Project Specification

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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4.

5.

6.
7.

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

*
Clear

Submit

Cancel

Validations
a) Validate the Username and Password against the Customer table.
b) For Banks 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
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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.

I Agree

Cancel

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 Customers accounts (only of Savings and Checking type) in the Preferred
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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 customers 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

Bill Payment System Activated Successfully

Now You can Access This Facility

OK

Processing
a)

If OK is clicked, direct the user to Bill Payment Menu screen.

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4. Bill Payment Menu

Bill Payment Menu

Manage Billers
Manage Payments
View Payment History
Maintain Categories
Approve Payments
Logoff

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.

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

List of Billers
Select

Biller Name

Address

Category

Add

Update

Back

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

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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]

Submit

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

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
Status

[DROPDOWN]

*
*

Active
Update

Inactive

[RADIO BUTTON]

Back

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

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

SUB MENUS

8. Manage Payments

Add Payment

Modify Payment

Delete Payment

Add Payment
Biller

Date

Amount

AC No
Biller Name

Bill Amount

Payment Due Date

Repeat Payment Monthly? *

Repeat?

x,xx,xxx.xx

[TEXTBOX]

[TEXTBOX && DATE PICKER]

Yes
Submit

No
Cancel

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

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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
Search

Date

AC No

Cancel

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 todays 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
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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

Submit

Cancel

Processing
a)

From the payment_Instr table, load all the payment instructions which have a payment
date < or = todays date

b) When Submit is clicked, do the following processing for each payment instruction
If Approve = Yes,
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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
todays 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

SUB MENUS

Add Category

Modify Category

Maintain Categories
Select

Category Code
Telecom
Utility

Description
Tele Communication
Water Tax

Category Name

[TEXTBOX]

Description

[TEXTBOX]

Submit

Cancel

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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
Customer_Name
username
password
Bill_Pay_Registered

Integer
Varchar(45)
Varchar(45)
varchar(10)
Char

Table Name

Account

Field Name

Field Type

Acct_no
Customer_Id

Integer
Integer

Ac_type

Integer

Account_Balance
Bill_Pay_Preferred

Decimal
Char

Table Name

Biller info

Field Name

Field Type

Biller_id
Customer_Id

Integer(auto increment)
Integer

Biller Name
address
City
Pin
Category_Code

Varchar(45)
varchar(10)
Varchar(40)
Varchar(10)
Integer

Status

Integer

Primary Key

Y Yes, Blank - No

primary key
Foreign Key referring to
Customer
1 Savings
2 Current
3 FD
4 - Loan
Y Yes
Blank - No

primary key
Foreign key referencing
Customer table

Foreign key referencing

Category table
1 Active
2 - Inactive

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Table Name

Payment_Instr

Field Name

Field Type

Payment_Instr_No

integer

Ac_no

Integer

Biller_Id

Integer

Payment_Due_Date
Amount
Recurring_Instr

Date
Decimal
Integer

Last_Processed_Date

Date

Table Name

Payment

Field Name

Field Type

Payment_No

integer

Ac_no

Integer

Biller_Id

Integer

Payment_Date
Amount
Category_Code

Date
Decimal
Integer

Table Name

Category

Field Name

Field Type

Category_Code
Category_Desc

Integer
Varchar(20)

Primary key; auto

generated
Foreign key referencing
Account
Foreign key referencing
Biller

1 Yes
0 No

Primary key; auto

generated
Foreign key referencing
Account table
Foreign key referencing
Biller table

Foreign key referencing

Category tale

Primary Key

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