Method for Paying Invoices

Abstract

For an organization having a central station and a plurality of distributed outlets, each of the outlets having a cashier's terminal, each of the cashier's terminals coupled to a respective point-of-sale (POS) controller, a method permitting a billee to pay an invoice issued by a biller is disclosed.

1 . A method performed by a point of sale (POS) system at a retail store to provide a financial service transaction to a customer, the POS system comprising a POS controller coupled to a cashier terminal and to a communication device, the method comprising:
 receiving at the POS controller a code supplied by the cashier terminal;   recognizing the code as being associated with the financial service transaction;   accepting at the POS controller a customer code identifier supplied by the cashier terminal in response to recognizing the code as being associated with the financial service transaction;   accepting at the POS controller a transaction payment amount supplied by the cashier terminal;   determining information about the financial service transaction using the code; and,   using the communication device to supply the customer code identifier, the information about the financial service transaction, and the transaction payment amount to a central station coupled to the POS system for causing the financial service transaction to be executed.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the financial service transaction is payment of an invoice issued by a third party to a customer, and wherein the information about the financial service transaction is an identity of the third party and wherein the transaction payment amount is a payment amount owed on the invoice. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the third party is a utility company and the invoice is a utility invoice identifying the cost of a utility service provided to the customer. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the code is a PLU code. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the code is a PLU code. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the third party is a utility company and the invoice is a utility invoice identifying the cost of a utility service provided to the customer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  2 , wherein the customer code identifier comprises a customer account number. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 using the POS controller to cause a receipt to be printed by the cashier terminal that identifies the payment amount, the identity of the third party and the customer account number.   
     
     
         9 . A point of sale (POS) system at a retail store that provides a financial service transaction to a customer, the POS system comprising:
 a processor programmed to recognize a code supplied to the processor as being associated with the financial service transaction, to accept a customer code identifier in response to recognizing the code as being associated with the financial service transaction, to determine information about the financial service transaction associated with the code and to accept a transaction payment amount;   an output coupled to a central station by which the customer code identifier and the transaction payment amount are supplied to the central station to cause the financial service transaction to be executed.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the financial service transaction comprises payment of an invoice issued by a third party to a customer and wherein the information about the financial service transaction comprises the identity of the third party and further wherein the transaction payment amount comprises the amount due on the invoice. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the code is a PLU code. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the code is a PLU code. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the third party is a utility company and the invoice is a utility invoice identifying the cost of a utility service provided to the customer. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 9 , further comprising a printing device controlled by the processor to print a receipt identifying the transaction payment amount, the information about the financial transaction and the customer code identifier. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the output is implemented as a communication device and wherein the communication device is controlled by the processor. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 8 , further comprising an input implemented as a scanning device. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the customer code identifier is formatted as a barcode. 
     
     
         18 . A point of sale (POS) controller disposed at a retail store and coupled to a cashier terminal and a communication device, the POS controller comprising:
 an input to receive from the cashier terminal, a code, a customer code identifier and a payment amount, at least a portion of the payment amount being at least a portion of the cost of a service provided by a third party to a customer;   a processor programmed to recognize the code as being associated with the third party, to accept the customer code identifier in response to recognizing that the code is associated with the third party, to determine an identity of the associated third party using the code, to accept the payment amount and to cause the communication device to supply the customer code identifier, the identity of the third party and the payment amount to a payment system to cause a quantity of money to be sent to the third party on behalf of the customer.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the third party is a utility company and the payment amount is equal to the cost of a utility service provided to the customer. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the code is a PLU code. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the code is a PLU code. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the third party is a utility company and the payment amount is equal to the cost of a utility service provided to the customer.