Billing system
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A system for presenting information concerning the actual cost of a service provided to a user by a service provider, said system comprising:
- storage means for storing individual transaction records prepared by said service provider, said transaction records relating to individual service transactions for one or more service customers including said user, and the exact charges actually billed to said user by said service provider for each said service transaction;
data processing means comprising respective computation hardware means and respective software programming means for directing the activities of said computation hardware means;
means for transferring at least a part of said individual transaction records from said storage means to said data processing means;
said data processing means generating preprocessed summary reports as specified by the user from said individual transaction records transferred from said storage means and organizing said summary reports into a format for storage, manipulation and display on a personal computer data processing means;
means for transferring said individual transaction records including said summary reports from said data processing means to said personal computer data processing means; and
said personal computer data processing means being adapted to perform additional processing on said individual transaction records which have been at least in part preprocessed by said data processing means utilizing said summary reports for expedited retrieval of data, to present a subset of said selected records including said exact charges actually billed to said user.
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Litigations
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Reexamination
Accused Products
Abstract
Telecommunications or similar bills are prepared on diskette in an optimal format for further processing, display, and analysis on popularly-available, inexpensive personal computers. A telecommunications carrier provides, for participating customers, appropriately selected billing records at the stage in the carrier'"'"'s ordinary billing process after the carrier has completed all billing activities except actually printing a paper bill. This ensures that the information ultimately supplied on diskette will exactly correspond to that on the paper bill. In a first step, preferably performed on a large computer, the records are sorted, edited and reformatted into an optimal organization for further processing on a personal computer. In addition, a variety of preprocessed summary reports and graphs are prepared for rapid retrieval on the customer'"'"'s computer. In a second step, preferably performed on a network of smaller computers, the reorganized records and summary reports for each customer are separated, compressed, and recorded on diskettes compatible with each customer'"'"'s personal computer. A user application program on the customer'"'"'s computer displays and analyzes the billing information supplied on diskette, including the billing records, preprocessed summary reports and graphs, and prepares new summary reports on demand.
286 Citations
85 Claims
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1. A system for presenting information concerning the actual cost of a service provided to a user by a service provider, said system comprising:
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storage means for storing individual transaction records prepared by said service provider, said transaction records relating to individual service transactions for one or more service customers including said user, and the exact charges actually billed to said user by said service provider for each said service transaction; data processing means comprising respective computation hardware means and respective software programming means for directing the activities of said computation hardware means; means for transferring at least a part of said individual transaction records from said storage means to said data processing means; said data processing means generating preprocessed summary reports as specified by the user from said individual transaction records transferred from said storage means and organizing said summary reports into a format for storage, manipulation and display on a personal computer data processing means; means for transferring said individual transaction records including said summary reports from said data processing means to said personal computer data processing means; and said personal computer data processing means being adapted to perform additional processing on said individual transaction records which have been at least in part preprocessed by said data processing means utilizing said summary reports for expedited retrieval of data, to present a subset of said selected records including said exact charges actually billed to said user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for presenting, under control of a user, usage and actual cost information relating to telecommunications service provided to said user by a telecommunications service provider, said system comprising:
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telecommunications service provider storage means for storing records prepared by a telecommunications service provider relating to telecommunications usage for one or more telecommunications subscribers including said user, and the exact charges actually billed to said user by said service provider for said usage; data processing means comprising respective computation hardware means and respective software programming means for directing the activities of said computation hardware means; means for transferring at least a part of the records from said service provider storage means to said data processing means; said data processing means generating preprocessed summary reports as specified by the user from said telecommunications usage records transferred from said storage means and organizing said summary reports into a format for storage, manipulation and display on a personal computer data processing means; means for transferring said telecommunications usage records including said summary reports from said data processing means to said personal computer data processing means; and said personal computer data processing means being adapted to perform additional processing on said telecommunications records which have been at least in part preprocessed by said data processing means utilizing said summary reports for expedited retrieval of data, to present a subset of said telecommunications usage records including said exact charges actually billed to said user. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A method for presenting information on a personal computer data processing means concerning the actual cost of a service provided to a user by a service provider, said method comprising:
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storing individual transaction records prepared by said service provider on a storage means, said transaction records relating to individual service transactions for at least one service customer including said user, and the exact charges actually billed to said user by said service provider for each said service transaction; transferring at least a part of said transaction records from said storage means to a data processing means; generating preprocessed summary reports as specified by the user from said individual transaction records transferred from said storage means and organizing said summary reports into a format for storage, manipulation and display on a personal computer data processing means; transferring said preprocessed individual transaction records including said summary reports from said data processing means to at least one personal computer data processing means; performing additional processing of said individual transaction records on said at least one personal computer data processing means utilizing said summary reports for expedited retrieval of data; presenting a subset of said individual transaction records chosen via said at least one personal computer data processing means including said exact charges actually billed to said user; and said data processing means and said at least one personal computer processing means comprising respective computation hardware means and respective software programming means arranged for directing the activities of said computation hardware means. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85)
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Specification