ELECTRONIC CATALOG AND SHARED ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION SYSTEM
PRIORITY TO PRIOR APPLICATION
This application claims priority to Provisional Application
Serial No. 60/102,967 filed October 2, 1998.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to the field of
electronic databases and, more particularly, is directed to an
electronic catalog and shared electronic transaction system which
enables users of the system to retrieve requested data conveniently
and economically.
The present invention will be described in the context of a
government order processing system, but the novel and unobvious
features of the invention have application in a wide variety of
government and commercial (business-to-business) environments where
large amounts of information must be cataloged and made available
to users in an expeditious manner. The invention is described for
its use on the World Wide Web part of the Internet. It should be
understood, however, that the benefits of the invention may be
realized with any computer network (LAN, etc.) that supports
multiple users.
One of the most important requirements of an economy is to
bring buyer's wishing to buy products into contact with sellers
[having products to sell] . In an economy driven by competition,
there are often many competing products from which a buyer can-
choose. Moreover, as modern day communications make the world
smaller and greatly expand market territories, a buyer is often
confronted with a confusing array of considerations when making a
purchasing decision. Price, quality, suitability, and delivery time
are but a few of the many factors a purchaser must consider when
making a purchasing decision. Thus, an informed purchasing decision
often requires the purchaser evaluate the offerings of several
vendors. Doing so can be time consuming and a busy purchaser may
simply opt to make a purchase without doing any real comparison
shopping. While making purchasing decisions in this manner may not
be detrimental for a small number of purchases, the potential
savings that result from a more careful purchasing decision can
mount substantially when large numbers of purchases are involved.
For example, federal, state and local governments routinely make
purchasing decisions involving large numbers of items and large
sums of money. The ability to make purchasing decisions quickly
while simultaneously ensuring the proper item is purchased at the
lowest cost is critical to maintaining the effectiveness of a
procurement system.
In addition, vendors also require an efficient and cost-
effective way of informing potential customers of their wares.
Traditionally, paper catalogs, advertisements and personal sales
calls have served this purpose. Each of these methods has its
inherent drawbacks. For example, paper catalogs are expensive to
print and distribute and usually do not remain current for any
significant length of time. Advertising and personal- sales calls
also are expensive and tradeoffs must be made over which products
will be promoted to which potential customers.
Accordingly, there is a great need for a system which can
effectively catalog large amounts of information such as product
description, prices and the like, make it available to those in
need of such information in the form of multiple comparative
shopping listings, and allow for real-time purchase transactions,
including credit facility use, all in a secure electronic
environment .
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In order to meet this need, Applicant has invented an
electronic catalog and shared electronic transaction system. The
novel features of the invention will be understood more fully and
clearly from the following description of the invention as set
forth in the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is an illustration of the system architecture of the
present invention;
Figure 2 is an illustration of a product mapping process in
accordance with the present invention;
Figure 3 is an illustration of a 3-step catalog search in
accordance with the present invention;
Figure 4 is an illustration of how transactions may be shared
in accordance with the present invention;
Figure 5 is an illustration of a process for printing
completed PDF forms using data entered into HTML forms in
accordance with the present invention; and
Figure 6 is a data flow of the interaction between a buyer and
a seller in accordance with the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As mentioned above, the present invention and processes will
be described in the context of a government order processing system
as implemented on the World Wide Web and will be referred to as an
"Electronic Catalog Service." Figure 1 illustrates the system
architecture. The invention and processes can also be applied in
the commercial setting.
Electronic Catalog Service
The Electronic Catalog Service is the common entry point for
all buyers and sellers. The supplier catalogs with MSRP prices can
be searched by anyone. Private contract catalogs are only searched
and used to create RFQs (Request for Proposal) and purchase orders
by authorized buyers.
The Electronic Catalog Service provides the ability for a
governmental entity to post its term contracts, schedule contracts,
surplus property and other buying vehicles that are available to
multiple buying jurisdictions, on an on-line, Internet environment.
This selective "electronic catalog" capability also permits
buyers to make their purchase selections on-line, and have them
converted into EDI or FAX purchase/release orders for transmission
to the catalog supplier. The buyer vehicles are in themselves small
"catalogs" that contain items, part numbers, and previously
negotiated or set prices. These mini contract "catalogs" are
maintained in the private part of the catalog database where buyers
can access them through the Internet. Only those buyers that have
the authority to make purchases off of a particular contract can
see items and prices. When a buyer has access to multiple
contracts covering the same products or a buyer wants to check
published MSRP prices from public catalogs, he or she is able to
compare the prices for the different suppliers and manufacturers of
similar items.
The backbone of the catalog holds three major types of items
that make up the products and services that the buyers buy and the
sellers sell, First there are the generic items -- 175,000 covered
by the NIGP 11 digit code and over 6 million in the Federal Supply
Catalog. Second, each generic item is replicated 5 to 10 times
with each occurrence associated with a different manufacturer's
part number - over 20 million in the Federal Supply Catalog.
Third, these specific items can be replicated 10 to 20 times for
the different contracts or catalogs that carry them. These items
carry the additional supplier's stock or price list number.
Internet technology is rapidly evolving. As it continues to
improve, the catalog will become more graphical and support
multimedia presentations that will surpass the quality of the
message that suppliers make now in their print catalogs. While
links are routinely provided to supplier web-sites so that buyers
can investigate a particular product or service, many small
merchants will not want to build their own web site capable of
sending out streaming audio, video and animation feeds.
An integral part of the Electronic Catalog Service is to work
directly with site promotion services to ensure the maximum and
most appropriate visibility of Web site facilities to Web search
engines and other appropriate points of publicity, including
placement of animated "tile" advertising on appropriate Web pages
(e.g., the Netscape Net Search page) and active promotion of
reciprocal hypertext linking with related Web sites.
Catalog Enhancements
A number of pre-existing databases make the service offered by
the present invention unique and much easier to find items than
services that just load contract items into a database. Even
before any contracts items are loaded into the database, it is
already filled with the following databases:
NIGP Code
The foundation of the procurement catalog data management
system of the present invention is the NIGP Commodity code.
Contract and open market catalog data is mapped to the NIGP code as
the common delineator so familiar to public sector purchasing
agents. The code is licensed from NIGP.
The NIGP coding scheme provides familiar, visible
classifications that buyers will use to search for items to
purchase. The unique capability of the central catalog is the
neutral link and cross reference that it provides to other major
catalogs. Multi-vendor catalogs such as those built by Granger,
Sweets or Sears as well as those from single manufacturers like
Caterpillar whose catalog, though proprietary, are completely
replicated by independent catalog companies.
Another enhancement to the catalog is to add tools that assist
the buyer in preparing RFQs for complex products and services and
that assist the seller in working up' their Bids. Using the latest
Internet technology, these tools are being converted into Java
applets that run at the user's PC and work on data files linked to
the product or service being solicited.
Trade Services Catalogs
Trade Service Corporation is the recognized leader in
providing Benchmark Pricing to agencies throughout the United
States. As a neutral third party provider of data, Trade Service
gathers information from thousands of manufacturers throughout the
country. This information is compiled into industry standard
databases. The information is massaged to ensure consistent
output, and then disseminated in multiple formats depending on user
requirements. The information is constantly updated to reflect the
manufacturers' latest suggested resale price, as well as catalog
number, UPC, unit of measure, etc.
Benchmark pricing, and electronic catalogs developed around
live information, generally results in deeper discounts for
agencies. This is due to the varied commodity structures against
which vendors are able to bid. Rather than provide a single
discount for commodities, the vendors can provide multiple
discounts against commodities, sub commodities, manufacturer lines
or single items. Bids can be received against a fair fixed price
for the life of the contract, or allowed to float as economic
changes occur. In this case, the negotiated discount is factored
against the changing list price. The database always remains
current reflecting negotiated contract pricing. Benchmark, or
neutral third party pricing benefits public sector agencies
throughout the solicitation, pre-and post-award processes.
Trade Service databases are used as a benchmark throughout the
bid process. Because the information is neutral, containing
Universal Product Codes (UPC's) and manufacturer catalog numbers,
rather than vendor specific SKU numbers, all vendors can respond to
solicitations with the assurance that they are bidding against a
level playing field. Vendors provide discounts against the
manufacturer's list price, rather than the vendors' list price.
This streamlines the process for evaluating bids, comparing
responses, and awarding contracts; and ultimately saves
considerable time and taxpayer dollars.
The electronic catalog becomes a powerful tool for ordering
materials and auditing vendor invoices. Because the database
contains UPC's, it reflects the same schema as vendors' internal
systems making ordering consistent.
A central data repository managed by a neutral third party
data provider will improve the purchasing and materials management
functions. Improvements are through the reduction in data errors
inherent in manual input, accessibility to bar code and product
identification information, current contract pricing, and material
safety data sheets. Through the use of industry standard data that
utilizes universal product codes cross referenced to manufacturer
part/stock numbers, the jurisdiction can expect reduced transaction
costs, increased buying power through aggregated purchasing, and
streamlined contracting processes.
Federal Supply Catalog
This catalog, built and maintained by the Department of
Defense over the last 50 years, provides over 6 million National
Stock Number (NSN) items that have been identified as having unique
form, fit and function and have been classified by three coding
schemes that will link to the NIGP codes:
Federal Supply Class (FSC)
Federal Item Identification Guide (FUG)
Approved Items Name (AIN)
Once links have been made between the NIGP codes and the NSNs,
other valuable information can be made available, such as:
Specific Manufacturer Part Numbers
Prices for Previously Awarded Contracts
Searchable Technical Characteristics
Excess/Surplus Inventory Items
The service also has the capability for governmental entities
to advertise excess and surplus property on the Internet. The
advertisements are searchable by the NIGP Code (both class 998 and
the class-item for the item when originally purchased;- i.e. 070-06
for automobiles) . Advertising jurisdictions will have several
options :
Restrict sale of the item to other units of
government; sale to be by electronic bid with a specified
bid opening date.
Permit the item to be sold to anyone, including the
general public; sale to be by electronic bid with a
specified bid opening date.
Offer the item for sale at a pre-established price
(restricted or unrestricted) .
Agencies are able to advertise upcoming auctions of excess and
surplus property. This information can be made available on the
Internet to the general public who could search by commodity code
or geographic location.
Currently there is no established marketplace for selling
excess and surplus property that is unique to government; such as
voting machines, police radios, etc. This capability provides a
low cost method for creating an electronic marketplace.
Product Mapping Process
Figure 2 illustrates how the product mapping process occurs in
accordance with the present invention. The system administrator
receives computer files from buyers and vendors. These files
contain lists of product names and contract or manufacturer
suggested prices for various products. The contract prices are
usually ones which have been the subject of negotiation between the
buyer and the vendor and will remain in effect for some period of
time. The manufacturer suggested prices, on the other hand, are
prices which are available to the general public.
In addition to product prices, the computer files may also
contain manufacturer model numbers for each of the products,
products descriptions, the manufacturer's name, quantity price
breaks and may even include a graphical representation of the
product. In essence, the computer file is an electronic equivalent
of a conventional paper catalog. The computer file, however, can be
searched electronically based on key words and various other search
parameters and relationships.
The objective of the mapping process is to take product
catalog information from various buyers and vendors which is often
not consistent between catalogs and map it to an existing reference
catalog of product data (i.e., the proprietary data structure
illustrated in Figure 2) . The reference catalog is created from a
number of sources, including industry codes such as the National
Stock Number ("NSN"), the National Institute of Government
Purchases (NIGP) and the Universal Product Code ("UPC"). These
codes represent classifications for various products and are well
understood by the purchasing industry. A classification for most
products can be found in each of the codes. Many states and local
governments also have product coding systems which the present
invention may use as well.
In mapping the buyer and vendor catalog files, various key
words such as product name and model number are used to find the
proper classification in the reference catalog. The process is
greatly aided if the buyer and/or vendor catalog files also include
an NSN, NIGP or UPC code for each product. If the buyer and vendor
catalog files do not include such a code, the file may be compared
to a stored database of invoices, purchase orders, bills of lading
and the like in search of an NSN, NIGP or UPC code which matches
the product. Such purchasing records are available from the Federal
Government as well as other sources. If an appropriate
classification cannot be determined automatically, a human operator
can make the determination.
Once a classification for the product has been determined, it
is given a new reference code from the reference catalog. Using the
techniques of the present invention, it has been found that a
proper classification can automatically be determined 85 percent of the time.
Product Catalog Search
Figure 3 is a flow chart of a 3 -step catalog search in
accordance with the present invention. For example, if an end-user
wishes to retrieve information on a particular product, appropriate
key words are used to find the product classification. Once the
classification is found, the second step involves finding a
particular sub-category for the product.
This sub-category may well include several similar products
from different manufactures, thus enabling the user to do product
comparisons. The user then completes the third step by making a
product selection based on, for example, manufacture and model
number.
The steps involved in preparing and using the catalog for a
state or local government purchasing offices are described m the
following sections:
Verify Catalogs & Set Up Contracts
Contract officers browse items in the Contract Catalogs they
received after they have been loaded or updated by them or their
suppliers. Contract officers also set-up, confirm or change the
prices and terms for each contract they are administering. Larger
suppliers can also perform these same functions. Smaller suppliers
using the first level service cannot make changes to the catalog
items .
Browse Contract Catalogs
Buyers can search through items in the catalogs limited to the
catalogs from which they are authorized to purchase and their
product profiles. Both of these filters can be easily modified for
a particular session by turning on and off specific contract and/or
product groups. There are two basic methods of locating an item.
The keyword method is a two step process with the first search
returning those product families that match the entered keywords.
Then the user picks the lowest level product family to see the
items available for purchase. The second method of browsing the
catalog database is to navigate down a product family hierarchy
that often has small pictures related to the type of product. When
the lowest level product family is reached, the user picks those
he or she wishes to purchase. The final list of actual items to
purchase can be filtered by manufacturer, price and keyword in the
product name .
Query Public Catalogs
If a buyer cannot find an item on the Contract Catalogs issued
to them by their Contract Administrator, they can search the public
Supplier Catalogs maintained at the Catalog Service. This can be
done at the same time as the search of authorized contracts or
separately by modifying the catalog profile for that session. The
Buyer can do comparison shopping between the prices of items that
may appear on multiple private contracts or public catalogs. The
result is a list of similar items from different manufacturers and
different suppliers.
Electronic Procurement System
Figure 4 illustrates a business model for conducting commerce
in accordance with the present invention. The top portion of Figure
4 shows the conventional manner in which buyers and vendors
interact. The arrows indicate the exchange of purchase information
in the form of request for quotes, purchase orders, invoices, bill
of sales, shipping notices and the like. The exchange of each piece
of information is in many cases only for the purpose of creating a
"paper trail" should reconciliation become necessary. Creating this
"paper trail" is, however, expensive, time consuming, and is
wasteful of resources. The need to dispose of these paper records
when they are no longer needed poses additional concerns.
Applicant has discovered that a more efficient way of tracking
commercial transactions is to maintain them in a shared database as
illustrated in the bottom portion of Figure 4. When a buyer wishes
to submit, for example, a purchase order, it is stored in the
shared database and is immediately available for review by a
vendor. Thus, there is no reconciliation necessary because only one
copy of the transaction exists, i.e., the copy which is stored in
the shared database.
The Electronic Procurement System is for those procurement
offices that wish to maintain an electronic link with their
suppliers, but do not want to undergo the time and expense to setup
direct EDI links between themselves and all their suppliers under
contract. Using a secure Internet browser, buyers can look at
records of all intermediate revisions or cancellations of purchase
orders, shipping notices and invoices that flow back on forth
between them and the buyer. The electronic link on the supplier
side can be either through the Internet if they are using the
Bidder's Service or through their established EDI VAN.
The introduction of "Purchasing Cards" has helped to reduce
overall administrative costs. The service accepts these
purchasing cards, along with other general purpose credit cards.
Administer Buyers & Suppliers
Contract administrators set-up and assign Buyers who are
authorized to make purchases off of each contract and/or if they
can make purchases of public catalogs at suggested retail prices.
Contract administrators or the Buyers themselves can also set up a
product profile that will be used to limit the items in the public
catalogs or private contract catalogs. Suppliers that do not have
a contract or public catalog loaded at the Catalog Service can
register themselves and maintain their own product profiles for
filtering RFQs that they are interesting in bidding on.
Prepare RFQs or Purchase Orders
The Buyer selects the items they wish to purchase from the
private contract or public supplier catalogs on their Internet
Site. The Buyer has the following options as to how they would
like to proceed when looking at a list of similar items:
Pick specific items to put on Request For
Quotes to be sent to the appropriate
suppliers. In this case the item is known and
the supplier responds with their best price.
Pick generic items without a Manufacturer and
Product Number to put on a Request for Quote
that is sent to the appropriate Suppliers. In
this case the Supplier selects the specific
item in their response.
Pick generic items without indicating a
Supplier. This is known as an un-addressed
RFQ that is addressed each night by the
Electronic Catalog Service according to
Supplier profiles. These requests are also
placed on the Electronic Bidder's Service for
Suppliers to search if they do not received
notice of the item due to their product
Profile .
Pick specific items with a manufacturer and
part number to put on purchase orders to be
sent to the appropriate suppliers.
Buyer orders are immediately updated in the Electronic
Procurement System databases and are immediately available for any
Supplier that is a customer of the Bidder's Service. For those
that are not, the order is transmitted through the EDI VAN service
if the Supplier is registered as EDI-capable. If not the order is
sent either via e-mail or fax depending on preference of the
registered Suppliers.
Authorize Payment for Orders
If the user wants to pay for the order immediately with a
credit card, digital certificate smart card or procurement card,
the service takes control of the operations to perform the payment
and order fulfillment processes. The exchanges between the browser
and the server are encrypted to insure confidentiality and
performed behind a firewall. The check-out procedure is as follows.
After establishing a secure link with the browser, the server
receives the content of the shopping cart and presents an order
form to the buyer for collection of secure personal information to
complete the transaction. The client then enters the requested
personal information (billing and shipping addresses, phone number,
E-mail address, etc.); chooses among the payment options offered;
then enters the requested payment information, e.g. credit card
type, account number, etc.
All information that is captured in the above process is
recorded in a secure transaction database for subsequent use in
daily and monthly reports. The process also adds t e applicable
taxes and shipping costs.
Review or Update Orders
The Supplier receives its orders from the Buyers either
immediately through the Catalog Service if the are a customer, or
via an EDI transmission, Fax or E-mail depending on their level of
service. The supplier then indicates if the order can be shipped in
full, or if one or more line items must be back ordered.
When a supplier is an EDI customer or a Bidde'r's Service
customer, the buyer will receive acknowledgments, adjusted purchase
orders and intent to ship documents soon after the supplier releases
them. For any item on an order that is not yet indicated as being
shipped, the buyer can cancel or change and re-submit it to the
suppl ier .
Receive Shipping Notices and Invoices
Suppliers that are customers of the Bidders Service can "turn¬
around" the Purchase Order into multiple Shipping Notices or
Invoices when they are ready to ship. The Supplier can indicate
that some items must be back-ordered and thus create partial
Shipment Notices or Invoices by picking a subset of the line items
or by splitting the quantity ordered into shipped and not-shipped
quantities for individual line items.
EDI capable suppliers use their own internal system to process
the order and send it back to the Buyer through their EDI VAN
Service. Suppliers that received their orders either via Fax or E-
mail notify the Buyer of the intention to ship via traditional means
or via E-mail. In all cases, however, the status of the order will
simply be "PO Sent" until the Buyer authorizes a payment for the
purchase. Buyers will immediately see these shipping notices and
invoices if they are a customer of the Order Management Service.
Update Order History
A copy of all sales invoices processed by the Catalog Service
or received by the VAN service are recorded by the Order Management
Service. These award notices can be kept as part of the Contract
Catalogs. Copies of all transactions processed by the Catalog
Service or sent through the VAN Service are kept in the Order
Management database for daily and monthly reporting.
Billing and Payment Methods
In order to complete the purchase cycle and capture important
data about the procurement process, an electronic payment must be
made. It can be by credit card and the traditionally paper-based
part of the transaction is over. But most business and governments
would rather pay monthly bills and only pay after goods have been
received and inspected to be in good condition. Converting this
method of payment is a challenge for everyone involved, now
including the buyer's and seller's bank. The service was the first
to support a totally secure environment including credit cards, and
bank independent Electronic Funds Transfer, in addition to providing
a unique capability to connect with suppliers using Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) for managing and processing of orders and
invoices .
This system has a comprehensive payment and order fulfillment
capability. It includes a transaction server and many back-office
functions: processing credit card payments (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX,
Discover and all other popular cards) ; business purchase cards for
business-to-business transactions; tax calculations; shipping method
selection and billing; e-mail confirmations; inventory verification
and complete order fulfillment including delivery of orders to
multiple suppliers in any format of choice - EDI, fax, e-mail or
computer file. These functions take place behind a "firewall" which
prevents unauthorized access to the back-office functions. The
system provides access to transactional and statistical information
pertaining to a customer purchases either on-line or as report
files .
The system has integrated payment and order-processing
capabilities into its catalog web-site using Industry-standard
security software that supports Microsoft and Netscape Internet
browsers as well as the new Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)
protocol developed by MasterCard and Visa International .
State and local government purchasers can securely market
products and services, accept orders, process payments and fulfill
orders on the Internet. Delivery can be immediate in the case of
soft goods such as publication material, registrations and software.
In the case of hard goods, a transaction will be transmitted to the
suppliers and goods will be shipped in the normal fashion.
The moment that the customer commits to make a purchase by
clicking on the prepare order button, the Catalog Service completes
the payment and order fulfillment process in a secure back-office
environment. The payment can be accompanied by a remittance notice
if the supplier is capable of receiving EDI transactions.
Credit Card Transactions
An example illustrates the flow of information for a credit
card transactions. An on-line credit check with the appropriate
financial institution is made through the normal credit card
authorization process if the credit is authorized, the required
funds for order settlement is temporarily held until it is
determined if the merchant is able to fulfill the order and the
customer is notified on-line of the status; if the credit request
is denied, the customer is notified on-line that his order can not
be accepted the order is sent to the supplier via the Internet as
an E-mail, fax or a computer file or in EDI format.
The supplier acknowledges receipt of order following an
inventory verification, an invoice confirmation is returned to the
Order Management Service by the supplier if the order can be
fulfilled; if the order can not be fulfilled, notification to this
effect is transmitted. The pending payment transaction is processed
through the financial institutions. Where the order is fulfilled
both the customer and the supplier are notified of the outcome of
the purchase request (e.g. by E-mail, or Fax) and the customer
receives a final invoice if the order is being fulfilled, or a
notification that the order cannot be fulfilled in accordance with
contract or delivery requirements.
Upon completion of the processing of an order, the Order
Management Service provides confirmation on the acceptance/refusal
of the order to the intervening parties. An important feature of the
service is that the system can accept all popular credit cards for
which the individual merchants have been accredited, including VISA,
Mastercard and American Express, while the debiting of purchaser
accounts and crediting of merchant accounts can take place with any
financial institution. Furthermore, the system will also accept a
large number of private credit cards, e.g. from retail
organizations .
On-Account Transactions
In the case of a state and local jurisdiction, ordering from
a supplier under some form of blanket purchase agreement or
indefinite delivery contract, it is more common to pay on account
as opposed to use of a credit card as per the previous examples . The
supplier in this case will have established terms of payment with
its clients, e.g. net 30 days.
The process for on-account payments is similar to the credit
card process with the following differences. The first step is to
confirm that the customer has a valid pre-established account with
the merchant. The order processing proceeds in the same manner the
order confirmation proceeds in the same manner with an invoice being
sent to the customer; however, there is no immediate debiting of the
customer account and crediting of the merchant account, as was the
case with credit card payments, as payment will only be due at some
future date as established between the merchant and the customer the
invoice can be paid on-line through the Internet at any time after
receipt, with the option of specifying the deferred date on which
payment is to be made.
Procurement Card Transactions
These type of transactions are similar to the credit card
transactions m that an on-line check with the appropriate financial
institution is made.
Complete Transactions Reporting
A complete record of all buyer transactions is available, made
through the Catalog Service. In addition to the standard transaction
reporting, many other analysis type reports can be generated for
improved management information.
An example of a report is an open purchase order journal
produced on an ad-hoc basis including vendor order details and order
fulfillment status. The Order Management Service can also provide
information that helps to determine which products are being
frequently ordered that might be better purchased in larger lot
sizes .
Daily Transactions
This report gives a list of all transactions performed so far
during the current day. The information contained in the report is:
Transaction number
Date and Time of transaction
Organization ID
Buyer ID
Seller ID
Session ID (recorded sequentially for each buyer )
Contract ID
Payment Type
Sales Total
Shipping cost charged
State or Provincial sales Tax
Federal Sales Tax
Transaction Total ( sum of sales amount + shipping +
sales taxes )
Seller's Name
Seller's Address ( excluding City, State/Region, Zip and
Country) .
Seller's City, State/Region, Zip and Country
Telephone number of Seller
E-mail Address of Seller
Shipping Name ( Name appearing in shipping address )
Shipping Address ( excluding City, State/Region, Zip and
Country) .
Shipping City, State/Region, Zip and Country
Billing Name ( Name appearing in the billing address )
Billing Address ( excluding City, State/Region Zip and
Country) .
Billing City, State/Region, Zip and Country
Telephone number of Buyer
E-mail address of Buyer
Status code indicating the completion status of the
transaction.
Confirmation code ( this is the credit acceptance code ) .
Daily Transaction Detail
This report gives the details on the products involved in a
specific transaction. This report provides the information contained
in the transactions of the day listed above plus the following
product information (one line per product) :
Transaction number
Product number.
Quantity ordered.
Product description ( obtained from the catalog ) .
Unit price of the product.
Monthly Transactions
This report will list all products and services for all
transactions performed during a specified month. The information
given in this report is:
Transaction number
Date and Time of transaction
Product number
Quantity
Product Description
Unit Price of product
Monthly Transaction Summary
The information provided in report summarizes the daily
transactions with the following information:
Total number of transactions during the period.
Total State or Provincial sales tax for the period
Total Federal sales tax for the period
Total shipping charge for the period
Total transaction amounts for the period.
The information is grouped by:
Completed transactions
Rejected transactions
Canceled transactions
Problem transactions
Product and Services Purchased Summary
A monthly file which contains a list of all products sold
during the month along with the class, name, supplier, purchase
amount, manufacturer and quantity (if applicable) sold for each
product and service.
HTML-PDF Forms
Figure 5 illustrates another concept in accordance with the
present invention related to business forms. There are many
situations known in the prior art wherein filling out a paper form
is a prerequisite to obtaining a service or benefit. Insurance and
medical forms readily come to mind. In most cases, the service or
benefit will not be rendered unless the proper form is used and is
completed in the proper way.
Applicant has discovered a novel way in which much of the
tedium can be eliminated when completing complex and cumbersome
forms. The invention builds on the advances in printing documents
made possible by the Adobe PDF technology. Although PDF technology
represents a major advance m printing complex documents, there
remained deficiencies in how the printed information is compiled
In accordance with the present invention, a process is provided
in which data for a printed form can be entered into, for example,
a user friendly HTML form. The data is then checked for accuracy
and/or a determination is made whether the entries fall within
predefined ranges. The user can then be alerted to any errors and
given an opportunity to correct them before proceeding further. Once
the HTML form is completed, the form data is transferred to the
corresponding PDF form for printing by both the one filling out the
form and also by the form recipient.
Because it is time consuming to convert a regular form to an
HTML form, Applicant has also invented a process to generate
automatically the HTML form, the CGI program that verifies and
checks the user entries as well as automatically creates a database
for the form data.
It should be obvious from the above-discussed apparatus
embodiment that numerous other variations and modifications of the
present invention are possible, and such will readily occur to those
skilled m the art. Accordingly, the scope of this invention is not
to be limited to the embodiment disclosed, but is to include any
such embodiments as may be encompassed within the scope of the
claims .