1. An automated method of reporting payments made to patients for their participation in a clinical study in a blinded manner to the sponsor of the clinical study, the clinical study having a plurality of investigative sites which perform activities in accordance with the protocol of the clinical study, each patient having patient ID information and being assigned a subject ID that de-identifies the patient, the method comprising: (a) receiving payment requests at a software application from the investigative sites associated with patient activity, the software application including for each patient that is participating in the clinical study, the patient ID information, and the de-identified subject ID, the payment requests being associated with the patient ID information; (b) processing the payment requests at the software application, and approving payments that conform to predefined compensation guidelines for the clinical study; and (c) generating by the software application blinded payment reports for electronic delivery to the sponsor, the payment reports showing at least: (i) the de-identified subject ID for each approved payment, (ii) the payment amounts for each approved payment, and (iii) date associated with the payment.