Patent ID: 8249913

Claim:
A system for detecting suspect meter reads in a print environment, the system comprising: a computing device; and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the computing device, the computer-readable storage medium comprising one or more programming instructions for: receiving a plurality of historical meter read values associated with a print-related service, wherein each historical meter read value represents a measure of a usage of the print-related service over a period of time, selecting a model set comprising one or more of the plurality of historical meter read values, using a predictive model to determine an anticipated meter read value and a corresponding forecast error value from the model set, determining a threshold value by shifting a distribution of the anticipated meter read value by the anticipated meter read value and scaling the distribution by a square root of the forecast error value, identifying an actual meter read value, determining a rate associated with the actual meter read value, wherein the rate is a ratio of a difference value between a first meter read value and a second meter read value to an amount of time between an occurrence of the first meter read value and an occurrence of the second meter read value, comparing the rate and the threshold value, and flagging the actual meter read value as suspect based on the comparison of the rate and the threshold value.