WO2002050726A1

WO2002050726A1 - Method for processing trade data, especially electronic trade

Info

Publication number: WO2002050726A1
Application number: PCT/DK2001/000834
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Hetting; Lars MARKSØ
Original assignee: Michael Hetting; Marksoe Lars
Priority date: 2000-12-18
Filing date: 2001-12-18
Publication date: 2002-06-27
Also published as: EP1356403A1; AU2002221575A1

Abstract

A method for processing data on transactions between customers (1) and suppliers (2) and of the kind that comprises at least one PC (1) connected, via a local network or the Internet, to at least one first mainframe (3), wherein said mainframe (3) is arranged with a data processing program comprising means for retrieving, storing and processing information about at least one customer's (1) at least one Internet transaction with at least one supplier (2). The data processing program comprises a number of databases for storing data on customers (1), suppliers (2) and transactions. Data is stored and processed continuously and the data processing program generated real time information used in generation of messages and reports about e.g. customers' accumulated spending and suppliers's accumulated balances.

Description

Method for processing trade data, especially electronic trade

The present invention relates to a method for processing trade data between suppliers and customers and of the kind that comprises at least one PC connected to at least one first mainframe via a local network or the Internet, the mainframe being arranged with a data processing program including means for retrieving, storing and processing information about at least one customer's at least one Internet transaction with at least one supplier.

Today, a service such as downloading documents via a web site of a web site provider is often free of charge as a realistic price of a visit to a web site often is so low that it will not pay for the provider to charge payment for the visit. However, many suppliers of goods or services via the Internet are now thinking of charge payment in order to get their investments and costs covered without being dependent on income from sources of income such as e.g. banner advertisements and advertisements.

Examples of such suppliers are suppliers of video clips or music files, such as e.g. MP3 files, suppliers of news, catalogues, price lists and information in general, but also indirect suppliers which comprise artists and authors making their work available via their own or other suppliers' web sites and therefore are already charging or want to charge payment or royalties on other people's use of their work.

The methods known today for conventional trade via the Internet typically comprise a customer contacting a supplier via the supplier's web site. The web site offers one or several goods or services for sale and these goods or services can be ordered or bought via the web site. Via the web site, the customer advises of how he wishes to pay for the goods or service. In the typical case, payment takes place by the customer stating his credit card number to the supplier and thereby authorizing payment to be transferred from his bank account to the supplier's account possibly via a payment service, such as BetalingsService in Denmark. For reasons of safety, many customers do not wish to state their credit card number. Instead, they therefore choose to have an invoice for the service forwarded to their address and subsequently effect payment via conventional channels, for example by check.

When a person is "surfing" on the Internet, the person will most often visit a large number of web sites from which the person wishes to extract information. Some visits to web sites cost or will cost a price and in order to give the web site provider the possibility of collecting payment, the person has to state his identity, for example name and address, before the person gets final access to the web site. The costs are subsequently collected by the individual web site providers from the person on basis of his identification information, and the person can therefore not keep his identity hidden from all these web site providers.

A person wanting to visit a number of different Internet web sites will therefore be prevented from this when he wishes to remain anonymous. Many private individuals but also businessmen, researchers and public authorities want to be able to do research via the Internet without being able to be directly connected to their visits and their visit activity on the web sites of different web site providers and they are therefore interested in being able to keep the anonymity which is possible today towards these web site providers without having to use a front man.

Because of the Internet and other electronic networks, procurement, distribution and retrieval of information can today in most cases advantageously be done in a few seconds. This immediately communication of information will be slowed considerably down in the cases where the Internet visits are to be charged a payment if the visitor in each case has to state his identity. To this should be added that the visitor will be prevented from remaining anonymous.

In the future, these circumstances will to a very great extent make it difficult to "surf" freely on the Internet.

The more suppliers a customer is dealing with, the greater the risk will be of various suppliers all over the world being able to withdraw money from the customer's account when it pleases them and without the customer's permission. Several of the methods known and employed today of conducting trade between customers and suppliers via the Internet are therefore not arranged to be used when one or several visits to a web site form part of the trade.

Via the Internet, a customer or visitor will, in a often very short period come, into contact with a number of different web site providers which all at worst have to have information about the customer's identity whereby the risk of unlawful misappropriation of amount from the customer's account will increase to an incalculable extent. To this should be added that it is difficult, if not impossible, for a customer to keep track of the costs of all his web site visits with the different suppliers, and the customer or the visitor therefore does not have a chance of controlling his current spending.

A system for transfer of payment between two or several persons is known from WO 00/67177. A person wanting to transfer an amount to another person is registered on the system server and opens an account. Possibly, the other person is already registered in the system at the time when payment transfer is initiated or communicated to the system.. This known system is arranged to transfer an amount from one person to another or several other persons specified by the customer himself who also gives the necessary details. The payment transfer costs a fixed percentage of the amount plus a fee for the transfer. The system requires the person's specified details of to whom the amount is to be paid. The system does not ensure that a supplier having delivered a product to another customer also receives payment for the product as payment requires that the customer instructs the system to make the payment transfer in cover of the payment.

In this system, the customer can be anonymous with regard to the supplier but the system is not suited for Internet trade where a customer will visit many different web sites of many different suppliers as it is not possible for either the system or the customer to keep track of the subtotals of the costs of many visits to many different web sites which most often link on to other suppliers' web sites.

A so-called web card is known from WO 00/17796 by means of which a provider will get his costs covered or obtain an income for his Internet sale.

A web card provides the customer with a code giving him access to a specific web site or group of web sites available via the Internet. Visits can be made to these web sites for a total amount corresponding to the price of the web card. By means of a web card, the product or service is prepaid in the same way as when using a prepaid wireless calling card for a cellular telephone or a "Danmøntkort" , an electronic purse, in a pay station. When the prepayment has been spent, the access to the web sites is closed down, the balance on the web card being reduced as the visits to the web site are made.

However, a disadvantage of a web card is that you have to pay for the product before delivery, and the card can only be used on specific providers' web sites. Thus, if there is a link on a web site to another provider's web site that does not employ the same web card, the user can be directly prevented from using the web site of this provider. If the customer finds out that he is not interested in using the web site of the web site provider after all after having bought the web card, the investment is lost.

As one web card per web site provider or group of web site providers is a precondition, it will be necessary to invest in up to several web cards in order to be able to surf between different web sites in a fairly free manner, which would require a relatively large investment in advance. Only in the cases where several web site providers have made an agreement to divide the income from the web card, can the same web card be used for the web sites of several different web site providers. However, these cases are rare as such agreements would have the disadvantage of not being able to divide the income from the sales of the web card in relation to the actual visiting frequency with the individual web site providers that have made the agreement .

To this should be added that a customer who subsequently discovers that the web site of the web site provider did not come up to his expectations and for example was not able to deliver the requested goods either has lost his investment or at best can get it refunded.

Another disadvantage of a web card arises when the amount on the web card has been spent. The user then has to discontinue his visit to the web site of the web site provider and buy a new web card in order to resume the visits and thereby for example his work or games on the Internet.

A system for electronic trade via a trading network is known from the International Patent Application WO 00/33221 by means of which some of the above disadvantages are remedied. A customer's trading with one or several suppliers is registered in one transaction record for every single transaction made by a customer with a supplier., The transaction records of a customer are reviewed to sum up the prices of a customer's purchases from various suppliers for example every month. When an amount exceeds a threshold value making it economical to debit the customer by means of the agreed form of payment preferably via credit card details or by issuance of an invoice to the customer, a request for payment is made to the customer to settle his account. When the customer's payment is available, another review is made of the transaction records of a customer's trading with a supplier, where it is noted that payment has been made. The amount is transferred to a supplier account in a bank function in the trading network.

In many cases, a supplier associated with this trading network will have to wait a long time before receiving payment for his goods or services as payment of the balance in the supplier's favor is conditioned by a given customer's payment criterion being met. Some customers with a small spending will take a long time to reach the payment criterion and will therefore only receive payment requests at relatively great time intervals .

Furthermore, the periodic review of various transactions records prevents a customer from getting real-time information on e.g. the amount of his debt.

The delivery time of a product to a customer can furthermore vary considerably as the product, such as e.g. a form or product wanted downloaded, always has to pass through the trading network. Large products will therefore often have a relatively long dispatch time. Because of the very large number of transaction records being made, it is necessary to limit the review of these to fixed customer groups at fixed times. Therefore, the trading network functions slowly and difficulty and presupposes a considerable computer power.

There is thus a need for a method by means of which a customer, easily, anonymously and without unnecessary delay, can visit the web sites of many different web site providers of which at least a part charge payment for the visits.

One aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph, by means of which a customer can remain anonymous when visiting web sites of suppliers that charge payment for the visits.

A second aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph, by means of which a customer quickly and easily can visit the web sites of a large number of suppliers of which one or several are charging payment for the visits.

A third aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph, by means of which the risk of a customer's identification and payment information being abused can be reduced or eliminated completely.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph, by means of which information on and data of the trade of many different customers with many different suppliers < can be processed and generated, and where both customers and suppliers themselves continuously can retrieve or continuously can be informed of the current debt or current balance, respectively. A fifth aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for on-line monitoring of a customer's accumulated spending on payment services with different suppliers.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for on-line monitoring of a supplier's accumulated sale of payment services.

The novel and unique features according to the invention, whereby this is achieved, is the fact that the method for processing data of transactions between suppliers and customers furthermore comprises means for applying the information mentioned in the opening paragraph for computing and generating data for continuous updating of said information, and means for generating messages and reports for the customer and/or supplier by means of said computed and generated data.

The means of the data processing program for retrieving, storing and processing customer data of at least one Internet transaction of at least one customer with at least one supplier can advantageously be arranged to retrieve and store customer data in a customer record in a customer database. As an example, customer data can comprise at least a customer identity, an accumulated debt representing the sum of the of the prices of a number of completed, unpaid Internet transactions between the customer and one or several suppliers, and optionally a charging criterion.

The means of the data processing program for retrieving, storing and processing supplier data of at least one Internet transaction of at least one customer with at least one supplier can advantageously further be arranged to retrieve and store supplier data in a supplier record in a supplier database. As an example, the supplier data can comprise at least a supplier identity, an accumulated balance representing the sum of at least a part of the prices of a number of paid electronic transactions between one or several customers and 5 the supplier, and optionally a payment criterion.

The means of the data processing program for retrieving, storing and processing transaction data of at least one Internet transaction of at least one customer with at least

.0 one supplier can advantageously further be arranged to retrieve and store transaction data of at least one Internet transaction between the at least one customer and the at least one supplier in a transaction record in a transaction database .

-5

As an example, transaction data can comprise at least the customer identity, the supplier identity, a price of a transaction, and a payment status of the transaction.

!0 The above records can be added any additional field generated by the data processing program on basis of the information that forms part of the different records. Such fields could for example be customer or supplier categories, geographic location of customer or supplier, age or sex of a customer, or

!5 a time stamp for the transaction. Such fields serve for providing data for use in the generation of messages and/or reports across customer and supplier by the data processing program. Thus, it is possible to provide and process a very large number of anonymous data for use in e.g. generation of

SO visiting statistics for the supplier or supplier groups.

When said accumulated debt of the customer record and said accumulated balance of the supplier record are continuously updated by means of transaction data entered in said S5 transaction record, it is advantageously possible for a customer or a supplier, respectively, to provide real time information about e.g. visiting frequencies, debt, or balance e.g. via Internet access to the data processing program.

This possibility is especially advantageous obtained as regards the customer when the data processing program continuously is updating the accumulated debt on basis of price and payment status in the transaction records in which the customer is identified. The accumulated debt is compared after each accumulation or updating with a charging criterion so that the data processing program advantageously immediately can trigger a message to the customer that the charging criterion has been met.

As for the supplier, it is in a correspondingly advantageous manner obtained that the data processing program can continuously update the customer-paid balances of many different suppliers and optionally also their accumulated balances where such a simple accumulated balance represents the sum of all the prices of trade with the supplier.

When different customers with whom a supplier has conducted transactions have settled their debt, this is reported to the data processing program which changes the payment status in the number of transaction records that comprise both supplier and customer. At the same time, the data processing system will add the customer payment which is represented by the price forming part of each of the above transaction records to the accumulated customer-paid balance of the respective supplier record.

The thus accumulated balance is compared continuously after each accumulation or updating with a payment criterion which, when this criterion has been met, will trigger a message to the supplier that the payment criterion has been reached. The message can for example further comprise information that an agreed amount will be transferred to the supplier's account within a more precisely agreed and fixed period of time.

Due to the very heavy traffic or activity on the Internet, a 5 change in a payment status in a transaction record can advantageously trigger the automatic deletion of the transaction record from the transaction database or automatic transfer to e.g. a statistic or report database in order to thereby ensure that the number of transaction records in the

L0 transaction database which has to be scanned or monitored at any given time is as small as possible. Thereby, the advantage is obtained in that the updating of various records of the data processing program always can be done at maximum speed. Thereby, a customer or supplier will obtain a hitherto unknown

-5 and reliable possibility of retrieving current real time information on e.g. debt or balance.

When a customer wants to make a transaction with a supplier, such as a web site provider, via the Internet, the customer

.0 electronically sends a request to the supplier. Such a request can for example merely be an attempt to visit a supplier's web site. Typically, the visit can comprise requisition of e.g. news, scientific articles, laws or orders, but it goes without saying that similar goods and services are also comprised

!5 within the scope of the invention.

Suppliers charging payment of such a transaction and not wanting to or having the possibility of or the means to register and enter the costs of a very large number of

>0 transactions via the Internet can advantageously employ the method according to the present invention, and for example electronically join the supplier database by electronically forwarding information making it possible to identify both the supplier and his web site and optionally the prices of the

15 visits. Alternatively, a supplier can choose to provide the price to the data processing program each time a transaction has been effected in order to thereby be able to change the prices .

Alternatively, the supplier can join by conventional means, such as by means of registration forms on which the necessary details are filled and then are returned to the administrator of the method by mail.

On the basis of the stated information provided electronically or by means of the registration form, an administrator of the method can subsequently create the supplier in the supplier database which, which at the very moment a new supplier record is fully created, will generate a message to the supplier about the creation after which the services of the supplier immediately is available to any customer in the customer data base.

A customer wishing to trade anonymously with a number of different suppliers identified in the supplier database can join the customer database in a correspondingly manner as the supplier .

When a new customer is created in the customer file, the accumulated debt is given a value which preferably can be zero. Possibly, the accumulated debt can be less than zero if the customer for example has chosen to prepay an amount which is known by the administrator. When the customer is trading with the different suppliers created in the payment system, the prices of the distributed purchases are summed up in the accumulated debt. Hereby, a customer advantageously obtains an accumulation of the costs of several purchases of goods or services with different suppliers in one single, easily comprehensible amount, and the customer then only has to make one total payment for a total amount due for his distributed purchases. A customer record can furthermore optionally contain information for use in charging of the total amount due so that the administrator on behalf of the many different suppliers can provide information for use in charging the customer in a simple manner or simply charge the customer. As an example, charging can be done by issuance of an invoice which the customer settles through conventional channels, such as by forwarding of a cheque or by the customer electronically transferring an amount to a specified bank account.

Preferably, the customer can however arrange to pay via a payment service institute or via direct payment transfer from his bank account to a bank account in e.g. a bank which manages the method, in which case a customer, at no time or only for a very short time, will not be blocked in his trade via the Internet.

Such an arrangement can especially preferably comprise that the customer or possibly the administrator on behalf of the customer informs the customer's bank or payment service of the fact that a request for payment continuously will be made, that bank or payment service has to verify the customer's information for use in the request until information to do otherwise is given, and preferably that bank or payment service electronically forwards a confirmation of the agreement directly to the data processing program or to the administrator of this program by conventional means, such as by letter .

When positive verification is available and this confirmation of the agreement is reported to the customer database, a creation of a customer record is generated automatically on basis of customer identification information attached to the confirmation. The payment identification of the customer comprise at least a bank account in a bank, a credit card number or an identification number for a payment service.

At the same time, one or several passwords are generated which are forwarded to the customer in a sealed envelope by mail or for example encrypted electronically via e-mail. The passwords give access to trading with all the suppliers in the supplier databases and preferably only have to be entered once, that is the first time the customer visit a supplier in the supplier database while "surfing" on the Internet. The data processing program will monitor the customer's further activity on the Internet. For example a customer's entering of his password can be entered and stored in a password field in the customer's customer record where the status of this field is changed the moment the customer stops "surfing" and logs off or merely turns off his computer. Upon renewed access attempt, the customer has to enter the password again.

If a customer wants to check the invoice before paying, the customer can alternative choose to be able to approve the payment of an amount first. In this case, customer data in a customer record can advantageously further comprise a field that at least temporarily states that a customer's payment is expected. In this case, the customer's passwords can be temporarily blocked until payment is identified and reported.

A customer created in the customer database can, in a very short time, obtain access quickly and easily to trade electronically with a variety of suppliers. The electronic creation and verification can be done quickly and easily at no risk of the customer's bank details being disclosed to unauthorized party, and the customer will always remain anonymous to the supplier . Upon creation of a new supplier in the supplier database, the supplier's accumulated balance is preferably initially given the value zero but depending on a possible individual agreement with a supplier, the accumulated balance can initially be greater or less than zero.

Furthermore, the supplier record can advantageously optionally comprise information on how payment is to be effected and to where it is to be effected.

The method can particularly expediently also comprise that administrator also handles charging and payment besides monitoring the different transactions.

The charging criterion can be met either when the customer's debt is equal to or greater than a fixed debt threshold value, or when the age of the debt defined as the age of the oldest unpaid transaction or Internet transaction exceeds a fixed debt age threshold value .

The debt threshold value and/or debt age threshold value can be individually established for all customers or for a group of customers but the debt threshold value can also be fixed to be the same for all customers.

When the debt threshold value and/or debt age threshold value is the same for all customers, all customers are charged according to the same charging criterion, and the charging criterion need not be part of every customer's customer record but can alternatively advantageously be a general factor in either the customer database or in the data processing program itself .

When the supplier's accumulated balance meets a fixed payment criterion, this balance can be paid to the supplier according to a pre-agreed, fixed payment agreement. The' payment criterion can e.g. be that a supplier's accumulated balance is equal to or greater than a fixed balance threshold value, or the payment criterion can be that the time of the last payment of a supplier's accumulated balance exceeds a fixed balance age limit. Typically, an administration fee is deducted from the supplier's balance before payment .

The balance threshold value and/or the balance age limit can be the same for all suppliers, or the balance threshold value and/or the balance age limit can be individually fixed for a single supplier or a group of suppliers.

When the balance threshold value is the same for all suppliers, each supplier record does not have to comprise a payment criterion but this criterion can instead advantageously be a general factor in the supplier file or in the payment system.

Experience shows the difficulty of managing the numerous very small expenses that have to be charged upon "surfing" on the Internet. Therefore, the method according to the invention is particularly applicable in case of visits to cost-burdened Internet web sites as the prices of such visits often are very low.

If these small single costs are not accumulated continuously, there is a not unimportant chance or risk of missing one or several costs. This risk of getting a wrong general view of the accumulated costs and thereby the accumulated debt is further increased as a customer often will visit cost-burdened Internet web sites and free Internet web sites alternately without being aware of whether or not it costs anything to visit the site. It is therefore an essential feature of the invention to generate reliable reports to the customer about his accumulated debt. Especially advantageously, data in the different databases can be utilised at payment and charging by means of existing and well-functioning money transfer systems giving the supplier a very high degree of certainty of receiving payment .

5

A possible professional fee, charge or subscription to for example registration and recording in one or several databases can be arranged in advance and be set off by the data processing program prior to payment or charging.

.0

In the few cases where a customer especially is trading with a single or very few suppliers, this customer's payment can be transferred directly to a supplier account in the supplier's bank. Even in this case, the customer remains anonymous to the

.5 supplier as data in connection with the transaction is made by means of the method according to the invention.

Settlement and payment can especially advantageously be managed on the basis of data generated by means of the method :0 according to the invention when there are intermediate clearing accounts in both the customers' banks and the suppliers ' banks .

When a customer's accumulated debt reaches its payment !5 criterion, the data processing program will besides a message to the customer also generate a message to the bank to transfer an agreed amount to an intermediate clearing account the moment the customer's permission is available. '

10 When a supplier's accumulated balance reaches the payment criterion, the data processing program will generate a message to the bank to transfer an accumulated balance from the intermediate clearing account to the supplier's account, possibly less a fee or charge prearranged with the supplier. As a bank does not charge anything or only charges a very small fee for transferring amounts between two accounts in the same bank, this embodiment is especially advantageous and less expensive than hitherto known. The greatest costs will be in connection with the opening of a number of individual intermediate clearing accounts but these costs are however nonrecurring costs which are quickly earned again when the relatively large fees for payment transfers between different banks are eliminated. A customer will therefore not be charged any significant costs than the ones that the customer has already been informed about by the data processing program.

In the embodiments mentioned above, the data processing program serves as an accounting system from which it is possible to retrieve real-time information for use in the above-mentioned reports about debt, balance, settlement and payment .

The management of the method preferably comprises the use of a server or mainframe arranged to process a large number of Internet transactions and possibly staff to make possibly manual creations or reports .

Preferably, the customer database, the supplier database and the transaction database can be arranged as electronic databases, electronic tables or sequential files stored, on a storage medium such as a hard disk on the mainframe.

As the customer's access to trading with suppliers normally does not require prepayment of an amount, the customer can continue trading for at least an agreed or defined maximum period after having been informed that an accumulated balance is due for payment.

In case a customer does not pay, the customer's passwords can automatically be disabled until the data processing program identifies that the customer's payment is available. In this way, it is ensured that suppliers in the database do not suffer insuperable losses.

A supplier can obtain information about such possible losses at any time when the data processing program also calculates a loss which constitutes the difference between actual balance and paid balance where actual balance is calculated on the basis of effected sales. The supplier will furthermore be able to continuously follow the size of his balance.

Advantageously, the method according to the invention can also comprise a web hotel through which suppliers in the supplier database make their web sites accessible to customers in the customer database.

When the method according to the invention comprises a web hotel, the transactions can be made quickly and easily, and the number of communications between the data processing program, Internet, customer and supplier can be kept as low as possible .

When a supplier is created in the supplier database, this supplier will receive, optionally either electronically or through conventional channels, supplier software making it possible for the supplier, after installation on the supplier's computer, to communicate with the data processing program to compile or retrieve continuously updated reports and statistics, such as statistics e.g. comprising information about number of visits to a web site and geographic distribution or distribution on sex of the visitors without the customers' identities being revealed to the supplier. The supplier software also serves for reporting information about new goods or services that the supplier wants to offer. When a new customer is created in the customer database, the customer can choose to receive customer software either by mail or electronically, for example via e-mail. It is up to the customer himself whether or not he chooses to install the customer software on his computer, but use of the customer software can advantageously make it possible for the customer to compile reports about his visits to different suppliers via communication with the data processing program, and to monitor the costs of the visits and thereby avoid "surfing" on the Internet for more than he can afford.

The customer software is available in an advantageous, self- executable version or in an interactive version making it possible for the customer to install just those parts of the customer software he is interested in.

As will be apparent to a person skilled in the art from the above exposition, the invention mainly relates to an on-line, continuously updated register by means of which it is possible to provide data for use in calculating many different customers' accumulated costs of visiting many different Internet supplier's web sites and by means of which it is possible to calculate how large a part of these customers' accumulated spending that are to be credited the respective suppliers.

The invention will be explained in greater detail below, describing only an exemplary embodiment with reference to the drawing, in which >

Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention simplified for reasons of clarity, showing only one customer and one supplier,

fig. 2 is a block diagram of an Internet transaction, and fig. 3 is a table of Internet transactions made via the data processing program by three different customers with ^'three different web page provider.

5 In the following, it is assumed that the electronic transaction is a visit to a web site made via the Internet between a customer created in a customer database and a web site provider created as supplier in a supplier database.

.0 The communication in form of inquiries, transmissions, and messages follow the usual Internet protocols, and the addressing of the communications in this connection is prior art and therefore not described any further. Communications are shown in the drawing with Roman numerals.

.5

In fig. 1, an Internet customer 1 is illustrated by means of a customer PC. The Internet customer 1 pays a visit shown with the arrow (I) via the Internet to a supplier 2 shown with a server in the figure. As shown in the figure with the arrow

.0 (II) , the supplier sends the request (I) added the price of the requested web site on to the data processing program 3 via the Internet. The data processing program 3 informs, shown with the arrow (III) , the customer via the Internet that the requested web site costs an amount. The data processing

.5 program possibly states the price and requests the customer's passwords. As shown with the arrow (IV), the customer informs the data processing program of his personal password (s) . The data processing program verifies the password and thereby the customer identity and informs, shown with the arrow (V) , the

10 supplier that the customer is known and that the customer is to be provided with the requested web site. In the case shown, the supplier sends, as shown with the arrow (VI), the web site and his supplier identity to the data processing program.

S5 As shown with the arrow (VII) , the data processing program sends the web site on to the customer and creates a transaction record for the visit in the transaction database. The payment status indicates that payment has not ■ been reported yet, and the customer's accumulated debt is updated by the price of the visit.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the transaction made in fig. 1, and the same reference numerals are applied for the same communications. In fig. 2, it is furthermore shown that a message is generated to the customer when the customer's accumulated debt has met the charging criterion.

In an advantageous alternative embodiment, the supplier can provide the desired web site already when he sends the customer's request on to the data processing program.

Within the scope of the invention, the PC shown in the figure can for example also be a Macintosh, a Laptop or an intelligent telephone, such as a WAP phone. Within the 'scope of the invention, customer software can also be provided that is adapted for use on both Macintosh and WAP.

Fig. 3 is a table of seven transactions R₁, H₂, H₃, H₄, H₅, H₆, and H₇ between, in the case shown, three customers K., K₂, and K₃ and three suppliers L_x, L₂, and L₃. The columns of the table show a number for a transaction, a transaction database, a customer database and a supplier database respectively. In the case shown, a transaction record in the transaction database comprises a customer identity K., K₂, K₃, a supplier identity L_l7 L₂, L₃, a price a,b,c of the different transactions, and a payment status here designated by the figure one to indicate a payment status of "unpaid" for a period of time at least corresponding to the period of time elapsing before the customer's debt meets a charging criterion D^ D₂ which is the same or is different for different customers, and a zero for indicating that the payment status is "paid", for example when it is reported to the data processing program that the customer's payment is available on an intermediate clearing account. In the case shown, the customer database comprises a customer identity K_a, K., K₃, an accumulated debt, and a comparison with a charging criterion D_x, D₂. The supplier database comprises a supplier identity L^ L₂, L₃, an accumulated balance, and a payment criterion T_1# T₂ which can be the same or different for different suppliers.

In the following, an illustration example is gone through. The customer K. makes a first transaction H. with L_x. The price of H_x is a, and since the transaction has not been paid for, the payment status is recorded as 1. In the customer's customer record in the customer database, the customer's accumulated debt is accumulated, and the price a is added to this debt. The total amount of the accumulated debt is now a which is compared with charging criterion D_x to which the customer K. has agreed and which has not been met. K s next transaction is H₃ which K. also makes with L_x. The price of H₃ is b which is added to the accumulated debt which now is a+b which still is less than D_x and therefore does not change the customer's payment status. K_x now makes the transaction H₆ with L₃ at the price c, the result of which is that K.'s accumulated debt now is a+b+c which exceeds Dl and prompts the data processing program to generate a message to K_t that an amount equal to the accumulated debt a+b+c for the made transactions H_χ/ H₃, H₆, has to be paid. Optionally information is also provided for use in instructing K.'s bank or payment service to effect K s payment . Only when the payment has been reported to the data processing program, will payment status in the transaction records in which K_x is known be changed to a 0.

For reasons of clearness, the accumulation of the customer's debt is shown as three separate rows in the table but the accumulation is obviously done in one single customer record of the customer. The supplier L. has for example concluded the transactions H_x, H₂, H₃, and H₇ with the customers K_ι; K₂, K. and K₂ respectively at the prices a, a, b, and a, the result of which is that the supplier's accumulated balance is accumulated to respectively a, 2a, 2a+b, and finally 3a + b which, each time an accumulation is made, is compared to a payment criterion T . With the transaction H₇, the payment criterion is met triggering the data processing program to prompt generation of a message to e.g. L₁ that the payment criterion has been met. Possibly, the data processing program also prompts generation of instructions for use in payment of accumulated balance to a supplier account of L_x.

Both a customer creation and a supplier creation in the customer database and the supplier database respectively and the subsequent trading between the customer and the supplier are advantageously done by means of display menus arranged for this purpose for example in the way described in the following.

A customer visits an Internet web site of a supplier registered in the supplier database. The customer wants to buy a product or a service of a price. To buy the product or the service, the customer activates e.g. an icon on the display of the web site of the supplier. In a first case, an additional window thereby opens possibly informing that this visits costs something and that the customer is now routed or linked to a server or the mainframe arranged to arrange the visit. In the cases where the price of the visit or goods is high, the display can show, in addition to what the product or the service comprises, also what it costs. In a second case, especially if the price is low, the customer is merely automatically routed or linked to the server or the mainframe. If this is the first time, a customer activates his customer record since the last use, the customer is requested to enter his password (s) if he wants to continue with the transaction. If the customer does not want to continue, the customer can return backwards by activating a return icon. On the other hand, if the customer wants to continue "surfing" on web sites that cost something, the customer enters, as mentioned above, his passwords and accepts e.g. the trading by activating an accept icon. The data processing program checks that the customer's data entries are valid and possibly if the customer's charging criterion has been exceeded by more than an allowed value. If the customer's data are valid, the customer is linked or routed back to the wanted Internet web site and the data processing program removes various windows connected to the accessing. The customer is subsequently provided with the product or the service either via the data processing program or directly from the supplier, and possibly also various further information which can be used in the customer software. The transaction is registered in the customer database, the supplier database and the transaction database as described with reference to fig. 3.

The data processing program can advantageously be arranged with an electronic mark such as a cookie making it possible for a customer to complete several transactions via the same or several suppliers' web addresses in order to ensure in an easy way that the customer only has to enter his passwords one time .

The invention is shown above and described by means of simple embodiments, and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that the method according to the invention is especially advantageously used when a large number of customers are trading with a large number of suppliers making it impossible for a person to keep track of the different data of the transactions by conventional means. This would be impossible as prices are not states in many of the transactions.

Suppliers which offer customers a bonus scheme in case of a large number of transactions can e.g. choose to reduce the accumulated debt to thereby allow free continued trade for a period of time.

The construction of databases described above provide an expedient database construction which is searchable in a very short time and therefore optimal. It goes without saying that modifications and variations of the data processing program and the method with e.g. more or fewer databases also are comprised within the scope of the invention.

The present description serves to illustrate the present invention and is not limited to the embodiment described therein.

The invention is described with a view to provide one suitable way of practicing the invention, and the accompanying claims are to be construed as comprising alternative embodiments.

Claims

A method for processing data of at least one customer's (1) transaction with at least one supplier (2) and of the kind that by means of at least one PC, via a local network or the Internet, is connected to at least one first mainframe (3), where said mainframe (3) is arranged with a data processing program comprising means for retrieving and storing information about at least one customer's (1) at least one Internet transaction with at least one supplier (2), means for applying the information for computing and generating data for use in continuous updating of said information, means for generating reports by means of said computed and generated data, where the method further comprises retrieving and storing customer data of at least one customer (1) in a customer record in a customer database, in which customer data at least comprises a customer identity, an accumulated debt representing the sum of the prices of a number of completed, unpaid Internet transactions between the customer (1) and one or several suppliers (2), and optionally a charging criterion, retrieving and storing supplier data of at least one supplier (2) in a supplier record in a supplier database, in which supplier data at least comprises a supplier identity, an accumulated balance representing the sum of at least a part of the prices of a number of paid Internet transactions between one or several customers (1) and the supplier (2), and optionally a payment criterion, retrieving and storing transaction data of at least one Internet transaction between the at least one customer (1) and the at least one supplier (2) in a transaction record in a transaction database, in which transaction data at least comprises the customer identity, the supplier identity, a price of a transaction and a payment status of the transaction, continuously updating the accumulated debt of said customer record and the accumulated balance of said supplier record using transaction data entered into said transaction record, continuously comparing the accumulated debt with the charging criterion and when this charging criterion has been met, triggering a message to the at least one customer (1) that the charging criterion has been met, and continuously comparing the accumulated balance paid by one or several customers (1) with the payment criterion triggering, when this payment criterion has been met, a message to the at least one supplier (2) that the payment criterion has been met.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein supplier data further comprises an accumulated balance representing the sum of the prices of a number of Internet transactions between one or several customers (1) and the supplier

(2) .

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the method further comprises that a payment status in a transaction record is changed when details of the at least one customer's (1) settlement of a debt is reported to the data processing program.

4. A method according to any of the claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein the method further comprises that change of a payment status generates an updating of the customer records and supplier records in which the at least one customer (1) is identified.

5. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 4, wherein the method further comprises that an updating of a customer record at least comprises that a new accumulated debt is calculated.

6. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 5, wherein the method further comprises that an updating of a supplier record at least comprises that the price identified in one or several transaction records in which both the paying at least one customer (1) and said supplier (2) is identified is added to the accumulated balance .

7. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 6, wherein the method further comprises that the charging criterion is met when the accumulated debt is equal to or greater than a fixed debt threshold value .

8. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 7, wherein the method further comprises that the debt has an age which is the age of the oldest unpaid transaction, and that the charging criterion has been met when this age exceeds a fixed debt age threshold value.

9. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 7, wherein the method further comprises that the value of the debt threshold is fixed individually for all customers (1) , or that the debt threshold value is the same for all customers (1) .

10, A method according to any of the claims 1 - 8, wherein the method further comprises that the value of the debt age threshold is fixed individually for all customers (1) , or that the debt age threshold value is the same for all customers (1) .

11. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 10, wherein the method further comprises that the payment criterion has been met when a supplier's (2) balance is equal to or greater than a fixed balance threshold value .

12. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 11, wherein the method further comprises that the payment criterion has been met when the time of the last message about payment and/or the time of payment of a supplier's (2) balance exceeds a fixed balance age threshold value.

13. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 12, wherein the Internet transaction comprises a visit to a supplier's (2) web site.

14. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 13, wherein the data processing program further comprises means for creating the at least one supplier (2) in the supplier database and means for accepting a supplier (2), wherein the method further comprises that an accepted supplier (2) is given a supplier identity which is entered into a supplier record, and optionally that the creation generates forwarding of supplier software to the at least one supplier (2), wherein said software at least is arranged to provide exchange of data between the at least one supplier's (2) computer and the mainframe (3) .

15. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 14, wherein the data processing program further comprises means for creating the at least one customer (1) in the customer database and means for accepting the at least one customer's (1) use of the method, wherein the means for creating the at least one customer (1) in the customer database optionally comprises a customer creation web site, that the at least one customer (1) upon creation optionally transfers at least his e-mail address and a payment identification for the data processing program, that the means for accepting the at least one customer (1) check the at least one customer's (1) payment identification and accept or reject the at least one customer (1) as user of the data processing program, that the means for creating at least one accepted customer (1) create a customer record in the customer database when the payment identification has been accepted.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the means for accepting at least one customer (1) are arranged to verify the payment identification with bank or payment service .

17. A method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the method further comprises that the at least one customer (1) is automatically linked to the customer creation web site when said at least one customer (1) contacts an accepted supplier (2) via the Internet.

18. A method according to claim 16, wherein the method further comprises that verification triggers the forwarding of one or more passwords to the at least one customer (1) , said passwords giving at least one customer (1) access to trading with one or more suppliers (2) known to the data processing program.

19. A method according to any of the claims 15 - 18, wherein an acceptance further comprises that passwords enabling use of the data processing program are forwarded to, at least one customer (1) or supplier (2) and that the forwarding optionally is via e-mail and/or mail.

20. A method according to any of the claims 15 - 19, wherein the method further comprises that creation of at least one customer (1) further comprises that customer software is forwarded electronically to the at least one customer (1) , that the customer software is optionally installed on the at least one customer's (1) computer, and that the customer software at least is arranged to store information about the at least one customer's (1) transactions, wherein said information is retrieved from the databases on the at least one mainframe (3) by request from the at least one customer.

21. A method according to any of the claims 15 - 20, wherein the method further comprises that the payment identification comprises a bank account in a bank, a credit card number or an identification number for a payment service.

22. A method according to claim 16, wherein bank or payment service report a status of the payment of the accumulated debt to the data processing program, or the data processing program retrieves information about status of the at least one customer's (1) settlement of the accumulated debt from bank or payment service, and - that the data processing program stores this status in a number of transaction records wherein the at least one customer (1) and a number of suppliers (2) with whom the at least one customer (1) has traded are identified, and optionally deleting said transaction records or transferring said transaction records to a statistic or report database.

23. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 22, wherein the data processing program generates message to e.g. a bank that the accumulated balance can/has to be paid.

24. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 23, characterized in that the method further comprises the steps of the at least one customer's (1) accumulated debt for one or more transactions with at least one supplier (2) being paid by transfer of a joint customer payment from the at least one customer's (1) account in a bank to an intermediate clearing account in the at least one customer's (1) bank when the charging criterion of the at least one customer (1) is met, and payment of the at least one supplier's (2) accumulated balance of the at least one customer's

(1) transaction with said supplier (2) to the supplier account of suppliers (2) having a supplier account in this bank from the intermediate clearing account when the payment criterion of the accumulated balance is met.

25. A method according to any of the claims 1 - 23, characterized in that the method further comprises the steps of the at least one customer's (1) accumulated debt for one or more transactions with at least one supplier

(2) being paid by transfer of a joint customer payment from the at least one customer's (1) account to an intermediate clearing account in a bank administering the method when the charging criterion of the at least one customer (1) is met, and payment of the at least one supplier's (2) accumulated balance of the at least one customer's (1) transaction with said supplier (2) from the intermediate clearing account to a supplier account in the at least one supplier's (2) bank when the payment criterion of the accumulated balance is met.