Patent ID: 7571126

Claim:
An accounting system for document processing operations comprising: means for placing a networked document processing device in data communication with a data network; means for generating a network broadcast, which network broadcast includes device attribute data corresponding to functional attributes of the document processing device, from the networked document processing device to the data network; testing means responsive to the network broadcast for testing for a peer relationship between a previously installed network device setup relative to the network document processing device means for communicating with the associated networked document processing device, accounting data corresponding to the tested peer relationship, which accounting data facilitates administration of costs associated with usage of the networked processing device; means for receiving, from the networked document processing device, cost data corresponding to a tested peer relationship, which cost data is representative of cost associated with usage thereof, which cost data is accumulated in accordance with accounting data communicated thereto; means for receiving a plurality of document processing requests from each of a corresponding plurality of workstations, each document processing request including an associated charge code; means for processing each of the plurality of document processing requests at the networked document processing device; and means for calculating costs and storing the calculated costs locally at the networked document processing device relative to each of the plurality of document processing requests in accordance with the charge code and the accounting data communicated thereto.