System and method for administering spend driven rebates

Abstract

The system enables participating service establishments to select and configure rebate programs and define which corporate clients to include in the offer. Corporate clients may interface with the system in order to view corporate card spend data, including a summary of savings obtained through purchases made with participating service establishments. The system further uses this information to generate rebate checks for the corporate client and invoices for the service establishments. The annual cash rebates may be based on the volume of cardmember spend at participating service establishment partners. The system provides benefits to a corporate client rather than to individual cardmembers, thereby revealing the value of participation in any number of savings programs directly to the decision maker of the corporation.

1 . A computer implemented method for administering a merchant savings program comprising the steps of: 
 receiving a purchase request from a merchant, wherein said purchase request includes an account identifier and corporate transaction account information;    determining if said account identifier is associated with a corporate client who is eligible for a rebate based on merchant defined terms of said savings program; and,    providing said rebate to said corporate client when said corporate client is eligible for said rebate, wherein said rebate is funded by said merchant.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining eligibility for said rebate according to at least one of corporation size, number of financial products issued to a corporation, type of financial product issued to a corporation, location of said a corporation, industry of corporation, and annual spends of a corporation.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said step of providing said rebate comprises determining said rebate based on at least one of record of charges data from a credit provider, record of charges data from said merchant, and point of sale data from said merchant.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said step of providing said rebate comprises providing said rebate to said corporate client at predefined intervals.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprises providing a rebate statement to said corporate client at predefined intervals.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing said merchant an invoice for all earned rebates over a predefined period of time.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising allowing said corporate client to view rebate information online.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising allowing said corporate client to view spend transactions online.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising reporting at least one of incentives based upon purchases at said merchant, performance metrics of said merchant savings program, and corporate client rebate information to an account issuer.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising reporting rebate information to an account issuer, wherein said rebate information is used to at least one of track rebate payables, track rebate receivables, and manage financial ledgers.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining said merchant defined terms by receiving a request from said merchant to participate in said merchant savings program, wherein said request includes said merchant defined terms of said merchant savings program; and, authorizing said request, wherein said authorization constitutes an agreement between a line of credit provider and said merchant.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said merchant defined terms include at least one of a rebate payable cap, eligible locations of said merchant, a date range for which charges are to be included in a rebate calculation, whether said saving program is based on pure spend, whether said savings program is based on a percentage spend increase over a previous year, source of spend data, and a party responsible for rebate calculations.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining a value proposition of said merchant savings program through market share shifting.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising transmitting a competitive set to said merchant, wherein said competitive set comprises a grouping of similarly classified merchants.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising transmitting a competitive set to said merchant, wherein said competitive set determines performance levels of said merchant savings program.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 retrieving data corresponding to said account identifier from multiple sources to obtain said rebate data, wherein said rebate data includes spend data and a rebate summary;    conditioning said rebate data for transmission to said corporate client; and transmitting said rebate data to said corporate client.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said retrieving data step comprises retrieving said rebate data from said multiple sources in disparate formats and converting said rebate data from said disparate formats into a single format.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprises formatting said rebate data into a report.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 receiving from said corporate client a query associated with said rebate data request;    processing said retrieved data to extract said rebate data satisfying parameters of said query; and    transmitting said extracted rebate data to said participant.    
     
     
         20 . A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions when executed by a processor, cause said processor to perform a method comprising the steps of: 
 receiving a purchase request from a merchant, wherein said purchase request includes an account identifier and corporate transaction account information;    determining if said account identifier is associated with a corporate client who is eligible for a rebate based on merchant defined terms of said savings program; and,    providing said rebate to said corporate client when said corporate client is eligible for said rebate, wherein said rebate is funded by said merchant.