Method and systems for providing merchant services with right-time creation and updating of merchant accounts

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing merchant services with right-time creation and updating of merchant accounts. Merchant-specific information for each merchant is stored in a record and used to process purchase card transactions submitted by the merchant. When a user creates or updates a merchant account record, the user can indicate whether the update is to take effect immediately or at a user-specified later time. An immediate update is processed substantially without delay. Other updates are queued for later processing and processed at the user-specified later time.

1 . A system for providing purchase card transaction processing services to a plurality of merchants, comprising:
 a data store having a merchant account record associated with each of the plurality of merchants, each merchant account record including a plurality of fields for storing merchant-specific information, at least a portion of the merchant-specific information relating to merchant direct access authorization,   wherein each merchant account record is associated with each of the plurality of merchants using a merchant financial account record system, the merchant financial account record system being managed at least in part by an entity which provides purchase card transaction processing services to the merchant;   control logic configured to process, using the merchant financial account record system, a non-monetary transaction to update the merchant account record associated with one of the plurality of merchants, including:
 control logic configured to identify the merchant account record to be updated; 
 control logic configured to receive input data including information identifying which of the plurality of fields is to be updated, new data to be stored in the identified field, and a request for immediate updating of the identified field; 
 control logic configured to update the identified field to store the new data substantially without delay upon receiving the request; 
   a user interface, in operative communication with the merchant account record system and configured to:
 receive, from a requesting merchant, a request for direct access to a requested record portion of at least one of the merchant account records, wherein the requesting merchant is one of the plurality of merchants, and the requested portion comprises the updated identified field; 
 verify, using the merchant direct access authorization, whether the requesting merchant is authorized to view the requested record portion; and 
 where the requesting merchant is authorized, grant access to the requesting merchant to the requested record portion; and 
   control logic configured to process a monetary purchase card transaction submitted by the merchant using the merchant-specific information from the updated merchant account record.   
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 control logic configured to generate an updated merchant information file from the updated merchant account record,   wherein the control logic configured to process a monetary purchase card transaction is further configured to access the merchant information file to obtain the merchant-specific information.   
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the control logic configured to process a non-monetary transaction further includes:
 control logic configured to detect a conflict between the input data and reference data and to notify a user when a conflict is detected.   
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the reference data is data in another field of the merchant account record. 
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the reference data is data relating to industry rules. 
   
   
       6 . (canceled) 
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 control logic configured to create a new merchant account record for a new one of the plurality of merchants;   control logic configured to populate at least one of the fields in the new merchant account record with respective default values;   control logic configured to receive input data for at least one of the fields;   control logic configured to activate the new merchant account record in response to a user request, thereby enabling the new merchant to submit purchase card transactions for processing, wherein activating the new merchant account record is performed either substantially without delay upon receiving the user request or at a subsequent scheduled time.   
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the user request specifies when the activation of the new merchant account is to be performed. 
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 control logic configured to generate a new merchant information file from the respective default values and the input data, wherein during processing of monetary purchase card transactions for the new merchant, the merchant-specific information is obtained by accessing the new merchant information file.   
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 control logic configured to process a non-monetary transaction to update more than one of the plurality of merchant account records in response to a single user request, including:
 control logic configured to identify from the single user request a group of merchant account records to be updated; 
 control logic configured to receive input data including information identifying a field in each of the group of merchant account records to be updated and new data to be stored in the identified field; and 
 control logic configured to update the identified field in each of the group of merchant account records, either without substantial delay or at a subsequent scheduled time, wherein the input data specifies when the identified field is to be updated. 
   
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 control logic configured to update a plurality of fields in one of the merchant account records using predetermined new data in response to a single user request.   
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the control logic configured to process a monetary purchase card transaction includes:
 control logic configured to receive transaction data for the monetary purchase card transaction from the merchant, the transaction data including a purchase card identifier and a transaction type identifier;   control logic configured to determine from the merchant-specific information whether the merchant is authorized to accept a purchase card corresponding to the purchase card identifier;   control logic configured to determine from the merchant-specific information whether the merchant is authorized to submit transactions of a type corresponding to the transaction type identifier; and   control logic configured to route the transaction to a routing destination.   
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 a ticket data store having a ticket record for each of a plurality of tickets;   control logic configured to create a new ticket record in the ticket data store using the transaction data received from the merchant; and   control logic configured to add ticket status information to the new ticket record, wherein the ticket status information is updated to reflect a current status of processing of the purchase card transaction.   
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 control logic configured to determine a net deposit amount from the transaction data; and   control logic configured to transfer funds corresponding to the net deposit amount to a merchant account for the merchant, wherein an identifier of the merchant account is included in the merchant-specific information for the merchant.   
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein:
 the merchant-specific information for the merchant includes a plurality of account identifiers, each account identifier associated with at least one of a plurality of usage codes; and   the control logic configured to transfer funds is further configured to select one of the plurality of usage codes and to use the account identifier associated with the selected usage code to identify the merchant account to which funds corresponding to the net deposit amount are to be transferred.   
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the control logic configured to determine a net deposit amount from the transaction data includes:
 control logic configured to determine a transaction total from the transaction data and to reduce the transaction total according to a discount rate, thereby generating an adjusted transaction amount; and   control logic configured to determine from the merchant-specific information whether the merchant participates in a reserve and, upon determining that the merchant participates in a reserve, to reduce the adjusted transaction amount by a reserve adjustment amount,   wherein the net deposit amount is equal to the adjusted transaction amount when the merchant does not participate in a reserve and the net deposit amount is equal to the reduced adjusted transaction amount when the merchant does participate in a reserve.   
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 control logic to determine a transaction total from the transaction data;   control logic to determine a discount rate from the merchant-specific information; and   control logic to compute a net deposit amount by reducing the transaction total according to the discount rate.   
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 control logic to determine from the merchant-specific information whether the merchant participates in a reserve; and   control logic to perform steps when the merchant participates in a reserve, the steps comprising:
 computing a reserve adjustment amount; 
 reducing the net deposit amount by the reserve adjustment amount; 
 transferring funds corresponding to the reserve adjustment amount to a reserve for the merchant; and 
 transferring funds corresponding to the reduced net deposit amount to a merchant account for the merchant. 
   
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 control logic to generate a new merchant information file from the respective default values and the input data,   wherein during processing of monetary purchase card transactions for the new merchant, the merchant-specific information is obtained by accessing the new merchant information file.   
   
   
       20 . A system for providing purchase card transaction processing services to a plurality of merchants, comprising:
 a data store having a merchant account record associated with each of the plurality of merchants, each merchant account record including a plurality of fields for storing merchant-specific information, at least a portion of the merchant-specific information relating to merchant direct access authorization,   wherein each merchant account record is associated with each of the plurality of merchants using a merchant financial account record system, the merchant financial account record system being managed at least in part by an entity which provides purchase card transaction processing services to the merchant;   control logic configured to process, using the merchant financial account record system, a non-monetary transaction to update the merchant account record associated with the merchant, including:
 control logic configured to identify the merchant account record to be updated; 
 control logic configured to receive input data including information identifying which of the plurality of fields is to be updated and new data to be stored in the identified field, and a request for immediate updating of the identified field; 
 control logic configured to update the identified field to store the new data, wherein updating the field is performed substantially without delay upon receiving the request, wherein updating the identified field comprises rebuilding a virtual storage access method associated with the merchant; and 
   subsequently using the merchant-specific information from the updated merchant account record to process a monetary purchase card transaction submitted by the merchant.