Charging system, image forming apparatus, information processing device, charging method, and program for managing charge adjustment according to contents of a trouble

A charging system comprising at least one image forming apparatus and an information processing device for managing a charging processing on the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus and the information processing device being connected via a network, wherein

• the image forming apparatus has a trouble detecting portion that detects a trouble occurring on the image forming apparatus, and a use condition transmitting portion that transmits a total number of output papers outputted from the image forming apparatus and contents of the trouble detected by the trouble detecting portion to the information processing device, the total number and the contents of trouble being transmitted as a use condition of the image forming apparatus, and wherein
• the information processing device has a charge calculating portion that calculates a total amount of service charge on the basis of the total number of output papers transmitted from the image forming apparatus and an amount of deduction corresponding to the contents of trouble transmitted from the image forming apparatus, and that deducts the amount of deduction from the total amount of service charge to calculate an amount of charge on the image forming apparatus, wherein
• the information processing device has a charging information transmitting portion that transmits charging information including the amount of charge on the image forming apparatus calculated by the charge calculating portion to another information processing device, and wherein
• another information processing device is capable of displaying or printing out the charging information received from the information processing device.

A charging method executed in a charging system comprising at least one image forming apparatus and an information processing device for managing a charging processing on the image forming apparatus, in which the image forming apparatus and the information processing device are connected via a network, wherein the method comprising the steps of:

• causing the image forming apparatus to detect a trouble occurring on the image forming apparatus;
• and
• causing the image forming apparatus to transmit a total number of output papers outputted from the image forming apparatus and contents of the detected trouble as a use condition of the image forming apparatus to the information processing device, wherein
• the method further includes a step of causing the information processing device to calculate a total amount of service charge on the basis of the total number of output papers transmitted from the image forming apparatus and an amount of deduction corresponding to the contents of trouble transmitted from the image forming apparatus, and to calculate an amount of charge on the image forming apparatus by deducting the amount of deduction from the total amount of service charge,
• wherein the amount of deduction is an amount that is calculated by adding up an amount of deduction per trouble for every contents of trouble, the amount of deduction per trouble being obtained by multiplying a frequency of each type of trouble occurred on the image forming apparatus by an amount corresponding to contents of each trouble.

A computer readable storage medium for storing a program that when executed by a processor instructs the processor to perform functions of a charging system, comprising:

• detecting a trouble occurring on an image forming apparatus;
• transmitting to an information processing device a total number of output papers outputted from the image forming apparatus and contents of the detected trouble as a use condition of the image forming apparatus;
• and
• causing the information processing device to
• calculate a total amount of service charge based on the total number of output papers transmitted from the image forming apparatus and an amount of deduction corresponding to the contents of trouble transmitted from the image forming apparatus, and
• calculate an amount of charge on the image forming apparatus by deducting the amount of deduction from the total amount of service charge,
• wherein the amount of deduction is an amount that is calculated by adding up an amount of deduction per trouble for every contents of trouble, the amount of deduction per trouble being obtained by multiplying a frequency of each type of trouble occurred on the image forming apparatus by an amount corresponding to contents of each trouble.