Patent ID: 8333469

Claim:
A method of providing job invoicing information for customers of optical labs within a shared software pay-per-use environment, comprising the steps of: A) configuring an optical lab client computer for which an account is establish for each optical lab out of a plurality of optical lab client computer which all communicate with a lab management server over a geographically distributed telecommunications link, wherein each optical lab client account includes proprietary financial resources; wherein said configuring step includes (i) providing access to global technical resources comprising a global lens database and a lens surface grinding calculation program shared by all labs, and (ii) establishing proprietary data records for each optical lab client account by calibrating a lab's lens generating equipment and storing lens generating equipment parameters in an equipment configuration database; B) processing a job request for an individual prescription (Rx) via an order entry facility on the optical lab client computer and transmitting details of the job to the server; C) running the job request on the lab management serving utilizing global technical resources within a shared software pay-per-use environment including running the lens surface grinding calculation program with the lens generating equipment parameters of the requesting lab and returning completed job data including pricing, invoicing and electronic interface files for the lab's lens generating equipment to the optical lab client computer; and D) maintaining the same proprietary data records across multiple individual Rx orders including using the same lens generator equipment parameters with different electronic interface file for the respective lab's lens generating equipment.