Patent ID: 8115944

Claim:
A method for imaging device accounting, said method comprising: receiving imaging device (IDev) user interface (UI) display content at an IDev via an IDev UI application programming interface (API) residing on said IDev, wherein said IDev UI display content is received from a remote computing device (RCD) with an RCD application in communication with said UI API; displaying said IDev UI display content on an IDev UI display, wherein said IDev UI display content comprises a prompt for IDev job configuration data; receiving job configuration data at said IDev in response to said displaying, wherein said job configuration data relates to a job to be performed on said IDev; generating pixel data for said job to be performed on said IDev; deriving detailed job parameters from said job configuration data and said pixel data wherein said detailed job parameters consist of quantity of impressions per page, pixel count data, image resolution, color attributes, color depth, color quantity, contrast media consumption, monochrome attributes, grey-scale attributes, scan destination, print destination, power consumption and job type; sending said detailed job parameters to said RCD for calculation of a job cost; receiving a job cost account compliance message from said RCD, wherein said job cost account compliance message communicates whether a job cost based on said pixel data represented in said detailed job parameters complies with accounting restrictions for a user account; and receiving automatically-modified job configuration data and an accounting authorization when said job cost does not comply with said accounting restrictions, wherein said automatically-modified job configuration data complies with said accounting restrictions.