Patent ID: 7756763

Claim:
A method of billing a sequence of accounts at the end of a billing cycle, the method comprising: initiating a close billing process for the sequence of accounts with a real time billing system; selecting an account from the sequence of accounts with the real time billing system; locking the selected account with the real time billing system; determining with the real time billing system whether billing for the billing cycle has been performed for the selected account; performing billing with the real time billing system for the selected account if billing for the billing cycle has not been performed for the selected account, wherein billing includes advancing a next bill time of the selected account to a next billing cycle; unlocking the selected account with the real time billing system; repeating said selecting an account, locking the account, determining whether billing has been performed for the selected account, performing billing for the selected account, and unlocking the selected account for a next account of the sequence of accounts; receiving a the real time billing system a transaction event for one of the sequence of accounts other than a currently selected account during the close billing process; determining with the real time billing system whether the account for which the transaction event is received has already been billed in the billing cycle; and performing billing in real-time with the real time billing system for the account for which the transaction event is received if the account for which the billing event is received has not already been billed in the billing cycle wherein performing billing for the account for which the transaction event is received comprises determining whether the transaction event is received during billing of the account for which the transaction event is received and if the transaction event is not received during billing of the account: locking the account for which the transaction event is received with a real time billing system; billing the account for which the transaction event is received with the real time billing system if the account has not been billed for the billing cycle; processing the transaction event with the real time billing system; and unlocking the account for which the transaction event is received with the real time billing system.