Pre-bill time information service
AssigneeNo Surprises Software, LLC
InventorsRobert Friedman, David B. Schottenstein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, apparatus and program product support secure client access to pre-billed time information from a service provider accounting system. By doing so, a client is able to view pre-billed time information, such as time entries for a service provider's timekeepers that have been entered into a service provider accounting system, prior to those time entries being billed to the client.
Claims36
A method of providing client access to pre-billed time information associated with work performed by a service provider on behalf of the client, the method comprising:
- retrieving pre-billed time information from an accounting system;
- controlling access to the pre-billed time information;
- and
- in response to a request from the client user to which access has been granted for the pre-billed time information, communicating the pre-billed time information to the client user.
An apparatus, comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- program code configured upon execution by the at least one processor to provide client access to pre-billed time information associated with work performed by a service provider on behalf of the client by retrieving pre-billed time information from an accounting system, controlling access to the pre-billed time information, and in response to a request from the client user to which access has been granted for the pre-billed time information, communicating the pre-billed time information to the client user.
A program product, comprising:
- a computer readable medium;
- and
- program code resident on the computer readable medium and configured upon execution by at least one processor to provide client access to pre-billed time information associated with work performed by a service provider on behalf of the client by retrieving pre-billed time information from an accounting system, controlling access to the pre-billed time information, and in response to a request from the client user to which access has been granted for the pre-billed time information, communicating the pre-billed time information to the client user.
A method of providing client access to pre-billed time information associated with work performed by a plurality of service providers on behalf of a plurality of clients, the method comprising:
- interfacing a pre-billed time information service with a plurality of service provider accounting systems external to the pre-billed time information service and associated with the plurality of service providers to retrieve pre-billed time information associated with a plurality of clients from the plurality of service provider accounting systems on a real-time basis;
- for each service provider among the plurality of service providers, establishing access rights for clients of such service provider in the pre-billed time information service in response to user input received from at least one service provider user associated with such service provider;
- and
- for each client among the plurality of clients, in response to at least one request from a client user associated with such client, communicating pre-billed time information associated with work performed for such client by at least a subset of the plurality of service providers and for which access rights have been established.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.