PRIORITY CLAIM

[001] The instant patent application is related to and claims priority from the copending India provisional patent application entitled, “Al - BASED BANK ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION AND CREATION OF LEDGER ENTRY IN ERP SYSTEM”, Serial No.: 202141060570, Filed: 24 December 2021, which is incorporated in its entirety herewith.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[002] Technical Field

[003] The present disclosure relates to enterprise systems and more specifically to an Artificial Intelligence (Al) based bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entry in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

[004] Related Art

[005] An ERP system is commonly used by business organizations/entities to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations. When an ERP system is hosted in a cloud infrastructure (such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) available from Amazon.com, Inc., Google Cloud Platform (GCP) available from Google LLC, etc.), it is referred to as a cloud-based ERP system.

[006] ERP systems commonly maintain electronic ledgers as a basis for the management of the business activities. An electronic ledger (or “ledger” herein) refers to a collection of accounts in which account transactions (or “ledger entries”) are recorded, as is well known in the arts. In the following disclosure, the terms “transactions” and “ledger entries” are used synonymously.

[007] Bank account reconciliation refers to matching the transactions in a bank account statement document to the data in the ledgers of a business organization. Traditionally, such reconciliation is done thorough manual entry in the ERP system leading to spending of manual effort and sometimes erroneous entry in the process. Currently, there is no efficient way for people at different companies to have the benefits of having an efficient reconciliation of a bank statement and the business accounting ledgers.

[008] With gaining traction for digital transactions in financial sector for every business, such a need for efficient reconciliation of a bank statement and the business accounting ledgers has become critical. Aspects of the present invention are directed to Al based bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[009] An aspect of the present invention facilitates bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system. In one embodiment, and ERP system constructs a model of an ERP data maintained in the ERP system, the ERP data containing a set of ledgers, each ledger containing one or more ledger entries. Upon receiving a document containing details of one or more transactions, the ERP system for each transaction in the document, determines, based on the model, a respective ledger of the set of ledgers associated with the transaction and creates or updates at least a ledger entry in the respective ledger corresponding to the transaction.

[010] According to another aspect of the present invention, the model is an Artificial Intelligence (Al) based model. The constructing comprises training the model with ERP attributes contained in the ERP data and the determining for a transaction comprises predicting the respective ledger based on transaction attributes contained in the details of the transaction.

[Oil] According to one more aspect of the present invention, the predicting comprises matching the transaction attributes with the ERP attributes and selecting a ledger of the set of ledgers having the best match between the transaction attributes and the ERP attributes as the respective ledger for the transaction. [012] According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the model is a rule engine. The ERP system receives an input data from a user that a first transaction of the one or more transactions is associated with a first ledger in the set of ledgers and stores the input data as part of a historical data. The constructing comprises generating the rule engine based on the historical data and the determining for a transaction comprises identifying the first ledger as the respective ledger if the transaction is the first transaction.

[013] According to an aspect of the present invention, the document is a bank account statement. The performing of the determining and the creating for the one or more transactions in the bank account statement results in the reconciliation of the bank account statement with the set of ledgers in the ERP system. In one embodiment, the respective ledger is one of an invoice ledger, a purchase order (PO) ledger, an account ledger, and a tax ledger.

[014] Several aspects of the invention are described below with reference to examples for illustration. However, one skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details or with other methods, components, materials and so forth. In other instances, well- known structures, materials, or operations are not shown in detail to avoid obscuring the features of the invention. Furthermore, the features/aspects described can be practiced in various combinations, though only some of the combinations are described herein for conciseness.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[015] Example embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings briefly described below.

[016] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing system in which various aspects of the present invention can be implemented.

[017] FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the manner in which bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system is facilitated according to aspects of the present invention.

[018] FIG. 3 depicts an implementation of various aspects of the present invention in one embodiment.

[019] FIG.s 4 A and 4B depicts sample data formats used for maintaining data in an ERP system in one embodiment.

[020] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the details of a digital processing system in which various aspects of the present invention are operative by execution of appropriate execution modules.

[021] In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[022] It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The present disclosure is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

[023] Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment”, “in an embodiment” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.

[024] The use of "including", "comprising", or "having" and variations there of herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. The terms "a" and "an" herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced items. Further, the use of terms "first", "second", and "third", and the like, herein do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another.

[025] As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" include both singular and plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. By way of example, "a dosage" refers to one or more than one dosage. The terms "comprising", "comprises" and "comprised of as used herein are synonymous with "including", "includes" or "containing", "contains", and are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, non-recited members, elements, or method steps.

[026] All documents cited in the present specification are hereby incorporated by reference in their totality. In particular, the teachings of all documents herein specifically referred to are incorporated by reference.

[027] Example embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the accompanying figures.

[028] 1. Example Environment

[029] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing system (100) in which various aspects of the present invention can be implemented. The block diagram is shown containing end user systems HOa-l lOc, network 130, and cloud 160 (which in turn is shown containing a number of nodes such as node 170a and 170b, ERP server 150 and data store 180).

[030] Merely for illustration, only representative number/type of systems is shown in FIG. 1. Many computing systems often contain many more systems, both in number and type, depending on the purpose for which the computing system is designed. Each system/ device of FIG. 1 is described below in further detail.

[031] Network 130 provides connectivity between end user systems HOa-l lOc and nodes of cloud 160 (such as node 170a/170b, ERP system 150 and data store 180). Network 130 may represent Wireless/LAN networks implemented using protocols such as Transport Control Protocol/Intemet Protocol (TCP/IP), or circuit switched network implemented using protocols such as GSM, CDMA, etc. as is well known in the relevant arts. [032] In general, network 130 provides transport of packets, with each packet containing a source address (as assigned to the specific system from which the packet originates) and a destination address, equaling the specific address assigned to the specific system to which a packet is destined/targeted. The packets would generally contain the requests and responses between end user systems HOa-l lOc and nodes of cloud 160 (such as node 170a/170b, ERP system 150 and data store 180) as described in detail in the below sections.

[033] Each of end user systems 110a- 110c represents a system such as a personal computer, workstation, mobile phone (e.g., iPhone available from Apple Corporation), tablet, portable device (also referred to as “smart” devices”) that operate with a generic operating system such as Android operating system available from Google Corporation, etc., used by users to send (user) requests to nodes of cloud 160 such as ERP system 150. In addition, each of end user systems HOa-l loc may include various hardware (and corresponding software) sensors such as camera, microphone, accelerometers, etc. In general, an end user system enables a user to send user requests for performing desired tasks to ERP system 150 and to receive corresponding responses containing the results of performance of the requested tasks.

[034] Cloud 160 is a collection of nodes (such as node 170a/170b) that may include processing nodes, connectivity infrastructure, data storages, administration systems, etc., which are engineered to together host software applications. Cloud 160 may be provided on a public cloud infrastructure (such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) available from Amazon.com, Inc., Google Cloud Platform (GCP) available from Google LLC, etc.) that provides a virtual computing infrastructure for various customers, with the scale of such computing infrastructure being specified often on demand. Alternatively, cloud 160 may be provided on an enterprise system (or a part thereof) on the premises of the business organizations. Cloud 160 may also be a "hybrid" infrastructure containing some nodes of a public cloud infrastructure and other nodes of an enterprise system. Some of the nodes of cloud 160 may be implemented as corresponding data stores similar to data store 180, while other nodes of the cloud 160 may be implemented as corresponding server systems, similar to ERP system 150.

[035] ERP server 150 represents a system, such as a web and/or application server, executing various applications designed to perform one or more tasks requested from end user systems. For example, each of the servers may execute one or more ERP applications related to accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, supply chain operations, etc. ERP server 150 may perform the tasks using data maintained internally in ERP server 150, on external data (e.g., maintained in data store 180) or on data received as part of the requests (e.g., data received from end user systems HOa-l lOc). ERP server 150 may also send the results of performance of the tasks to end user systems HOa-l lOc or one or more nodes of cloud 160. Furthermore, ERP server 150 may maintain some of the received information (such as the data from end user systems HOa-l lOc) and the result of performance of the tasks in data store 180.

[036] Data store 180 represents a non-volatile storage, facilitating storage and retrieval of a collection of data by ERP server 150. Data store 180 may maintain information such as user data received from end user systems HOa-l lOc, data related to performance of tasks noted above, etc. In one embodiment, data store 180 is implemented using relational database technologies where the data is maintained in the form of databases containing tables and columns and provides storage and retrieval of data using structured queries such as SQL (Structured Query Language), as is well known in the relevant arts. Alternatively, data store 180 may be implemented as a file server and store data in the form of one or more files organized in the form of a hierarchy of directories, as is well known in the relevant arts.

[037] It may be appreciated that each of ERP server 150 and data store 180 are implemented on corresponding nodes of cloud 160. Accordingly, ERP server 150 and data store 180 together operate as a cloud-based ERP system. The ERP system may be operated on behalf of a single business organization or for multiple business organizations. [038] In one embodiment, the ERP data maintained in data store 180 contains one or more ledgers, each ledger in turn containing multiple ledger entries (the details of the transactions performed by a business entity). It may be accordingly be desirable that such ERP data be reconciled (matched) with the transactions in a bank account of the same business entity or other business entities. For example, if the bank account of another business entity has a transaction of a payment made to the business entity, the transaction may be matched with a ledger entry (invoice) in the invoice ledger, and the ledger entry may be updated to indicate that the invoice has been paid. It is desirable that such reconciliation be done in an automated and effective manner.

[039] ERP server 150, provided according to aspects of the present invention, facilitates bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system as described below with examples.

[040] 2. General Flow

[041] FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the manner in which bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system is facilitated according to aspects of the present invention. The flowchart is described with respect to FIG. 1, in particular, ERP server 150, merely for illustration. However, various features can be implemented in other systems and/or other environments also without departing from the scope of various aspects of the present invention, as will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant arts by reading the disclosure provided herein.

[042] In addition, some of the steps may be performed in a different sequence than that depicted below, as suited in the specific environment, as will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant arts. Many of such implementations are contemplated to be covered by several aspects of the present invention.

[043] In step 201, ERP server 150 constructs a model of an ERP data maintained in an ERP system, the ERP data containing ledgers, each ledger containing multiple ledger entries. Examples of ledgers are an invoice ledger, a purchase order (PO) ledger, an account ledger, and a tax ledger. The ERP data may be maintained in data store 180. [044] According to an aspect, the model is an Al based model, with constructing comprising training the model with ERP attributes contained in the ERP data. The term “ERP attribute” or “transaction attribute” (noted below) refers to a field contained in any of the ledgers or a computed field whose value is computed based on the values in one or more fields.

[045] According to another aspect, the model is a rule engine, with constructing comprising generating the rule engine based on the historical data. The historical data contains user provided mappings/rules between the transactions of a document and the ledgers in the ERP data.

[046] In step 202, ERP server 150 receives a document (such as a bank account statement document) containing details of a transaction. The document may be received in any convenient format such as a textual document, an image, or a Portable Document Format (PDF) document.

[047] In step 203, ERP server 150 determines, based on the model, a ledger associated with the transaction. The determination of the ledger may be performed based on the transaction attributes contained in the textual content of the document.

[048] According to an aspect, when the model is an Al based model, the determining comprises predicting the respective ledger based on transaction attributes contained in the details of the transaction. The predicting comprises matching the transaction attributes with the ERP attributes and selecting a ledger of the set of ledgers having the best match between the transaction attributes and the ERP attributes as the respective ledger for the transaction.

[049] According to another aspect, when the model is a rule engine, the determining comprises applying one or more mappings/rules to identify the ledger corresponding to the transaction.

[050] In step 204, ERP server 150 creates or updates at least one ledger entry in the determined ledger corresponding to the transaction. The creation/update of ledger entries may be performed in a known way.

[051] It may be appreciated that the above steps 202-204 are described with respect to a single transaction contained in the document. When the document contains multiple transactions, steps 203 and 204 may be performed for each transaction contained in the document. When the document is a bank account statement, the performance of steps 203 and 204 results in the reconciliation of the bank account statement with the set of ledgers in the ERP system.

[052] Thus, aspects of the present invention are directed to facilitating bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system. The manner in which ERP server 150 according to the operation of FIG. 2 may be implemented is described below with examples.

[053] 3. Illustrative Example

[054] FIG. 3 and 4A-4B together illustrate the manner in which bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries in an ERP system is facilitated in one embodiment. FIG. 3 depicts an implementation of various aspects of the present invention in one embodiment. FIG.s 4 A and 4B depicts sample data formats used for maintaining data in an ERP system in one embodiment. Each of the Figures is described in detail below.

[055] Referring to FIG. 3, operational data store (ODS) 310 represents a nonvolatile storage similar to data store 180. ODS 310 maintains portions of the ERP data maintained by the ERP server 150 in data store 180. Specifically, ODS 310 maintains the details of the ledgers such as the name, account head, etc., corresponding ledger/ERP attributes such as the fields in the ledgers and one or more ledger entries (data values) contained in the ledgers.

[056] Referring to FIG.s 4 A and 4B, tables 410, 420, 430 and 440 depict the formats of various ledgers that may be maintained in the ERP system (in particular, data store 180). It may be appreciated that each table is shown having a respective name (first row in the table) and containing one or more fields/ERP attributes such as Acct Number, Acct Name, Currency, Paid Amount, etc.

[057] In the following disclosure, it is assumed that the same data formats are used in providing the details of one or more transactions contained in the documents received via path 301. For example, a back account statement containing transactions according to the format of tables 410 (BANK ACCT) and 420 (ACCT_TRAN_STATEMENT) may be received via path 301, and reconciliation may be required be performed against ledgers maintained according to the format of table 430 (INVOICE DATA). In another example, an invoice statement according to the format of table 430 (INVOICE DATA) may be received via path 301 and reconciliation may be required to be performed against ledgers maintained according to the format of table 440 (PURCHASE ORDER DATA (PO)). When the data format is received via path 301, the fields of the tables of FIG. 4A-4B are referred to as transaction attributes.

[058] Only a sample set of data formats, and correspondingly only a sample set of transactions/ledgers are described below for illustration. A typical ERP system handles a large number of transactions/ledgers having corresponding data formats. In addition, in alternative embodiments, the data formats of the transactions may be different from that of the ledgers, with the ERP system maintaining information on the correspondence between the different data formats. Aspects of the present invention are directed to such embodiments having different data formats as well.

[059] Referring back to FIG. 3, ODS 310 maintains the names of the ledgers and the ERP attributes shown in FIG.s 4A and 4B. In addition, ODS 310 also maintains portions of historical data as described below.

[060] User input processor 320 receives (via path 302) user inputs from one or more of end user systems 110a- 110c, the user inputs specifying mappings between transactions received via path 301 and corresponding ledgers of the ERP system. For example, a user may indicate that a transaction of INVOICE DATA in a document is associated with PURCHASE ORDER DATA (PO). User input processor 320 receives such mappings from the end users and stores them as part of a historical data in ODS 310.

[061] Artificial Intelligence (Al) models 330a-330b represent a family of various machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) based models that corelates the transaction attributes contained in received documents with the ERP attributes of the ledgers in the ERP system. The models may be generated using any machine learning approaches such as KNN (K Nearest Neighbor), Decision Tree, etc. or deep learning approaches such as Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Long short-term memory networks (LSTM) etc. Various other machine/deep learning approaches can be employed, as will be apparent to skilled practitioners, by reading the disclosure provided herein.

[062] The models may be trained based on ERP attributes (which also are the transaction attributes) contained in the ERP data. The manner in which the Al models 330a-330b performs such correlation among the ERP/transaction attributes is illustrated below:

[063] Rule engine 340 represents a rules-based determiner module that is generated based on the historical data maintained in ODS 310. Rule engine 340 contains one or more rules, which are applied on the incoming transactions to identify the corresponding ledgers.

[064] Document processor 360 receives (via path 301) a document and extracts the one or more transactions contained in the received document. Document processor 360 may first convert the received document into any convenient format for performing the extraction. For example, if an image document (scanned copy of a bank account statement) is received via path 301, document processor 360 may first convert the image document into a textual representation in a known way and thereafter identify the transactions based on the textual representation.

[065] Once the transactions in the received document are extracted, document processor 360 forwards the details of the transactions to Al models 330a-330b and rule engine 340. Al models 330a-33b predicts a respective ledger for each of transactions in the received document. Such prediction is performed by matching the transaction attributes with the ERP attributes and selecting a ledger having the best match between the transaction attributes and the ERP attributes as the respective ledger for the transaction. Rule engine 340 applies one or more rules, if available, to identify the respective ledgers. Al models 330a-330c and rule engine 340 forward the details of the determined ledgers to output generator 380.

[066] Output generator 380 first receives the respective ledgers predicted/ identified and consolidates the results. For example, if multiple ledgers are determined/identified for the same transaction, output generator 380 may determine only one of the ledgers as corresponding to the transaction based on the number of occurrences of the ledger, a confidence score generated by Al models 310a-310b associated with the determined ledgers (a higher value indicating better match), etc. In one embodiment, a ledger identified by rule engine 340 always is used irrespective of the matches determined by Al models 310a-310b. Once the consolidated single ledger is determined for a transaction, output generator 380 determines the specific ledger entries to be created and/or updated in the single ledger. For example, after matching a back account transaction (as shown in table 420) as corresponding to the amount in an invoice entry (as shown in table 430), output generator 380 may determine that that field “Paid Amount” in the invoice entry is to be updated to the amount in the transaction.

[067] Thus, the cloud-based ERP system of ERP server 150 and data store 180 facilitates bank account reconciliation and creation of ledger entries. It may be appreciated that the instant invention has various advantages such as automatic ledger accounting entry in the ERP system leads to substantially less manual effort. As there is no manual entry, the chance of erroneous data in the system is considerably reduced.

[068] .It should be appreciated that the above noted features can be implemented in various embodiments as a desired combination of one or more of hardware, execution modules and firmware. The description is continued with respect to one embodiment in which various features are operative when execution modules are executed.

[069] 5. Digital Processing System

[070] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the details of digital processing system 500 in which various aspects of the present invention are operative by execution of appropriate execution modules. Digital processing system 500 may correspond to ERP server 150.

[071] Digital processing system 500 may contain one or more processors (such as a central processing unit (CPU) 501), random access memory (RAM) 502, secondary memory 503, graphics controller 506, display unit 507, network interface 508, and input interface 509. All the components except display unit 507 may communicate with each other over communication path 505 which may contain several buses as is well known in the relevant arts. The components of FIG. 5 are described below in further detail.

[072] CPU 501 may execute instructions stored in RAM 502 to provide several features of the present invention. CPU 501 may contain multiple processing units, with each processing unit potentially being designed for a specific task. Alternatively, CPU 501 may contain only a single general -purpose processing unit. RAM 502 may receive instructions from secondary memory 503 using communication path 505.

[073] Graphics controller 506 generates display signals (e.g., in RGB format) to display unit 507 based on data/instructions received from CPU 501. Display unit 507 contains a display screen to display the images defined by the display signals. Input interface 509 may correspond to a keyboard and a pointing device (e.g., touch-pad, mouse), which enable the various inputs to be provided.

[074] Network interface 508 provides connectivity to a network (e.g., using Internet Protocol), and may be used to communicate with other connected systems. Network interface 508 may provide such connectivity over a wire (in the case of TCP/IP based communication) or wirelessly (in the case of WIFI, Bluetooth based communication).

[075] Secondary memory 503 may contain hard drive 503a, flash memory 503b, and removable storage drive 503c. Secondary memory 503 may store the data (e.g., portions of the data shown in FIG. 4A-4B) and software instructions (e.g., for implementing the steps of FIG. 2 and the blocks of FIG. 3), which enable digital processing system 500 to provide several features in accordance with the present invention.

[076] Some or all of the data and instructions may be provided on removable storage unit 504, and the data and instructions may be read and provided by removable storage drive 503c to CPU 501. Floppy drive, magnetic tape drive, CD-ROM drive, DVD Drive, Flash memory, removable memory chip (PCMCIA Card, EPROM) are examples of such removable storage drive 503c.

[077] Removable storage unit 504 may be implemented using storage format compatible with removable storage drive 503c such that removable storage drive 63c can read the data and instructions. Thus, removable storage unit 504 includes a computer readable storage medium having stored therein computer software (in the form of execution modules) and/or data.

[078] However, the computer (or machine, in general) readable storage medium can be in other forms (e.g., non-removable, random access, etc.). These “computer program products” are means for providing execution modules to digital processing system 500. CPU 501 may retrieve the software instructions (forming the execution modules) and execute the instructions to provide various features of the present invention described above.

[079] It should be understood that the figures and/or screen shots shown above highlighting the functionality and advantages of the present invention are presented for example purposes only. The present invention is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it may be utilized in ways other than that shown in the figures.

[080] Merely for illustration, only representative number/type of graph, chart, block, and sub-block diagrams were shown. Many environments often contain many more block and sub-block diagrams or systems and sub-systems, both in number and type, depending on the purpose for which the environment is designed.

[081] While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described in detail to illustrate the inventive principles, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from such principles. [082] It should be understood that the examples and embodiments described herein are for illustrative purposes only and that various modifications or changes in light thereof will be suggested to persons skilled in the art and are to be included within the spirit and purview of this application and scope of the appended claims.