System and method for telephony billing codes

• US 20090006229A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Embarq Holdings Company LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Embarq Holdings Company LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Doyle, Jennifer D., Sweeney, Jeffrey M.
• Application Number:
  US11/823,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20090006229A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H

Abstract

A system and method for implementing a billing service plan for separating communications expenses. Expenses related to a communication for an individual user are separated into two or more categories based on user input before, during, or after the communication occurs. The expenses of the communication are apportioned to the two or more categories based on the user input. An invoice is generated for one or more parties specifying the expenses apportioned to the two or more categories.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a billing service plan for separating communications expenses said method comprising:

separating expenses related to a communication for an individual user into two or more categories based on user input before, during, or after the communication occurs;

apportioning the expenses of the communication to the two or more categories based on the user input; and

generating an invoice for one or more parties specifying the expenses apportioned to the two or more categories.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more parties include a personal user and a business.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communication is for any of a voice over Internet Protocol telephone, a wireless telephone, a digital telephone, and an analog telephone.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the separating is performed based on phone numbers classified into the two or more categories.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the apportioning further comprises:

dividing a base fee of telecommunication service between the two or more categories based on the telecommunication usage for the expenses in the invoice.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein separating occurs at a time of the communication based on a button selection or voice command.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

managing the separation of the expenses using an interface available to the user based on a subscription to the billing service plan.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the two or more categories include business and personal.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein separating further comprises:

designating in advance criteria for separating expenses associated with the communication to the two or more categories.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the criteria includes any of a phone number, email address, caller identification information, and Internet Protocol address.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein separating further comprises:

assigning a call, chat, text, email, or Internet session to the two or more categories.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein apportioning further comprises:

apportioning expenses between the one or more parties based on the two or more categories.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein generating further comprises:

sending the invoice to the one or more parties.

15. The billing system according to claim 11, further comprising:

a client in communication with the server configured to display a graphical for receiving the user input.

16. The billing system according to claim 11, wherein totals for the expenses of the two or more categories are sent to the user for accounting purposes.

19. The billing system according to claim 11, wherein the user input is received during or subsequent to the communication wherein separation of the communication is performed in response to receiving the user input.

20. The billing system according to claim 11, wherein the set of instructions generates one or more invoices to deliver to one or more users for accounting purposes, wherein the set of instructions apportions a base cost of a communications service to each of the one or more categories based on usage.

14. A billing system for separating communications expenses, said system comprising:

a server configured to separate a communication into two or more categories based on a user input, apportion expenses related to the communication to one of the two or more categories, and separate the expenses based on the two or more categories in an invoice to a user, and

a communications network in communication with the server, the communications network configured to send and receive the communication for the user.

17. A billing system for managing communications expenses comprising:

a rules-based engine for executing a set of instructions to categorize the communications expenses; and

the set of instructions configured to categorize a communication into two or more categories based on user input, apportion expenses of the communication based on the two or more categories, and separate the expenses based on the two or more categories in an invoice to a user.

18. The billing system according to claim 17, wherein the user input is received prior to an occurrence of the communication for automatically separating communications into the two or more categories based on user input received through a graphical user interface generated by the set of instructions.