in this section , the present invention is described in detail with regard to the drawing figures briefly described above . accordingly , the following terms are used through the remainder of this section . for purposes of description such terms shall have the following means : the terms “ merchant ”, “ store ”, “ outlet ”, and “ retailer ” unless otherwise specified below are used interchangeably to refer to any type of location that sells goods or services and process electronically enabled payment transactions from customers . the terms include both physical as well as remote ( e . g . catalog or internet ) sellers who process transactions that enable the present invention . the terms “ good ”, “ item ”, “ service ” and “ product ” unless otherwise specified below , are used interchangeably to refer to any type of commodity that may be sold by a merchant and paid for by a customer using some form of electronically enabled payment . it should be readily appreciated that both products and services may be sold by merchants in this manner . the terms “ customer ”, “ buyer ”, and “ consumer ” unless otherwise specified below , are used interchangeably to refer to any party that initiates a purchase of a good or a service . it should be readily appreciated that customer may be physically present at a merchant location , at another location were representatives of the customer and the merchant are present such as the customer &# 39 ; s home or work site or at some remote location using some form of communications technology to interact with the merchant . the terms “ benefit ” and “ reward ” unless otherwise specified below , are used interchangeably to refer to any amount of value other in monetary or in some other form of value such as in kind good or service that is associated with a payment transaction . the benefit is provided by the merchant via the electronic payment system to the customer in exchange for their patronage and associated loyalty . the terms “ beneficiary ”, “ third party ”, “ charity ”, and “ community group ” unless otherwise specified below , are used interchangeably to refer to any party that has applied to receive some sort of benefit or donation in the form either in monetary or non - monetary form as the result of a transaction between a merchant and a customer in which the customer has designated which third parties it wishes to receive some portion of the benefit associated with the transaction as specified by the merchant and / or the electronic payment processing system . a beneficiary can be an individual or an organization of some form including for profit and non - profit entities . the terms “ credit card ”, “ debit cards ”, and “ customer payment credentials ”, “ customer identifier ”, “ ach ( automated clearing house ) direct debit ” unless otherwise specified below , are used interchangeably to refer to encompass debit cards and any other form of credit , debit or stored value used to make a purchase by providing either in physical or electronic form using a unique reference number which uniquely identifies a customer &# 39 ; s account from which funds used to pay for the good or service purchases . the above defined terms are used through this section to describe the preferred embodiment of the present invention in reference to the attached drawing figures . where appropriate , parts are referred to with reference numerals . referring to fig1 ., the principal components used to implement the present invention are illustrated in a block diagram . at the lower left of the figure , the dashed lines depict the merchant &# 39 ; s point of sale location 10 which can be a fixed store front with a single point of sale area or station , a larger store with multiple point of sale stations , a virtual location accessed over the internet , or a mobile location with one or more point of sale stations . at the merchant location 10 , one or more point of sale terminals 11 are deployed to accept some form of electronic point . merchants also have the optional ability to interact with the central controller using a computer of some form such as a laptop or tablet 12 via a communications interface 65 such as the internet to create or change their account profile or to view information about the transactions sent from their location or possibly multiple locations . continuing with reference to fig1 , the customer and in particular the customer &# 39 ; s form of identification is depicted 20 . the customer has one or more of a plethora of possible forms of identification . these include bar code identification 21 , magnetic strip or more sophisticated “ chip ” or emv ( for eurocard , mastercard , visa ) cards 22 , or some form of personal digital assistance device or smart phone 23 such as a samsung galaxy or an apple iphone 5 with associated identification technology such as near field communications ( nfc ) such as google wallet , 1 dimension bar code show on the screen or similarly a 2 dimension bar or qr code show on the screen . starbucks mobile application including version 2 . 0 . 2 for android and apple &# 39 ; s passport application are example of this . customers also have the optional ability to interact with the central controller using a computer of some form such as a laptop or tablet 24 via a communications interface 62 such as the internet to create or change their account profile or to view information about the transactions they have originated . continuing with reference to fig1 , a unique element is introduced into the standard electronic payment processing environment . with advances in information technology , third parties or beneficiaries can become significant entities to be managed by the central controller . in fig1 , an example third party or beneficiary and in particular the third party &# 39 ; s ability to interact with the central controller via a computer of some form such as a laptop or tablet is depicted 30 . third parties have the ability to signup to receive benefits via the interface depicted as 66 in the figure and , upon passing an eligibility test performed completely by the central controller or completely by a human operator or by some combination of the two , be available for customers to include in the design of their benefits or rewards plan . continuing with reference to fig1 , the bank or other financial institution and in particular their electronic transaction management capability such as the financial institution server is depicted at 40 . the financial institution may support credit , debit , stored value or other loyalty related card transactions as is typical of electronic payment systems . links 61 63 and 64 are data communications lines and are configured to allow for data communications between the central controller 50 and the financial institution and the customer . optionally , the customer may communicate directly with the financial institution either in person , via telephone or via some internet communications enabled means depicted as interface 61 in the figure to instruct the financial institution to forward funds electronically to the central controller as is typical of stored or associated value cards using interface 63 . optionally , the central controller can request approval and transfer of funds on a per transaction basis using interfaces 63 and 64 as is typical of credit and debit card transaction processing within a typical electronic payment system . as will be seen , the structural elements and arrangement of the system 60 enable a new electronic payment paradigm . in particular , the system 60 allows a customer through a computer 24 to design their own rewards systems based on approved third party beneficiaries . rewards or benefits are accumulated on a per transaction base for display and / or notification to merchants , the transacting customer , other approved customers or users who have subscribed for this information , the receiving third party or other approved third parties . referring to fig2 . the architecture of the system is illustrated as a block diagram in which a point of sale electronic payment terminal 71 such as a verifone vx 510 , ingenico ml30 or new electronic payment terminals utilizing commercial off the shelf mobile devices like the apple iphone with accessories and software from suppliers such as paypal is attached by some form of communications capability including some combination of cable modems , dsl , ds1 , ds3 , sonet , ethernet , fiber optic , wifi 802 . 11 or other wireless technology such as cdma , gsm or long term evolution ( lte ) or other future communications capability 81 to a communications network 77 such as the internet . as depicted in fig1 , various forms currently available as well as future forms of uniquely identifying the customer for purposes of initiating an electronic payment transaction are expected to be presented to the point of sale electronic payment terminal . these include plastic cards with a 1 or 2 dimension bar code , magnetic strip cards and “ chip ” cards , or some form of personal digital assistance device or smart phone 23 such as a samsung galaxy or an apple iphone 5 with associated identification technology such as near field communications ( nfc ), 1 dimension bar code show on the screen or similarly a 2 dimension bar or qr code show on the screen . continuing with reference to fig2 , the computer 73 of some form such as a laptop such as an apple macbook air or tablet such as a google nexus 7 used by the third party or beneficiary to interact with the central controller 77 is depicted . the third party &# 39 ; s computer 73 is connected by some form of communications capability including some combination of cable modems , dsl , ds1 , ds3 , sonet , ethernet , fiber optic , wifi or other wireless technology such as cdma , gsm or long term evolution ( lte ) or other future evolutions 85 to a communications network 77 such as the internet and via the communications network to the central controller 76 . it should be appreciated that the third party or individuals associated with a third party organization could use different computers at different times to access the central controller 76 via the communications network 77 . a computing device 72 of some form such as a laptop or tablet used by the merchant to interact with the central controller 76 is depicted . this computer 72 is connected by some form of communications capability including some combination of cable modems , dsl , ds1 , ds3 , sonet , ethernet , fiber optic , wifi or other wireless technology such as cdma , gsm or long term evolution ( lte ) or other future evolutions 84 to a communications network 77 such as the internet and via the communications network to the central controller 76 . it should be appreciated that a merchant or individuals associated with a merchant organization could use different computers at different times to access the central controller 76 via the communications network 77 . similarly , a computing device 74 of some form such as a laptop or tablet used by the customer to interact with the central controller 76 is depicted . this computer 74 is connected by some form of communications capability including some combination of cable modems , dsl , ds1 , ds3 , sonet , ethernet , fiber optic , wifi or other wireless technology such as cdma , gsm or long term evolution ( lte ) or other future evolutions 82 to a communications network 77 such as the internet and via the communications network to the central controller 76 . it should be appreciated that a customer could use different computers at different times to access the central controller 76 via the communications network 77 . continuing with reference to fig2 , the central controller 76 is connected via some form of communications capability including some combination of cable modems , dsl , ds1 , ds3 , sonet , ethernet , fiber optic , wifi or other wireless technology such as cdma , gsm or long term evolution ( lte ) or other future evolutions 86 to a communications network 77 such as the internet . the communications network 77 and the central controller 76 are capable of handling a high rate of transactions include payment transactions from merchants as well as query and update transactions from customers , merchants , and third parties . the central controller 76 consists of two major aspects . these are the logic server 78 and database server 79 . the logic server aspect of the central controller contains the business logic for managing the transaction according to rules defined by the payment processing system operator as well as the rules defined by the customer describing the manner in which they would like to see their benefits or rewards distributed to third parties that have met the requirements established by the payment processing system operator . the logic server is described in more detail in fig4 . the database server aspect of the central controller provides the storage and synchronization of data associated with customers , merchants , transactions , third parties , system and beneficiary rules , as well as benefits accumulations and associated payments to merchants and third parties as well as customers when appropriate . the database server is described in more detail in fig5 . the component parts forming the system 80 will be readily understood by those skilled in the area of electronic payment processing systems and information technology . accordingly , for purposes of brevity , detailed discussions of such component parts are omitted . the aforementioned discussions about the structure and operations of system 80 make clear that a customer presenting some form of electronically readable identification that can be read by the payment processing terminal 71 is now actively connected to the benefits that the transaction performed will generate thereby increasing loyalty between the customer and the merchant who is responsible for sharing this benefit with the third party or third parties designated by the customer . the customer may choose to have different third parties designated based on some criteria such as merchant , geographic location , time of day , week or month , or based on amount of previously generated benefits or by the amount of benefit received by a designated third party . the merchant may also choose to accelerate or enhance the transactional benefit to a third party that he may choose to support for a specific period of time . for example , during a fund raising period of a soccer club , a local merchant may match the benefit amount based on purchases from customers who have assigned benefit to that specific soccer club . referring to fig3 . a point of sale electronic payment processing terminal is depicted in accordance with the definitions provided above in more detail . the point of sale electronic payment processing terminal includes a central processing unit ( cpu ) 90 to execute instructions which are delivered or installed electronically ( software ) to the terminal such as a client program to manage the operation of terminal . an input device 92 of some form is provided that connects with the cpu 90 via some form of connectivity 103 . various forms of input device are possible and multiple input devices may be built into the same payment processing terminal . input forms are varied and evolving rapidly including include 1 and 2 dimensional bar code reader which can read bar codes imprinted on a plastic card or piece of paper or be displayed on the screen of a mobile device , magnetic strip reader , chip reader , near field communications reader or other forms of wireless readers are possible . bio metric readers such as finger print readers , facial recognition cameras , or human eye readers may be used as standalone input methods or in conjunction with other input methods . the input device or devices ( s ) can be directly attached to the payment processing terminal or be attached via some combination of data input devices 96 via wired or wireless networking technology 102 such as ethernet , bluetooth , or wifi . it should be appreciated that input forms will evolve to provide higher levels of security , performance , and convenience to both the customer and the merchant . an output device 91 is connected to the cpu via some form of connectivity 105 to display relevant information relevant to the specific operation or transaction performed by the installed software . there may be multiple output devices attached to the cpu either displaying the same information or a portion of the information that is relevant to the merchant and a portion that is relevant to the customer . a primary storage mechanism 93 is coupled to the cpu by interface 106 and is used to temporarily store instructions as well as input and output data . the cpu is also coupled by interface 104 a secondary storage medium which is used to store permanently even when the terminal is not powered instructions and relevant information such as configuration parameters . the terminal is also coupled via interconnection 101 to a communications interface device 95 to attach to the communications network 77 of fig2 . by some form of communications capability including some combination of cable modems , dsl , ds1 , ds3 , sonet , ethernet , fiber optic , wifi 802 . 11 or other wireless technology such as cdma , gsm or long term evolution ( lte ) in a manner well known to those skilled in the area of electronic payment processing systems and communications technology . referring to fig4 . the logic server aspect of the central controller is depicted in accordance with the definitions provided above in more detail . the logic server aspect of the central controller 110 includes 1 or more central processing units ( cpu ) 115 to execute instructions which are delivered or installed electronically ( software ) to the logic server such as a server program to manage the operation of system . for the purposes of system administration including system activity and status review , capacity optimization , or system configuration among other functions , a graphic user interface ( gui ) 116 of some form is optionally provided that connects with the cpu 115 directly via some form of connectivity 123 or optionally via the internal network interface 114 or securely via the external network interface 113 . optionally , a resource manager device 117 of some form is connected to the cpu 115 directly via some form of connectivity 124 or optionally via the internal network interface 114 or securely via the external network interface 113 . a primary storage mechanism 111 is coupled to the cpu by interface 121 and is used to temporarily store instructions as well as input and output data . the cpu is also coupled by interface 122 to a secondary storage medium which is used to store permanently even when the logic server 110 is not powered instructions and relevant information such as configuration parameters . the logic server 110 and in particular the cpu 115 is also coupled via interface 126 to some form of to an external communications interface 113 to attach to the communications network 77 of fig2 . in a manner well known to those skilled in the area of electronic payment processing systems and communications technology . the cpu 115 of the logic server 110 is also coupled via interface 125 to an internal communications interface 114 to attach to other element of the central controller include redundant instances of the logic server and one or more instances of the database server aspect of the central controller in a manner well known to those skilled in the area of information systems and communications technology . referring to fig5 . the database server aspect of the central controller is depicted in accordance with the definitions provided above in more detail . the database server aspect 130 of the central controller includes 1 or more central processing units ( cpu ) 131 to execute instructions which are delivered or installed electronically ( software ) to the logic server such as a server program to manage the operation of system . for the purposes of system administration including system activity and status review , capacity optimization , or system configuration among other functions , a graphic user interface ( gui ) 134 of some form is optionally provided that connects with the cpu 131 directly via some form of connectivity 153 or optionally via the network interface 136 . optionally , a resource manager device 135 of some form is connected to the cpu 131 directly via some form of connectivity 154 or optionally via the network interface 136 . a primary storage mechanism 132 is coupled to the cpu 131 by interface 151 and is used to temporarily store instructions as well as to input and output data . the cpu is also coupled by interface 150 to databases used to persistently store information about the status of the overall system . database 140 stores information about the customers registered including some optimal combination of their name , contact information , security credentials , and possible bio metric information . database 145 stores information about the merchants registered including some optimal combination of their name , contact information , security credentials , and possible bio metric information . database 144 stores information about the third party beneficiaries registered including some optimal combination of their name , contact information , security credentials , and possible bio metric information . database 141 stores information about transactions processed including some optimal combination of their time , date , customer identifier , merchant identifier , location identifier and / or coordinates , amount , type , and possible security credentials . database 142 stores information about benefits awarded including some optimal combination of their date , time , customer identifier , merchant identifier , third party beneficiary identifier , transaction identifier , and possible security credentials . database 143 stores information about the system and customer defined benefits rules for allocating benefits or awards to third party beneficiaries as customers generate transactions with merchants for goods or services . the rules database 143 including some optimal combination of customer identifier , beneficiary identifier , transaction allocation amount and possible security credentials . the cpu is also coupled by interface 152 to other secondary storage medium 133 which is used to store permanently even when the database server 130 is not powered instructions and relevant information such as configuration parameters . the databases 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 , and other secondary storage medium 133 are connected and configured for optimal systems operation in a manner well known to those skilled in the area of information systems and database technology . the database server 130 and in particular the cpu 131 is also coupled via interface 155 to some form of to a communications interface 136 to attach other aspects of the system including the logic server aspect of the central control via the internal network interface 114 of fig4 . in a manner well known to those skilled in the area of information systems and communications technology . referring to fig6 , fig7 and fig8 . depicted therein are a series of flowcharts that illustrate the salient steps of the preferred process for allowing a system such as system 60 to enable customers to design their own rewards benefits rules enabling customers to automatically reward selected third party beneficiaries on a per transaction basis which transactions are processed by an electronic payment processing system . many of the steps depicted in these figures illustrate the sequence of operations carried out by the transaction processing system embodied by a central controller such as the central controller 76 depicted in fig2 . the software programming necessary to carry out the functions stated below will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art of software development . additionally , the use of internet enabled technologies enabling web based and mobile based data entry as well as query and display of information optimized for web and mobile display which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art . with reference to fig6 , a flowchart describing the steps used to register and activate a customer is illustrated . processing starts at s 6 - 1 and immediate proceeds to step s 6 - 2 where a customer logs onto the website served by a central controller using web browser software such as google chrome or internet explorer . in an alternate embodiment , the customer may register or may have registered by some alternative process that gathers all or some of the required information . examples of alternative processes include paper forms , customer interviews and related data entry by a customer service representative , as well as alternative system access using credentials and related customer information supplied to an alternative website such as facebook or linkedin . after accessing the central controller , the customer supplies information included by not limited to unique identifier which may be entered manually or presented automatically by device the customer is using to access the central controller , name , email address , other alternative contact information such as residence address , social media identifiers , and telephone number or numbers which are stored in the customer database 140 . proceeding to step s 6 - 3 , the system determines if the customer that has logged in has previously supplied third party beneficiary rules . if the customer has previously provided third party beneficiary rules , these are displayed to the user at step s 6 - 5 . in an alternative embodiment , the system detects the type of device the customer is using to access the system and optimizes the format of the information for display on this type of device . if the customer has not previously provided third party beneficiary rules , the system displays the appropriate default set of beneficiary rules at step s 6 - 4 . similar alternative embodiments are possible . proceeding to step s 6 - 6 , in the event the customer has previously supplied third party beneficiary rules , the customer is prompted to determine if changes to the specified set of rules are desired . if the event changes are desired , new rules are received from the user at step s 6 - 8 and are saved into the rules database at step s 6 - 9 . proceeding to step s 6 - 6 , in the event the customer has not previously supplied third party beneficiary rules , the customer is prompted to determine if changes to the default set of rules are desired . if the event changes are desired , new rules are received from the user at step s 6 - 8 and are saved into the rules database at step s 6 - 9 . in one embodiment , the customer specifies percentages of the benefit to be allocated to one or more approved beneficiaries . an example of this user interaction is provided in fig9 . in an alternative embodiment , the customer can chose to allow some portion of the benefits or rewards associated with all or some portion of their transactions based on some criteria to remain allocated to the customer for later allocation to one or more third party beneficiaries or for reward for the customer themselves . with reference to fig7 , a flowchart describing the steps used to receive the registration or sign up of a third party beneficiary are illustrated . processing starts at s 7 - 1 and immediate proceeds to step s 7 - 2 where a representative of a beneficiary or potential beneficiary logs onto the website served by a central controller using web browser software such as google chrome or internet explorer . after accessing the central controller , previously registered beneficiaries will be prompted to enter their credentials . a potential beneficiary or representative acting for the potential beneficiary will be prompted to supply information included but not limited to name , email address , other alternative contact information such as address , web site , social media identifiers , logo , names of authorized representatives , and telephone number or numbers which are stored in the beneficiary database 144 along with appropriate approval status . in an alternate embodiment , the beneficiary may register or may have registered by some alternative process that gathers all or some of the required information . examples of alternative processes include paper forms and interviews including related data entry by a customer service representative . proceeding to step s 7 - 3 , the system determines if the beneficiary accessing the system has previously been approved . if the beneficiary accessing the system has not been approved then the system prompts the user for required information at step s 7 - 5 . proceeding to step s 7 - 5 , the beneficiary or representative acting for the beneficiary will be prompted for information needed to determine if the beneficiary meets the requirements for approval . an example of this user interaction is provided in fig1 . this information may include but is not limited to charitable organization identifier and references and will vary from embodiment to embodiment . such information is stored in the beneficiary database 144 and is referred to as the beneficiary &# 39 ; s profile . proceeding to step s 7 - 6 , the system determines if the beneficiary meets the requirements to be approved to be made available for display to customers of this system and potentially receive benefits from customers as they transact purchases with merchants . approval process specifics will be system implementation specific possibly involving interaction with other systems via communications networks such as the internet . in one embodiment , the approval process may be completely automated by the system . in other embodiments , the approval process may be partially or completely manual and involve a person with appropriate domain knowledge and skills . proceeding to step s 7 - 7 , if system determines that the beneficiary requesting approval does not meet established requirements , the system will send appropriate notification to the beneficiary organization and associated users . such notification will occur typically in electronic form such as email . notification history will be stored in the beneficiary database 144 . proceeding to step s 7 - 8 , in the event the system determines the beneficiary meets the requirements for approval , beneficiary information in beneficiary database 144 is updated along with approval status and this beneficiary is made available to customers of the system to include in their beneficiary rewards rules . proceeding to step s 7 - 9 , the system will send appropriate notification of approval to the beneficiary organization , representatives associated with the beneficiary , as well as optionally other system constituents including merchants and customers . such notification will occur typically in electronic form such as email . notification history will be stored in the beneficiary database 144 . returning to step s 7 - 3 , if the beneficiary accessing the system has previously been approved then the system inform prompts the beneficiary representative who is prompted to determine if changes to the required information in the beneficiary &# 39 ; s profile are requested at step s 7 - 4 . if so , then the process proceeds to step s 7 - 5 as previously described . with reference to fig8 , a flowchart describing the steps used to assign rewards or benefits to specific beneficiaries according to rules established by the customer in advance of the customer transacting purchases at a merchant are illustrated . processing starts at s 8 - 1 and immediate proceeds to step s 8 - 2 where customer pays for a product or service using some form of electronic payment processing system . the customer may be physically present at a merchant location , at another location where representatives of the customer and the merchant are present such as the customer &# 39 ; s home or work site or at some remote location using some form of communications technology to interact with the merchant . customer identification information is received by the merchant &# 39 ; s payment processing system or device . in the case of physical presence , this typically involves a device at the point of sale capable of reading the customer identification in whatever form they are presented including magnetic strip , some form of biometric such as a finger print , 1 or 2 dimensional bar codes either in physical form or presented electronically on a screen such as a smartphone or table screen that the customer may have , or other electronic form including near field communications , wifi 802 . 11 or other wireless technology such as bluetooth or any combination of these . in the case where the customer is interacting with the merchant over some communications network such as the internet , the customer &# 39 ; s identification and credentials are transmitted to the merchant either through the customer entering information manually such as manual entry of a credit card and associated information or through some capability where the device the customer is using can transmit some form of identification such as a finger print image or information previously stored in the customer &# 39 ; s device or accessed from another location at the current or prior direction of the customer such as some form cloud storage for payment processing credential information . in either case , transaction information including the customer identification , the customer &# 39 ; s associated payment credentials , as well as details about the actual purchase transaction including the amount of purchase , as well as merchant identifier along with optional information such as a description of the item purchased are transmitted to the central server using some form of communications network such as the internet in a manner with appropriate security . proceeding to step s 8 - 4 , the customer identification , the customer &# 39 ; s associated payment credentials , as well as details about the actual purchase associated with the transaction including but not limited to merchant identification and purchase price are received by the central server over some form of communications network such as the internet or a private network capable of sending payment transaction information . the arrangement and configuration of the central controller and the compatible mechanism to receive customer identification and related credentials and transmit payment transaction details from the point of sale will be readily understood by those skilled in the area of electronic payment processing systems and information technology . proceeding to step s 8 - 5 , all information pertaining to the payment transaction is stored by the central controller in transaction database 141 . the arrangement and configuration of the central controller to receive and appropriately handle accomplish this task will be well known to those skilled in the area of transaction processing and database technology . proceeding to step s 8 - 6 , the system determining if the customer associated with the transaction is known to the central controller for the purposes allocating rewards or benefits based a set of rules pre established by the customer . in one embodiment of the system , the identifier of the customer associated with the transaction may not be known to the central controller responsible for allocation of per transaction benefits or rewards management but may be known to the overall payment processing system that contains the central controller function . proceeding to step s 8 - 7 , the system determines if the customer associated with the transaction has established beneficiary rules that apply to this transaction . the customer may be known to the central controller but the customer may not have established rules . in another case the customer may have established rules which exclude this transaction from providing benefits or rewards to third parties . proceeding to step s 8 - 8 , the central controller updates information associated with the transaction according to rules specified by the customer . this includes updating the benefits database to record benefits or rewards . amount of benefit available on per transaction is established by system and depending on the embodiment can vary based on time of day , week , or month . amount of benefit may also vary based on merchant where some merchants are chose to allow more of the transaction to be available to the customer to assign as benefit or reward to qualified beneficiaries and / or more choose to accelerate benefits to a particular qualified beneficiary . it should be appreciated that the types of rules that may be applied are widely varied based on time , merchant , location , prior transactions , type of purchase , amount of purchase , frequency of purchase amount , among other factors or combinations of two or more factors . proceeding to step s 8 - 9 , information associated with benefits accrual is made available in the central controller for display and possible notification according to the beneficiary &# 39 ; s profile . this benefits information is available to the beneficiary , the customer that assigned the benefits , as well as the merchant who contributed the benefit as well as to the central controller . the customer , merchant , or beneficiary can access this information from the central controller using a computer , laptop , tablet , smartphone or other mobile device after presenting their credentials to the central controller . the beneficiary or representative associated with the beneficiary may chose to be notified on a per transaction basis , after a certain number of transactions , after a certain amount of benefits assignment or accrual , periodically such as on an hourly , daily , or weekly basis . the customer may chose to be notified on a per transaction basis , after a certain number of transactions , after a certain amount of benefits assignment or accrual , periodically such as on an hourly , daily , or weekly basis . the merchant or representative associated with the merchant may chose to be notified on a per transaction basis , after a certain number of transactions , after a certain amount of benefits assignment or accrual , periodically such as on a hourly , daily , or weekly basis . notification can occur in one or more of the following forms including regular mail , fax , email , text message , or other form of messaging such as social media including but not limited to services such as twitter , facebook , yammer , or linkedin . proceeding to step s 8 - 11 , the electronic payment system executes the transaction in the conventional manner . this includes checking for sufficient funds as in the case of a debit , loyalty or stored value card or credit as in the case of a credit card , checking to ensure the customer &# 39 ; s account is active and not suspended for administrative reasons including but not limited to fraud , lost or stolen identification , or inactivity . depending on the embodiment , conventional processing may occur that the start of the enhanced payment processing sequence after step s 8 - 1 or at any stage in the described transaction handling sequence . proceeding to step s 8 - 12 , the status of the transaction specifically whether it was success or unsuccessful and optionally a reason why if unsuccessful is returned by the central controller to the point of sale payment processing device in the conventional manner . proceeding to step s 8 - 13 , the transaction is completed between the merchant and the customer at the point of sale . in view of the foregoing discussions pertaining to the flowchart illustrated in fig6 - 8 , it will be understand that a system such as system 60 enables operator of an electronic payment process system to offer its customers a personalized rewards or benefits allocation program based on their specific interests and preferences . rewards or benefits are allocated upon purchase thereby eliminating time lapse between purchase and benefit and enabling immediate notification to all involved parties , that is the customer , the merchant , and the beneficiary or beneficiaries . as such , the customer is made aware of the impact of their purchase , merchants become directly involved in supporting beneficiaries chosen by their clientele , and beneficiaries receive contributions in an automated fashion . this new paradigm for achieving customer loyalty will benefit merchants , beneficiaries , the operators of payment processing systems as well as customers in ways not heretofore realized . accordingly , while this invention has been described with reference to the illustrative embodiments , this description is not intended to be construed in any limiting sense . various modifications of the illustrative embodiments , as well as other embodiments of the invention , will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to this description .