Patent ID: 8542385

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first setting registry part configured to register a first threshold of usage for the apparatus; a second setting registry part configured to register a value of a priority for multiple users, the value of the priority used to determine a second threshold for each of the multiple users, the second threshold indicating a threshold of usage for each of the multiple users; a setting part configured to allocate the second threshold for each of the multiple users automatically based on the first threshold and the value of the priority for each of the multiple users such that a sum of the second thresholds is less than the first threshold; a threshold storing part configured to store the first and second thresholds; and a use amount storing part configured to store a value of the use amount for each of the multiple users, wherein the second threshold and the value of the use amount for each of the multiple users are used for one of management and restriction of usage for each of the multiple users.