Patent ID: 7155404

Claim:
A method of verifying taxes on a batch of customer telecommunications bills initially generated, and ultimately to be sent out, by an entity other than a telecommunications service provider, comprising the steps of: downloading, from a mainframe computer, to a local server operated by the telecommunications service provider, billing data associated with customer accounts, the billing data having been used by the entity other than the telecommunications service provider to generate hold bills that are scheduled to be sent as customer bills to customers of the telecommunications service provider, wherein the billing data includes prebill data that is downloaded on a day of verification and demand print data that can be down loaded prior to the corresponding prebill data, wherein further the billing data includes hold bill tax charges that were calculated by the entity other than the telecommunications service provider; populating a first database with a portion of the billing data; performing pre-calculation functions on another portion of the billing data and further populating the first database with results of the pre-calculation functions; providing an option for immediately calculating calculated tax results without displaying predetermined categories of information stored in the first database; if the option for immediately calculating calculated tax results is not selected then the predetermined categories of information stored in the first database, encompassing at least a subset of the results of the pre-calculation functions, are displayed prior to the calculation of the calculated tax results; independently from the mainframe computer, calculating calculated tax results for each of several charges in the billing data utilizing the billing data populated in the first database and local tax rates and surcharge information populated in a Tax TAR (“taxing area responsibility”) database; storing the calculated tax results in the database; receiving entry of an account number into a worksheet being displayed and automatically filling the worksheet with the calculated tax results for the account number; comparing the calculated tax results displayed within the worksheet with the hold bills tax charges on the customer hold bills to verify the hold bills tax charges; when the calculated tax results match the hold bills tax charges, authorizing the entity other than the telecommunications service provider to release the batch of hold bills, print the hold bills as customer bills and send the customer bills to the customers; and resolving errors on the customer bill detected from the comparing.