Claims:CLAIMS:-
We claim,
1) An invoice payment system characterized in that, the said system involves a smart electronic means which is enabled to read, reply, segregate, de-duplicate and appropriately mark undisputed invoice with genuine payable requests for payment.
2) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said electronic means segregate the emails based on two main criterion of "Payment Query" and " Adding payment invoice".
3) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said electronic means generate automated responses to input emails for payment query and,
wherein; in case of payment requests the details of invoice will be processed to initiate remittance in a stepwise manner.
4) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said electronic means is enabled to read the email content at the header and line level and all attachments in any format for payable invoice information.
5) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said electronic means is enabled to recognise and eradicate undisputed invoices.
6) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steps for generating automated reply by the said electronic means to the payment query email include:
a) Receiving the Vendor Query input email.
b) Identification of the Vendor company.
c) Classification of emails in the said two main criterion.
d) Sending automated response to the mail if belongs to "Payment Query" category.
7) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steps carried out by the said electronic means for "add invoice" route for payable invoice include:
a) Receiving the Vendor Query input email.
b) Identification of the Vendor company.
c) Classification of emails in the said two main criterion.
d) Identifying payable invoices and adding them to e-Invoice application for payment.
e) Marking undisputed and genuine invoices with green mark and disputed invoices with history with red marks before adding them to the e-Invoice application.
8) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the process to recognise and eradicate duplicate invoices by the said electronic means includes the steps of:
i) Scanning the e-Invoice application and AP manager inbox for the same combination of the invoice number and supplier name to be checked.
ii) If combination already present then flag the invoice as "duplicate" or else mark green tick for further processing.
ii) Scanning Payment Orders for payment order with same date, same invoice total and with same line entry.
iv) If combination already present then flag the invoice as "duplicate" or else mark green tick for further processing.
9) The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the process to flag disputed invoices by the said electronic means includes the steps of:
i) Scanning all past emails related to the invoice or the supplier based on the interactions in the email content.
ii) If any issues found in the scan then block payment of such invoice and flag a red mark to the mail and simultaneously send alert to compliance team.
iii) If compliance team approves and removes the red mark then mark the email green for further action.
iv) Mapping invoice meta data with contract meta data containing payment schedule to mark discrepancies if any.
v) Mapping invoice tax rate with tax rate database for the transaction and marking discrepancies if any.
, Description:FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to invoice payment system that segregates and processes payable invoices based on input emails/invoices by vendors using smart electronic means.
BACKGROUND
Traditionally, business transactions were carried out via exchange of paper invoices being used as a memo to receive payments. Managing paper invoices and processing them appropriately within a given time frame was a daunting task to the service user. Loss of invoices, mismanagement and hence slow down in business was often a result of this cumbersome payment method. E-invoice soon took over for ease of process of business payments. However, none of the methods available till date are such that they are fully efficient, errorless, and accurate such that no human or AI will have to spend repeated time and energy over the same request to process the invoices for payments.
While organizations spend a large amount of time on punching the invoice data, a considerable amount of time is spent on managing and responding to emails from suppliers and internal requestors. Email content could range from attaching an invoice for processing, seeking invoice status, asking remittance information or even sending same invoice multiple times.
On an average a USD2Bn organization receives anywhere from120-150 emails a day. AP team cannot afford to ignore even a single email. Looking into the inbox, sifting through emails, understand the supplier email, gathering relevant data and responding to supplier emails consumes a lot of time. It is estimated that the supplier response could take anywhere from 2 minutes to 3 days when suppliers fail to mention the PO number on a valid PO backed transaction.
PRIOR ART
US patent document US6292789 B1 discloses a method and system for presentment of bills on a computer network including a biller account hosted on a server of a bill service provider for receiving a bill file from a biller that includes bill data. The biller account automatically formats a bill for a consumer from the bill data. This process is however not error proof. Does not talk of duplicate invoices, or means of assessing undisputed invoices.
US patent document US 6,882,986 B1 describes a method for automatic processing of invoices wherein a computerized method of automatically generating payment for electronic billing data including automatically obtaining billing data in an electronic format from a billing party for a billable party, and automatically comparing the billing data with rule data defined by the billable party. The method includes automatically authorizing generation of payment data for the billing party if the billing data satisfies the comparison with the rule data is described. However this particular document fails to exactly elaborate how the system works or how duplicates are eradicated. Further the described invention completely fails to eliminate payment of disputed invoices if any.
Thus, it is seen that even though auto processing of invoices is attempted in certain prior arts it is not full proof or a cent percent method to resolve the input query or payment request to its finality. Some prior arts talk of auto responding to query mails based on general input keywords however do not further process the request wherein again a human resource is necessary to complete the transaction.
Thus there is need for a fully automated system and method for segregating and processing invoices till finality without human intervention/physical efforts/ input of time and energy of resources for quick and efficient timely payment of invoices.

DEFINITIONS:
1. The abbreviation “AP” used hereinafter in this specification is an abbreviated form of "Accounts Payable" with the same meaning and understanding to any person as used in any e-commerce or other commerce platforms.
2. The abbreviation “PO” used hereinafter in this specification is an abbreviated form of "Payment Order" with the same meaning and understanding to any person as used in any e-commerce or other commerce platforms.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION:
The primary object of the present invention is to provide an novel system for payment of invoices.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for segregating and processing payable invoices.
Yet another object of the present invention is to reduce the settlement time between raising and closing of a invoice request/query.
Yet another object of the present invention is to generate automated reply to invoice request/query mail based on input email data.
Yet another object of the present invention is to process input mail to generate appropriate reply and/or trigger cascade of events leading to settling of the payment invoice.
Yet another object of the present invention is to flag and separate duplicate and disputed invoices.
Yet another object of the present invention is to identify undisputed invoices for further processing.
Further the object of the present invention is to save physical efforts, time and increase productivity on the whole.
SUMMARY
The present invention discloses a system which involves smart electronic means for payment of invoices in a quick and efficient manner. The said smart electronic means of the said system is such that the vendor emails are read, deconstructed into keywords and an automated accurate response is sent to the supplier. In case the email is for payment information, the intelligent system will initiate a flow of steps to identify and process undisputed payable invoices automatically in a quick and efficient manner.
The invoice payment system of the present invention involves smart electronic means that initiate and carry out array of steps to achieve payment of input invoices. The said system apart from generating automated email reply, is a smart desk application that reads all emails present in the inbox and intelligently identifies emails containing invoice details or attachments for action. The said electronic means read the contents for any further action. If there is any invoice attached to the email then this invoice is processed within the application to read the invoice attachment and the following actions are performed: Identifying if this email containing invoice was earlier replied, if this email containing invoice is a duplicate invoice, if this email containing invoice passes the check for undisputed invoice for this the application matches with PO, requisite contract terms, check in the inbox if this invoice was earlier objected for payment, running the invoice check list which includes check list containing all necessary fields which needs to be there in the invoice-like goods/service line item description, qty, price for each qty, tax rates etc.
The said electronic means also check the preloaded invoice blocker checklist to ensure it is undisputed invoice and provides green tick and red ticks if any to the blocker checklist upon completion of all checks and the undisputed invoices with green ticks are processed for payment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a detailed flow chart of pre-determined steps performed by the smart electronic means of the said invoice payment system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION:
Before the present invention is described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to particular methodologies described, as these may vary as per the person skilled in the art. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps. The use of the expression “at least” or “at least one” suggests the use of one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as the use may be in the embodiment of the invention to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results. Various embodiments of the present invention are described below. It is, however noted that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, but rather the intention is that modifications those are apparent are also included.
Invoice payment is a daunting task for the service provider, since not even a single invoice can be missed, miscalculated or wrongly processed. The invoices received on daily basis are so high in number that the said electronic means need to function very accurately and precisely for an errorless and accurate invoice processing.
The invoice payment system of the present invention is a manifoldly advanced payment system that involves smart electronic means which eradicates all errors, duplicates, fraud invoices and processes only the genuine ones in a quick and efficient manner.
The said system is a proprietary Smart Desk application that reads the vendor emails, deconstructs the email into keywords and creates an automated response to the emails.
Referring to FIG. 1 of the present invention, whenever there is a new accounts payable email in the e-invoice application of the present system regarding vendor queries, or request to add new invoice for payment, or any other additional communication the smart electronic means of the said system performs a sequence of pre-determined steps as shown in the flow chart of the said figure. The said smart electronic means firstly identifies the sender vendor company, then it classifies the email into either one of the two main criterion of i) "Payment Query", or ii) "Add invoice". If email refers to a payment query and not a new invoice for payment then the invoice listing is checked. If payment of the said invoice is still due then invoice raised further for payment. If payment already done an appropriate reply is generated which can be viewed and sent by the AP manager. If the email contains invoice which is new then it is added for further processing through the "Add Invoice" route. The smart electronic means of the said system extracts data from such new invoices, the auto drafted invoice is validated by the AP team, and on validation if the invoice is no duplicate or disputed it is further listed for payment.
In one embodiment of the present invention in case the email is for payment query, the said system will generate an appropriate reply with suggested content with the help of the smart electronic means. This automated response will contain the details of remittance advise and can be reviewed and forwarded to the sender of the email.
Whenever a new invoice with no previous history/match is detected by the said system of the present invention it, firstly sends appropriate reply to the sender and further executes array of steps that include validating genuine invoices to be reviewed for processing by the AP team Manager.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention in case a payable invoice is detected by the said system it gives rise to an array of scheduled/pre-determined steps to process the payable invoice and mark the email content for payment wherein all duplications are eradicated by the intelligent system.
An array of pre-determined steps as triggered on encountering a payable invoice include:
1) The intelligent system reads emails in the inbox of user.
2) Identification and segregation of emails containing invoice or emails containing any other details regarding payment query is then done.
3) Scanning done through past emails and invoice procurement system for same invoice number to identify if payment has been done in the past or whether the present invoice is a revised invoice or whether it is a unpaid invoice.
4) Further scanning done to mark an undisputed invoice by reading the contents of the invoice and by extracting the meta data fields of the invoice.
5) The said system then scans through the preloaded invoice blocker checklist to ensure the invoice is undisputed and payable.
6) On encountering such a non-disputed, non-duplicate invoices these final payable invoices are marked with a green tick and the disputed ones with red ticks upon completion of all checks.
For ensuring selection of undisputed invoice for payment the smart electronic means search the inbox to assess if there are any objections or disputes or issues related to the invoice. If the said electronic means finds any issues in the past emails connected to the invoice or issues with the supplier as interacted on emails, it blocks payment of invoice and raises red flag in the check list and sends alert to the compliance team for action. Only after and if the compliance team approves and removes the red flag attached with the invoice, the smart electronic means take the invoice for further action and other checks.
The said system is programmed to read and extract data not only from the content of the email but also the attachment files in word, PDF or other formats. The said system also extracts invoice metadata from PDF's that are either manually uploaded in bulk or automatically downloaded from AP inbox. The intelligent system extracts meta data from these attachment files, Header level details as well as line level details to have accurate invoice data for further processing to find duplicate invoices.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention the process of identifying and removing duplicate invoices includes steps as follows:
i. All the invoices stored in the e-Invoice application and AP manager inbox are scanned firstly for the same combination of the invoice number and supplier name. If combination is already present the invoice is flagged as "duplicate".
ii. If it is a Payment Order then combination of same payment order with same date and same invoice total with same line entry is checked. If combination is already present it is flagged as possible "duplicate".
In yet another embodiment of the present invention if there is any invoice attachment within the e-invoice application it is processed by reading the invoice attachment and performing the following actions; i) Check to see if the email containing invoice was earlier replied, ii) Check to see if the email containing invoice is a duplicate invoice, iii) Check to see if the email containing invoice passes the check for undisputed invoice. iv) Check to see if the invoice is undisputed and if it matches the email content with payment orders, requisite PO contract terms, and good receipt terms in the inbox., v) Check to see if this invoice was earlier objected for payment, and to run the invoice check list for the same.
The said check list contains all necessary fields which needs to be there in the invoice-like goods/service line item description, qty, price for each qty, tax rates etc.
This check carried out by the said system in the Invoice blocker checklist includes line level checks of items like:
i. Check repository of invoices for duplicates,
ii. Check PO meta data fields,
iii. Check good receipt meta data fields,
iv. Check AP user inbox for any past issues with the supplier named on invoice or past issues with the invoice contents mentioned in the invoice,
v. Check contract payment terms,
vi. Check tax rates etc.
If no issues are found then the said system correlates the meta data fields of invoice with tagged contract for the invoice and maps the payment terms mentioned in the invoice
Thus the said system of the present invention is not just automated email reply system but, the said smart electronic means of the system reads all emails present in the inbox, intelligently identifies emails containing invoice details or attachments and readies it for further action accurately and in less time.