bill payments system

Project Specification

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Bill Payments System

ABC bank (Bank) is a regional bank and has been in existence in southern states of India since 1965. So far Bank has been providing standard banking services to its almost captive customers who have been with the bank for several decades. Bank has been able to retain these customers primarily because of their personalized and timely services. For all these years, ABC bank made minimal investments in its technology platform and various systems. As a result, ABC bank has not been able to offer value added financial services and responsiveness to its customers. Because of the changing banking environment and competition from larger financial institutions, ABC bank has started losing its customers and its profitability is continuously decreasing. In the last board meeting, directors assessed the situation. Board felt that bank has a critical mass of the loyal customers and should the bank be able to provide contemporary services combined with its passion for customer services, it will not only be able to retain its customers, but it will also be able to grow profitably. Board resolved that Bank must undertake an initiative to transform its technology as well as systems, launch new products and services. Board also mandated that Bank must build its new systems based on latest technology platform that matches its profile. Board recommended adoption of technology and standards that allow bank to manage the future changes quickly and efficiently to stay ahead of the competition. As part of this initiative, Bank has decided to deploy several new systems: Online bill payment is one such new system.

The key objectives of the System are

o Allow customers to set up and pay bills in a simple and fast manner o Ability to set up single payments in advance or schedule automatic payments at

predefined frequencies o Ability to receive bills electronically from a growing list of vendors (future enhancement) o Attract new customers by offering the service free of cost o Allow categorization of bills and provide query and reporting capability to customer for

tracking category-wise spend

System Requirements

1. Customers can sign up for Bill Payer by filling up the online application form. Once the application is submitted, customer can start using Bill Payer right away.

2. Customers can add billers to the service by entering information from their current billing statement sent by the biller. Bill Payer allows set up of payments in advance as well as set up of automatic payments. Currently, automatic payment can be set up for monthly payments only.

3. The payment can be set up using the Pay Bills function. The customer enters the amount and selects the biller to be paid. The dynamic calendar shows the earliest date the payment is expected to arrive. The payment can be scheduled to arrive any time


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later by entering a due date up to 12 months in the future by manually typing in a date or choosing a pay date from the dynamic calendar.

4. Categories will be assigned to each biller based on common industry categories, such as "Mortgage", " Utilities", or "Telephone". Members can query payment history for a category and period.

5. Members who have more than one account set up in their Bill Payer account will be prompted to select their "Preferred Account". Members will be prompted to select their "Preferred Account" while signing up and when selecting a funding account during payment set up.

6. Customer can make changes to the payment amount, payment date, and withdrawal account of payments which are in pending status

7. Every day, Customer service manager checks the payments due on that date for all accounts and approves the payments where sufficient balance is available. A check is generated and mailed to the biller’s address. In case the balance is not sufficient, the transaction is rejected and the customer is informed.

Screen Design

1. Welcome Screen

This is the initial screen displayed when the system is launched.

Welcome to Online Bill Payment System

Click here to Login


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Processing a) When clicked on the hyperlink, launch the login screen.

Login Section

The user is already a customer of the bank and has the Username and Password issued by the bank. These need to be validated before providing access to the Bill Payment modules.

The Customer Service Manager of the bank will login with a user id of “Admin”.

Login

Username

Password

Validations

a) Validate the Username and Password against the Customer table. b) For Bank’s Customer Service officer, the user name will be “Admin”.

Processing

a) If the username = “Admin” and the password is valid Direct the user to “Bill Payment Menu” screen

b) If the Username and Password combination is valid,

If the customer is not registered for the Bill Payment function Direct the user to “Bill Payment Registration” screen

If the customer is already registered for the Bill Payment function

Submit Clear

*

*

Cancel


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Direct the user to “Bill Payment Menu” screen

c) If “Clear” is clicked, Refresh the values in Username and Password fields. d) If “Cancel” is clicked, return to the Welcome screen.

2. Bill Payment Registration

Existing bank customers can register for bill payment facility. The customer name is retrieved from the database using the login username. A customer can select two preferred accounts for funding the bill payment

Bill Payment Registration

Customer Name : Venkatesan K

Preferred Account 1 [DROPDOWN]

Preferred Account 2 [DROPDOWN]

Terms and Conditions

I hereby declare that I have read the terms and conditions completely as mentioned in

the Bill Payment Agreement and I unconditionally agree to abide by these terms and conditions.

Validations

a) Preferred Account 1 and Preferred Account 2 should not be the same. b) Preferred Account 2 should not be entered if Preferred Account 1 is not entered.

Processing

a) Display Customer’s accounts (only of Savings and Checking type) in the Preferred

I Agree Cancel *


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Account fields. b) If the user clicks on “I Agree”

Update the Bill_Pay_Registered to “Y” in the Customer table for the customer’s ID

Update the Bill_Pay_Preferred to “Y” in the Account table for the preferred accounts selected on the screen

Display the “Activation” screen

c) If “Cancel” is clicked, return to the Login screen.

3. Activation screen

Processing

a) If “OK” is clicked, direct the user to “Bill Payment Menu” screen.

Bill Payment System Activated Successfully

Now You can Access This Facility

OK


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4. Bill Payment Menu

Bill Payment Menu

Processing

a) “Maintain Categories” and “Approve Payments” should be visible only to Admin users b) Based on the option selected, direct the user to respective page c) If Logoff is selected, return to the Welcome page.

Manage Billers

Manage Payments

View Payment History

Maintain Categories

Approve Payments

Logoff


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5. Manage Billers

This screen allows the user to add new billers and modify or delete existing billers.

Validations

a) For Update, one of the billers displayed on the screen should be selected

Processing

a) All the billers defined by the customer are loaded into the screen when it is displayed.

b) If “Add” is clicked, display the “Add New Biller” page

c) If “Update” is selected, display the “Update Biller” page

d) If “Back” is selected, display the “Bill Payment Menu”

Select Biller Name Address Category

List of Billers

Back Update Add


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6. Add a New Biller

This screen is used to add a new biller.

Add a New Biller

Biller Name

Address

City

Pin Code

Category [DROPDOWN]

Processing

a) If “Submit” is clicked

Generate a unique ID for biller

Store Biller details in the Biller Table

Return to “List of Billers” screen

b) If “Back” is selected, display the “List of Billers”

Submit Back

*

*

*

*

*


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7. Modify Biller

This screen is used to modify the details of an existing biller.

Modify Biller Information

Biller Name

Address [TEXTBOX]

City [TEXTBOX]

Pin Code [TEXTBOX]

Category [DROPDOWN]

Status Active Inactive [RADIO BUTTON]

Validations

a) If status is changed from Active to Inactive

Check if there are any outstanding payments for the biller in the Payment_Instr table. If Yes, give an error message

Processing

a) If “Update” is selected, modify the Biller details in the Biller table. Return to “List of Billers” screen

Update Back

*

*

*

*

*

*


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b) If “Back” is selected, display the “List of Billers” screen

8. Manage Payments

Add Payment

AC No x,xx,xxx.xx

Biller Name

Bill Amount [TEXTBOX]

Payment Due Date [TEXTBOX && DATE PICKER]

Repeat Payment Monthly? Yes No

Biller Date Amount Repeat?

Add Payment Modify Payment Delete Payment

a) Add Payment

Validations

Payment Due Date should not be a past date Processing

Populate the preferred account numbers from the Account table.

When the account number is selected, display the current balance.

Store the instruction in Payment_Instr table

Submit

SUB MENUS

Cancel

*

*

*

*

*


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b) Modify Payment

Validations

One of the existing instructions should be selected.

Payment Due Date should not be a past date Processing

Display the selected instruction details.

Populate the preferred account numbers from the Account table.

Biller name can not be modified

When the account number is selected, display the current balance.

Update the instruction in Payment_Instr table

c) Delete Payment

Processing

Delete the instruction from Payment_Instr table


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9. View Payment History

This screen allows the customer to view the history of payments made during a selected period.

View Payment History

Category

From To

Date AC No Biller Amount Category

Validations

a) To-date should not be less than From-date

Processing

a) If category is not entered, assume all categories. b) From-date should be pre-filled with the first day of current month. To-date should be

pre-filled with today’s date. c) When Search is clicked,

Search the Payment table for the given category, date range and the list of accounts owned by the customer

d) When Cancel is clicked

Search Cancel


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Return to the Bill Payment menu

Admin Section

10. Approve Payments This screen is used by the Customer Service Manager of the Bank to approve or reject payments to be processed each day.

Approve Payments

Date Account

Name

Biller Payment

Amount

Account

Balance

Approve

Yes

No

Yes

No

Processing

a) From the payment_Instr table, load all the payment instructions which have a payment date < or = today’s date

b) When Submit is clicked, do the following processing for each payment instruction

If Approve = “Yes”,

Submit Cancel


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i. Subtract the bill amount from account balance and update the account recod

ii. create a record in payment table iii. If recurring_payment = “No”, delete the payment_instr record iv. If recurring_payment = “Yes”, update the last processed date to

today’s date and update the Payment_Due_Date by 1 month

If Approve = “No”, i. Generate an email message to customer

ii. Delete payment_instr record

Refresh the list

c) If Cancel is pressed, direct the user to Bill Payment Menu page.

11. Maintain Categories

Maintain Categories

Select Category Code Description

Telecom Tele Communication

Utility Water Tax

Category Name [TEXTBOX]

Description [TEXTBOX]

Add Category Modify Category

Submit Cancel

SUB MENUS


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b) Add Category

Validations

Category code should not be already existing in Category table Processing

Store the Category details in Category table

c) Modify Category

Validations

One of the existing categories should be selected. Processing

Display the selected category details.

Update the category details in Category table


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Database Design

Table Name Customer

Field Name Field Type

Customer_Id Integer Primary Key

Customer_Name Varchar(45)

username Varchar(45)

password varchar(10)

Bill_Pay_Registered Char Y – Yes, Blank - No

Table Name Account


Acct_no Integer primary key

Customer_Id Integer Foreign Key referring to Customer

Ac_type Integer 1 – Savings 2 – Current 3 – FD 4 - Loan

Account_Balance Decimal

Bill_Pay_Preferred Char Y – Yes Blank - No

Table Name Biller info


Biller_id Integer(auto increment) primary key

Customer_Id Integer Foreign key referencing Customer table

Biller Name Varchar(45)

address varchar(10)

City Varchar(40)

Pin Varchar(10)

Category_Code Integer Foreign key referencing Category table

Status Integer 1 – Active 2 - Inactive


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Table Name Payment_Instr


Payment_Instr_No integer Primary key; auto generated

Ac_no Integer Foreign key referencing Account

Biller_Id Integer Foreign key referencing Biller

Payment_Due_Date Date

Amount Decimal

Recurring_Instr Integer 1 – Yes 0 – No

Last_Processed_Date Date

Table Name Payment


Payment_No integer Primary key; auto generated

Ac_no Integer Foreign key referencing Account table

Biller_Id Integer Foreign key referencing Biller table

Payment_Date Date

Amount Decimal

Category_Code Integer Foreign key referencing Category tale

Table Name Category


Category_Code Integer Primary Key

Category_Desc Varchar(20)

bill payments system

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