Short-paid reconciliation systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10600093-B2
Application number	US-201815881099-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2018
Priority date	Sep 30, 2016
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for enabling third parties, such as authorized vendors, to reconcile short-paid adjustment requests initiated by service providers such as, for example, the United States Postal Service, in response to customer non- or underpayment for services rendered. In an embodiment, a method includes the steps of storing a short-paid adjustment request from an initiator, identifying a source for the short-paid adjustment request, generating a request to a VBI meter system for a short-paid adjustment request based on the source identified, storing the VBI meter system response to the short-paid adjustment request, and generating a file to the initiator based on the VBI meter system response.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for reconciling a request from a postal service provider for at least one short-paid adjustment to a value bearing item (VBI) meter system including one or more registers, the short-paid adjustment request for payment for delivery of a mailpiece to a recipient, the method comprising:
performing, by a computing system, operations comprising:
storing the at least one short-paid adjustment request from the postal service provider;
identifying at least one source for the short-paid adjustment request;
generating a request to the VBI meter system for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on at least one of the at least one source and a prior request for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment, wherein the short-paid adjustment request causes the VBI meter system to perform an evaluation of available funds present on the VBI meter system and, where the evaluation indicates funds at least equal to an amount in the short-paid adjustment request are available, to update at least one of an ascending register value and a descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request;
receiving a VBI meter system response to the request from the VBI meter system;
storing the VBI meter system response to the request for evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
based upon a determination that the VBI meter system response includes evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system, generating at least one file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment; and
providing the file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment to the postal service provider;
wherein the mailpiece is delivered to the recipient regardless of the amount of available funds present on the VBI meter system when the evaluation is performed; and
wherein, in response to the evaluation indicating an amount of available funds that is less than the amount in the short-paid adjustment request is present, the VBI meter system updates at least one of the ascending register value and the descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount of available funds that is less than the amount in the short-paid adjustment request to provide a partial short-paid meter adjustment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein, where the evaluation indicates the amount of available funds on the VBI meter system is at least equal to the amount in the short-paid adjustment request and further in response to the short-paid adjustment request, the VBI meter system:
generates a VBI;
stores, as the short-paid meter adjustment, a record including at least an updated register value; and
outputs at least one of a result status and evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment is the VBI.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein, where the VBI meter system evaluation indicates the available funds are less than the amount in the short-paid adjustment request, no register value update is performed and no VBI is generated in response to the short-paid adjustment request.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the VBI meter system outputs a result status indicating at least one of no adjustment, a validation error and a system error.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating no file for the postal service provider where the VBI meter system response contains no evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising validating the short-paid adjustment request prior to or in conjunction with the source identification.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one source is selected from the group consisting of a user account, a meter serial number, a meter account, and a funding account.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein, where the VBI meter system evaluation indicates the amount of available funds is less than the amount in the short-paid adjustment request at the time the evaluation is performed, the VBI meter system subsequently updates at least one of an ascending register value and a descending register value based on a value included in the short-paid adjustment request.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the update to the at least one of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request occurs independently of delivery of the mailpiece to the recipient.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform a method for reconciling a request received from a postal service provider for at least one short-paid adjustment to a value bearing item (VBI) meter system including one or more registers, the short-paid adjustment request for payment for delivery of a mailpiece to a recipient, the method comprising:
storing the at least one short-paid adjustment request from the postal service provider;
identifying at least one source for the short-paid adjustment request;
generating a request to the VBI meter system for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on at least one of the at least one source and a prior request for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment, wherein the short-paid adjustment request causes the VBI meter system to perform an evaluation of available funds present on the VBI meter system and, where the evaluation indicates an amount of available funds at least equal to an amount in the short-paid adjustment request are present, to update at least one of an ascending register value and a descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request;
receiving a VBI meter system response to the request from the VBI meter system;
storing the VBI meter system response to the request for evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
based upon a determination that the VBI meter system response includes evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system, generating at least one file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment; and
providing the file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment to the postal service provider;
wherein the mailpiece is delivered to the recipient regardless of the amount of available funds present on the VBI meter system when the evaluation is performed; and
wherein, in response to the evaluation indicating an amount of available funds that is less than the amount in the short-paid adjustment request is present, the VBI meter system updates at least one of the ascending register value and the descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount of available funds that is less than the amount in the short-paid adjustment request to provide a partial short-paid meter adjustment.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the method further includes generating no file for the postal service provider where the VBI meter system response contains no evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the VBI meter system comprises processor-executable instructions stored therein configured to cause a processor to:
generate a VBI;
store, as the short-paid meter adjustment, a record including at least an updated regis

Assignees

• Neopost Tech

Inventors

• Wilson Kirk Lane

Classifications

• G06Q2250/10

  Special services or fees, e.g. discounts, surcharges or adjustments · CPC title

• G06Q30/0283 Primary

  Price estimation or determination · CPC title

• G06Q50/60

  Business processes related to postal services (shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00) · CPC title