Advanced Budget Bill Control System For End Users
First Claim
1. A method for allowing an individual user to customize a consumer'"'"'s budget payment plan for a commodity comprising the steps of:
- a. providing a user interface displayed on a computer, said user interface having one or more user-selectable parameters listed thereon;
b. allowing said user to specify one or more of said user-selectable parameters;
c. calculating one or more budget payments for a pre-determined period of time, said budget payments being dependent upon said user-selectable parameters specified by said user; and
d. presenting the budget payments to the user.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for allowing a consumer of a commodity to set the parameters of a budget bill calculation system via an interactive user interface. The parameters are intended to help consumers control their budget bill calculations, payment structure, true-up factors and other aspects of their budget bills. Budget bill payment amounts are calculated based on historic weather patterns, previous consumption, previous bills, mathematical models or may be set by the consumer art a certain amount, and the parameters selected by the consumer. A budget payment amount is then presented to the user including a budget payment amount and, in some cases, an actual or estimated true-up amount including when and how ant recalculations of the budget amount and true-ups will take place.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1. A method for allowing an individual user to customize a consumer'"'"'s budget payment plan for a commodity comprising the steps of:
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a. providing a user interface displayed on a computer, said user interface having one or more user-selectable parameters listed thereon; b. allowing said user to specify one or more of said user-selectable parameters; c. calculating one or more budget payments for a pre-determined period of time, said budget payments being dependent upon said user-selectable parameters specified by said user; and d. presenting the budget payments to the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method for allowing an individual user to customize a consumer'"'"'s budget payment plan for a commodity comprising the steps of:
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a. providing a user interface displayed on a computer, said user interface having one or more user-selectable parameters listed thereon; b. allowing said user to specify one or more of said user-selectable parameters; c. utilizing a user-specified model to estimate of consumption or cost of the commodity during said pre-determined period of time as a factor in calculating said one or more budget payments; d. utilizing any accumulated balance or credit due from a previous billing period as a factor in calculating said one or more budget payments, said user specifying how said accumulated balance or credit due is to be factored into said one or more budget payments; e. utilizing user-specified timing and profile options as a factor in calculating said one or more budget payments. f. calculating one or more budget payments for a pre-determined period of time; and g. presenting the budget payments to the user via said user interface.
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28. A system for allowing a user to customize a budget billing plan for a commodity comprising:
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a. a user interface, displayed on a user'"'"'s computer, said user interface having user-selectable parameters listed thereon; b. a database containing historic data; and c. a budget bill calculation engine, running on a computer, for calculating one or more budget payments based on parameters specified by said user using said user interface and on said data stored in said database. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification