Splitting group charges

Abstract

A system, method, and article of manufacture for splitting a shared financial obligation is disclosed. The method may comprise receiving, by a bill splitting computer-based system, a single record of charge (ROC) associated with a purchase by one or more members of a group, and splitting, by the bill splitting computer-based system, the ROC between the members of the group.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a computer-based system, a request to establish a group of members in a database, wherein a group initiator and the members share a shared financial obligation, wherein the group initiator incurred the shared financial obligation using an account number for a transaction account of the group initiator;   providing, by the computer-based system and to the members, a plurality of record of charges (ROCs) associated with the shared financial obligation by the group initiator, wherein the ROCs include location, merchant identifier, transaction amount, transaction date, and the account number;   receiving, by the computer-based system and from the web clients of the members, a selection from one or more members of the group of one or more of the ROCs from the plurality of ROCs associated with the shared financial obligation to create member-selected ROCs;   determining, by the computer-based system and in response to the receiving, a split instruction for the member-selected ROCs based on the account numbers in the ROCs;   splitting, by the computer-based system and based on the split instruction, the member-selected ROCs between the members of the group and the group initiator; and   transmitting, by the computer-based system and to the web clients of the members, a notification to the members of the group, wherein the notification includes the member-selected ROCs, the split instruction and a description of the shared financial obligation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the split instruction includes splitting, by the computer-based system, the member-selected ROCs between the group initiator and the members of the group based on at least one of input from one or more members, an algorithm, one or more member profiles, payments of one or more members prior to the shared financial obligation, obligations of one or more members prior to the shared financial obligation, based on historical actions of members, trends of members, a certain percentage or proportion, a purpose of an event or a transaction that caused the shared financial obligation, a total financial obligation owed by a group, one or more members providing past, present or future donations to charities, status of certain members, a member being a guest of another member, one or more members having children at the event, or frequency of participation at an event. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the split instruction includes splitting, by the computer-based system, the member-selected ROCs proportionally between group initiator and the members of the group. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the split instruction includes splitting, by the computer-based system, according to a percentage owed by the group initiator and the members of the group toward the member-selected ROCs. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the split instruction includes automatically allocating, by the bill splitting computer-based system, percentages of the member-selected ROCs between the group initiator and the members of the group. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising splitting, by the computer-based system, rewards associated with the member-selected ROCs based on the split instruction. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the split instruction is based on at least one of input from one or more members, an algorithm, one or more member profiles, previous payments of the one or more members, previous obligations of the one or more members, the historical actions of the members, trends of the members, a percentage, a proportion, a purpose of the event, a purpose of the transaction, a total financial obligation owed by the group, donations to charities by the one or more members, a status of a member, or frequency of participation at an event. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the members of the group are selected for the group based on authentication data and identification data. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 re-allocating, by the computer-based system, the shared financial obligation to create a revised split instruction, in response to receiving a rejection of the split instruction from any one member of the group;   transmitting, by the computer-based system, a subsequent notification to the members of the group, wherein the subsequent notification includes the ROC, the revised split instruction and a description of the shared financial obligation,
 wherein the re-allocating and the transmitting subsequent notifications continue until receiving an approval of the revised split instruction from all members of the group; 
   adjusting, by the computer-based system, the shared financial obligation of the group initiator based on the revised split instruction, in response to the receiving of the approval of the revised split instruction from all members of the group;   applying, by the computer-based system, the shared financial obligation to the members of the group based on the revised split instruction; and   settling, by the computer-based system, the ROC corresponding to the revised split instruction between transaction accounts of each of the members of the group.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the creating the members of the group occurs prior to incurring the shared financial obligation. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising authorizing, by the computer-based system, each transaction account of each member of the group for the split amount contained in the split instruction. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising settling, by the computer-based system, a dispute as to the shared financial obligation. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 :
 wherein the expense related to the ROC is reimbursed by the member using member funds,   wherein an authorization for a full amount of the shared financial obligation is based on the transaction account of the group initiator,   wherein the full amount of the shared financial obligation is charged to the transaction account of the group initiator,   wherein a portion of the full amount of the shared financial obligation is received by the group initiator from transaction accounts of the members of the group, and   wherein each of the transaction accounts of the members are charged a portion of the full amount of the member-selected ROCs based on the split instructions and the transaction account of the group initiator is credited the portion of the amount of the member-selected ROCs.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing, by the computer-based system, the shared financial obligation in a database as ungrouped data elements via a fixed memory offset using a binary large object method with different data sets from different owners with different formats. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising tuning, by the computer-based system, a database containing the shared financial obligation to optimize database performance, wherein the tuning includes placing frequently used files on separate file systems to reduce in and out bottlenecks. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising annotating, by the computer-based system, the shared financial obligation with a header, trailer or indicator to convey information for managing the shared financial obligation. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 annotating, by the computer-based system, the shared financial obligation to include security information establishing a security access level; and   providing, by the computer-based system and based on the security access level, access to the shared financial obligation.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 designating, by the computer-based system, a type of the shared financial obligation as a key field in a plurality of related data tables to speed searching for the shared financial obligation;   linking, by the computer-based system, a plurality of related data tables based on a type of the shared financial obligation in the key field;   partitioning, by the computer-based system and using the key field, a database according to a class of objects defined by the key field to speed searching for the shared financial obligation; and   sorting, by the computer based system, the shared financial obligation according to a known order to simplify a lookup process.   
     
     
         19 . An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system, cause the computer-based system perform operations comprising:
 receiving, by the computer-based system, a request to establish a group of members in a database, wherein a group initiator and the members share a shared financial obligation, wherein the group initiator incurred the shared financial obligation using an account number for a transaction account of the group initiator;   providing, by the computer-based system and to the members, a plurality of record of charges (ROCs) associated with the shared financial obligation by the group initiator, wherein the ROCs include location, merchant identifier, transaction amount, transaction date, and the account number;   receiving, by the computer-based system and from the web clients of the members, a selection from one or more members of the group of one or more of the ROCs from the plurality of ROCs associated with the shared financial obligation to create member-selected ROCs;   determining, by the computer-based system and in response to the receiving, a split instruction for the member-selected ROCs based on the account numbers in the ROCs;   splitting, by the computer-based system and based on the split instruction, the member-selected ROCs between the members of the group and the group initiator; and   transmitting, by the computer-based system and to the web clients of the members, a notification to the members of the group, wherein the notification includes the member-selected ROCs, the split instruction and a description of the shared financial obligation.   
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 a processor;   a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the computer-based system; and   the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the computer-based system, cause the computer-based system to be capable of performing operations comprising:   receiving, by the processor, a request to establish a group of members in a database, wherein a group initiator and the members share a shared financial obligation, wherein the group initiator incurred the shared financial obligation using an account number for a transaction account of the group initiator;   providing, by the processor and to the members, a plurality of record of charges (ROCs) associated with the shared financial obligation by the group initiator, wherein the ROCs include location, merchant identifier, transaction amount, transaction date, and the account number;   receiving, by the processor and from the web clients of the members, a selection from one or more members of the group of one or more of the ROCs from the plurality of ROCs associated with the shared financial obligation to create member-selected ROCs;   determining, by the processor and in response to the receiving, a split instruction for the member-selected ROCs based on the account numbers in the ROCs;   splitting, by the processor and based on the split instruction, the member-selected ROCs between the members of the group and the group initiator; and   transmitting, by the processor and to the web clients of the members, a notification to the members of the group, wherein the notification includes the member-selected ROCs, the split instruction and a description of the shared financial obligation.