Systems and methods for performing integrated financial transactions

Abstract

The invention provides a tool kit for a small business owner to manage a plurality of different financial accounts and services and to perform a number of different financial transactions, wherein each of the transactions may involve multiple sub-transactions which occur among different financial service providers. For example, the system provides an integrated package that integrates financial service providers, such as a payroll service provider, a retirement plan service provider, a healthcare service provider or another type of service provider. The system provides one interface to a subscriber and the subscriber can select from the interface a financial transaction to perform, wherein the selected transaction involves a plurality of subtransactions, occurring between the system, and the involved financial service providers.

1 . A method, comprising: 
 associating a subscriber with an identifier and account data representative of account information for accounts maintained by the subscriber at a plurality of different financial service providers,    providing the subscriber with a control to initiate a financial transaction to combine a first service provided by a first financial service provider with a second different service provided by a second different financial service provider to create a third service different from the first service and the second service,    generating a first set of instructions for the first financial service provider to perform the first service, the first set of instructions including instructions for employing the account data to access the accounts maintained by the subscriber at the first financial service provider,    generating a second set of instructions for the second different financial service provider to perform the second different service, the second set of instructions including instructions for employing the account data to access the accounts maintained by the subscriber at the second different financial service provider, and    providing the first and second sets of instructions to the first and second financial service providers, where execution of at least one of the first set and the second set of instructions coordinates respective operation of the respective first and second financial service providers to achieve the third service different from the first service and the second service.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the identifier includes a company identifier.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identifier includes a personal identifier.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identifier includes a password.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing a common user interface; and    wherein providing the identifier comprises using the common user interface.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing a user interface capable of allowing the subscriber to access a plurality of the financial services employed by the subscriber and provided by different financial service providers.    
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing a download function for allowing the subscriber to communicate the account data in a selected file format to a client program capable of processing the data in the selected format.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 allowing the subscriber to create subaccounts.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: 
 allowing the subscriber to assign privileges to each of the subaccounts to control access to available financial services.    
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: 
 allowing the subscriber to delete subaccounts, thereby preventing a sub-user from accessing available financial services.    
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 collecting user information from the subscriber, and    employing the user information for registering the subscriber with at least one financial service provider different from the first and second financial service providers.    
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 allowing a financial service provider to unregister the subscriber from financial service providers.    
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising: 
 allowing the subscriber to identify criteria for switching between financial service providers, and    switching the subscriber accounts from one financial service provider to another financial service provider when the criteria is met.    
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the financial service providers are selected from at least one of a payroll provider, lending provider, bill paying provider, health insurance provider, retirement plan provider, 401K plan provider, bank account provider, business merchant card processing provider, and credit provider.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing a flash report including a first data item and a second data item wherein the first data item is employed by the first financial service provider and the second data item is employed by the second financial service provider different from the first financial service provider.    
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising: 
 providing the flash report as a function of the access level.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising: 
 providing one or more privileges for the identifier, each of the one or more privileges having a corresponding access level representative of services available to be accessed.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the integrated financial transaction comprises a transaction selected from at least one of making a payroll for a business, securing health insurance for a business, forming a 401K plan for a business, taking a loan for a business, and forming a lease for office space for a business.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating a second set of instructions comprises: 
 generating the second set of instructions subsequent to generating the first set of instructions.    
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein execution of the second set of instructions is in response to execution of the first set of instructions.