Cost Allocation for Derived Data Usage

A computer implemented method for allocating communication costs, the computer performing the steps of:

• accessing a plurality of data transactions associated with at least one device, each data transaction having a value indicative of the device's data usage of a communication resource, each data transaction indicative of a business data use or personal data use wherein each data transaction indicative of a business data use is further indicative of a data use internal or external to an enterprise;
• accessing a cost record indicative a cost associated with the communication resource;
• comparing the value of each data transaction to the cost record associated with a first one of the at least one device;
• and
• determining an external allocated cost based on the data use external to the enterprise to generate an external allocated cost.

A system for allocating data usage by a device accessing data via a network connection, the system comprising:

• a computer coupled to the network;
• a storage accessible by said computer, said storage containing first data having a value indicative of a device's data usage, and a source address or a destination address or a Universal Resource Locator or a combination thereof;
• allocation rules further contained in said storage, said allocation rules indicative of data usage that can be allocated to an account;
• software executing on said computer for comparing the allocation rules to data usage associated with the first data to determine if the first data can be allocated to the account;
• software executing on said computer for accessing the first data to determine if the first data includes an address associated with:
• the source address or destination address or Universal Resource Locator or a combination thereof;
• and
• software executing on said computer for generating a report to allocate at least a portion of the value to the account based on the allocation rules wherein the account is associated with the address.