Patent ID: 8504446

Claim:
A method to manage and process data associated with network usage, the method comprising: creating, via a processor, first links to represent relationships between event data items and rated data items, the event data items representing respective network usage events recorded in the network, the rated data items representing network charges resulting from the network usage events; creating, via the processor, second links to represent relationships between the rated data items and billed data items, the billed data items representing billing information provided to customers; and in response to detecting a reporting error associated with a network device that produces event data: identifying a set of event data items associated with the network device; processing a first one of the first links to identify a first event data item from the set of event data items that is associated with a first rated data item; processing the second links to determine whether the first rated data item is associated with any billed data item; if the first rated data item is determined to be associated with a first billed data item, processing a first one of the second links to identify the first billed data item associated with the first rated data item to permit the first billed data item to be adjusted; and if the first rated data item is determined to not be associated with any billed data item, permitting the first rated data item to be corrected before the first billed data item is generated.