USPTO Patent Grant US12586078B2 on Cost Data Management

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Business Methods (G06Q)

Published March 24th, 2026

Detected March 25th, 2026

Summary

The USPTO has granted patent US12586078B2 to Coupa Software Incorporated for a computer-implemented method of managing cost data. The patent covers a system for calculating projected commodity costs based on transactional data and approving orders if the projected cost is below a threshold.

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What changed

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted patent US12586078B2, titled 'Managing cost data based on community supplier and commodity information,' to Coupa Software Incorporated. The patent describes a computer-implemented method for managing transactional data, calculating overages between invoice costs and requisition/purchase order costs, and projecting total costs for commodity items based on supplier or commodity IDs. A key feature is the automatic approval of an order if the projected cost falls below a specified threshold.

This patent grant is primarily of informational value and does not impose new regulatory obligations on businesses. However, it may influence the development and adoption of procurement and cost management software solutions. Companies utilizing or developing such systems should be aware of the patented technology, particularly concerning automated cost projection and approval workflows. No immediate compliance actions are required, as this is a patent grant, not a regulatory rule.

Source document (simplified)

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Managing cost data based on community supplier and commodity information

Grant US12586078B2 Kind: B2 Mar 24, 2026

Assignee

Coupa Software Incorporated

Inventors

Scott Harris, Ahmad Sadeddin, Vincent Toesca

Abstract

In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises storing, in one or more data repositories, transactional data relating to past transactions involving a plurality of commodities between a plurality of buyer entities and a plurality of supplier entities; calculating metric data of one or more overages from the transactional data, wherein each of the one or more overages indicates an amount to which a cost of a commodity item as specified in an invoice exceeds a cost of the commodity item as specified in a requisition or a purchase order, the invoice being generated in response to the requisition or the purchase order; receiving, from a computer associated with a buyer entity, a request to generate a requisition or a purchase order for one or more commodity items; identifying, from the request, a supplier identification (ID) associated with a particular supplier entity of the plurality of supplier entities or a commodity ID associated with a particular commodity of the plurality of commodities, for a particular commodity item of the one or more commodity items; calculating a projected total cost for the particular commodity item from the metric data using the supplier ID or the commodity ID, the projected total cost indicating a probable cost for the particular commodity item based on previous transactions that included the particular commodity item and particular supplier entity; in response to determining that the projected total cost for the particular commodity item is less than a threshold value, transmitting an approval of ordering the particular commodity item.