Data processing system for pricing, costing and billing of financial transactions
View Patent ↗The present invention provides methods and systems for pricing financial transactions by defining product rules, providing links to appropriate price tables, and calculating a price for a financial transaction. A data processing system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, creates a product rule corresponding to a financial transaction. The product rule contains mandatory attributes and optional attributes. Optional attributes may be looked up using identifiers constructed from said mandatory attributes. Optional attributes include a link to a price table which contains further attributes, including a pricing method. A price is then calculated in accordance with the pricing method. Billing is completed according to the billing method for the particular financial transaction.
1. In a data processing system, a method for pricing financial transactions, said method comprising:
creating, in a database system of the data processing system, a plurality of price tables;
creating, in the database system, a plurality of product rules each applicable to one or more of said financial transactions, wherein each of said product rules comprise a plurality of attributes, including mandatory and optional attributes, wherein said mandatory attributes specify (a) one or more entities to which said product rule pertains and (b) a scope of said product rule, wherein one of the optional attributes allows specifying one of said price tables, and wherein a search key is constructed for each product rule from one or more of said mandatory attributes; and
for each one of said financial transactions:
identifying an applicable one of said product rules for said transaction based on said mandatory attributes; and
pricing said transaction according to the price table linked to said identified applicable product rule.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said price table specifies a billing method.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said attributes comprises:
a name of said product rule;
a status of said product rule;
pricing and billing information; and
display only information.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of said product rules is linked to one of said price tables by a price table name.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein an entry in each of said price tables specifies a pricing method.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is flat fee.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is unit price.
8. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is unit cost.
9. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is volume discount.
10. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is tiering.
11. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is cost plus.
12. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is minimum revenue.
13. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is maximum revenue.
14. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is markup of total price.
15. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is bundled pricing.
16. The method of claim 5 , wherein said pricing method is bundled pricing across a group of accounts.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of said mandatory attributes includes an identifier for said product rule.
18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in creating one of said product rules, applying a validating rule to validate said product rules prior to committing said product rules to said database system.
19. The method of claim 1 , wherein said product rules comprise a default product rule.
20. The method of claim 1 , wherein said price table contains prices.
21. The method of claim 1 , wherein said price table contains costs.
22. The method of claim 1 , wherein said price table contains negative values.
23. A data processing system for pricing a financial transaction, said data processing system comprising:
means for creating one or more price tables in the data processing system;
means for creating one or more product rules in the data processing system applicable to said financial transaction, each of said product rules comprises a plurality of mandatory attributes and a plurality of optional attributes, wherein said mandatory attributes specify (a) one or more entities to which said product rule pertains and (b) a scope of said product rule, wherein one of the optional attributes allows specifying one of said price tables;
means for creating a search key for each product rule, said search key being constructed from one or more of said mandatory attributes;
means for identifying an applicable one of said product rules for said transaction based on said mandatory attributes; and
means for calculating a price for said financial transaction using said identified product rule and accessing said price table specified in said product rule.
24. The data processing system of claim 23 , further comprising means for billing.
25. The data processing system of claim 23 , wherein means for creating a product rule comprises:
means for assigning a name to said product rule;
means for assigning a status to a product rule;
means for associating with said product rule pricing and billing information; and
means for associating said product rule with display only information.
26. The data processing system of claim 23 , further comprising means for creating an identifier for said product rule using said mandatory attributes.
27. The data processing system of claim 26 , further comprising means for looking up said optional attributes using said identifier.
28. The data processing system of claim 23 , further comprising means for applying validation rule to validate said product rules before committing said product rule to a database.
29. The data processing system of claim 23 , further comprising means for creating a default product rule.