A billing system includes a telephone, a detector operably associated with said telephone for detecting when the telephone is in use and generating a signal in response to the use, a first cpu operably associated with said detector and having billing software resident on the first cpu for enabling logging of client data, user data, wherein the billing software is automatically initiated in response to the signal and prompts a user to select one of a logging and no logging of the use, the billing software includes an accrual associating device for accruing an amount of time of the use and associating the time with one client upon selection of the logging and the billing software includes a writing storing component for writing and storing data corresponding to the amount of time and the client in a memory associated with the first cpu.
A system is disclosed for processing billable activities. The system includes a scheduling component configured to support creation of a plurality of activity records. A sub-set of the activity records are designated as being associated with billable activity. The system also includes an accounting component for receiving information based on the sub-set of the activity records. The information is transmitted from the scheduling component to the accounting component.
A telephone call tracking and billing system and method in which a subscriber can call a central system location, enter personal identification and billing code information, and then place a desired call is provided. The call duration can be logged and stored along with the billing code information. Monthly billing statements can be generated and provided to the subscriber, and custom reports can be generated and delivered at any time according to the subscriber's requests. The system is maintained at the provider's site so that the subscriber need not purchase or maintain hardware and software.
A billing scheme for a telecommunications network is described in which a billing record for a call including at least a plurality of data bytes is generated in a switch (10), each billing record is duplicated, and check information is generated from each data byte of a billing record and associated with each said data byte to form a protected billing record. Each protected billing record of a duplicated pair is transmitted via two independent transmission lines to processing means (40, 50) in which the associated check information is generated byte-for byte from each received billing record and the generated check information is compared byte-for-byte with the transmitted check information in parity checking circuits (60, 61). If for any one byte of a billing record, the generated check information does not agree with the received check information, that billing record is discarded. If there is no inconsistency between the received and generated check information for both billing records of a duplicated pair, the two billing records of the pair are compared bit-for-bit in a comparator (70). If any difference is found between the billing records of the pair, both billing records are discarded. Otherwise the received billing records are stored in non-volatile memory (75).
A telecommunications service billing administrator for providing real-time billing query functionality. The billing administrator has a billing system with a processor coupled to a billing information data repository. The billing information data repository updates an account table and a call table during the placement of a telecommunications call leg. The information updated includes a billing account summary. The subscriber can issue a billing inquiry request in which the billing system responds with an announcement of the billing account summary.
A system for validating service bills includes a first monitoring subsystem associated with and under the control of a service user for determining user generated fee values associated with the amount due a service entity for service usage over a predetermined billing period. A second monitoring subsystem communicating with the first monitoring subsystem is associated with and under the control of the service entity for determining service generated fee values associated with the amount due the service entity for the service usage over the predetermined billing period. One of the monitoring subsystems compares the user and service generated fee values and thereupon validates the amount due determined by one of the user and service generated fee values if such fee values are within a predetermined threshold amount.
