Patent ID: 7080035

Claim:
A method for notifying an electronic billing vendor of customer status changes that involve account numbers stored for customers, comprising: receiving service orders from the customers specifying one or more activities, wherein one or more of the service orders requires an account number change and wherein a billing computer system of the electronic billing vendor utilizes the account number being changed; creating electronic service order entries within a service order computer system of a service provider based on the received service orders, wherein information is included within each electronic service order entry to indicate that the account number has changed for the customer when the service order results in the account number change; flagging the electronic service order entries that correspond to electronic billing customers so that the flagged electronic service order entries correspond to electronic billing customers and electronic service order entries that are not flagged correspond to non-electronic billing customers; storing the electronic service order entries in an update computer file; searching the update computer file for flagged entries that include the information that indicates an account number change; creating a new file that includes the flagged electronic service order entries that include the information that indicates an account number change that have been found by the search; reformatting the flagged electronic service order entries of the new file that include the information that indicates account number changes to a record format compatible with the billing computer system of the electronic billing vendor; and transmitting the reformatted flagged entries of the new file that include the information that indicates account number changes over a computer network to the billing computer system of the electronic billing vendor.