settlement amount to the buyer account A transfer instruction step of transmitting transfer instruction information indicating that the account should be debited from the account specified in D and transferred to a predetermined account of the financial institution; and the predetermined account is transmitted to the account management server means of each financial institution. A fund concentration instruction step of transmitting fund concentration instruction information indicating that funds should be debited to a predetermined fund concentration account of a predetermined financial institution, and for each sales contract data registered in the database, the settlement The account management server of the financial institution where the fund concentration account has been opened, the settlement instruction information indicating that the amount corresponding to the amount should be deducted from the fund concentration account and deposited into the account specified by the seller account ID. And a clearing instruction step for transmitting to the means. 12. A commodity sales contract made via said market server means by computer means communicatively connected to market server means for providing an electronic market service for making a commodity sales contract on a network. An electronic payment management method for managing payment, comprising: a seller account ID and a buyer account ID for respectively specifying settlement accounts of a seller and a buyer related to a product sales contract made via the market server means; With reference to the database in which the sales contract data including the settlement settlement amount of the contract is recorded, for each sales contract data recorded in this database, the sales contract data provided in the financial institution having the account specified by the buyer account ID is referred to. The account management server means sends the settlement amount to the account specified by the buyer account ID. Electronic payment management method characterized in that it comprises a transfer instruction sending a transfer instruction information to be credited to an account specified by the seller account ID to debit.