Patent ID: 7464048

Claim:
A management system, for managing contracts for a plurality of printing apparatuses, comprising: a first reception unit that receives a first ID for specifying a first printing apparatus for which a contract has been made and a second ID for specifying a second printing apparatus as an apparatus to be newly managed, the first ID and the second ID being transmitted via the communication line, and the first printing apparatus and the second printing apparatus being different from each other; a second reception unit that receives a user instruction indicating whether or not a contract for the second printing apparatus is to be made based on the contract for the first printing apparatus in case of replacing the first printing apparatus by the second printing apparatus; a search unit that searches for first information related to the contract corresponding to the first ID received by said first reception unit, when said second reception unit receives the user instruction indicating that the contract for the second printing apparatus is to be made based on the contract for the first printing apparatus; and a generation unit that generates second information related to the contract for the second printing apparatus, based on the first information searched for by said search unit and machine types of the first and second apparatuses, wherein said generation unit generates third information related to a new contract regardless of the printing apparatus managed in the past, when said second reception unit receives the user instruction indicating that the contract for the second printing is not be made based on the contract for the first printing apparatus, wherein the contracts are related to a charge amount for printing per sheet in the plurality of printing apparatuses, wherein said generation unit determines a discounted charge based on the past use history of said first printing apparatus and transmits the contract content based on said discounted charge to the first reception unit, wherein said generation unit generates the second information based on a charge condition determined in accordance with the machine types of the first and second printing apparatuses, and responsive to a determination that the machine type of the first printing apparatus is a printer and the machine type of the second printing apparatus is a copier, the charge condition is determined such that the charge amount for printing per sheet in the contract for the second printing apparatus is discounted as compared to that in the contract for the first printing apparatus.