Hybrid liability model
A system and method for setting a billing allocation between a user and a company allowing the costs for personal and work use of a mobile device during a period to be allocated as desired. The system and method further provides for allocation of costs associated with obtaining a new mobile device. The billing allocation model provides maximum flexibility to allow a user to obtain the mobile device desired, while still allowing the user to take advantage of a company's preferred corporate rates and discounts and allowing a company to maintain control of mobile device costs relating to purchase and use of the mobile device.
1. A method for automatically allocating costs of a mobile telecommunications plan between a user and an entity via software executing on a computer comprising the steps of:
saving user information on a storage accessible by the computer;
presenting at least one billing scheme to a user accessing the computer with a user computer;
receiving a selection of a first one of the at least one billing scheme at the computer to define a selected billing scheme, the selected billing scheme comprising a ruleset for determining future billing allocations between the user and the entity for mobile telecommunications used by a mobile device; and
configuring the computer based on the ruleset of the selected billing scheme to allocate billing between the user and the entity.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuring step is associated with an approval of the selected billing scheme which is based, at least in part, on data received from an administration computer.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of billing scheme is selected from the group consisting of: a percentage of all charges attributed to the user's mobile device during a period; as notated line items from a bill; as a percentage of notated line items from a bill; and combinations thereof.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing at the computer, the selected billing scheme prior to said configuring step and if the selected billing scheme is rejected, receiving a selection of a second one of the at least one billing scheme at the computer wherein the second one of the at least one billing scheme replaces the first one of the at least one billing scheme as the selected billing scheme such that the configuring step configures the computer based on the ruleset of the second one of the at least one billing scheme.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second one of the at least one billing scheme is different than the one of the at least one billing scheme.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection is associated with an employee of the entity.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the selected billing scheme includes a requirement that the user pay at least a portion of a bill issued for a period, the method further comprises the steps of:
automatically paying the portion of a bill allocated to the user by at least one of the following schemes: charging a user credit card, charging a user account, performing a payroll deduction, and combinations thereof.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
transmitting a request for the procurement of a mobile telecommunications device to the computer;
determining if a cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device exceeds a threshold limit;
wherein, if the cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device does not exceed a threshold limit, transmitting an order to a third party to fulfill the request.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein, if the cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device does exceed a threshold limit, the method further comprising the steps of:
charging the user the cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device that exceeds the threshold limit; and
wherein, if the cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device that exceeds the threshold limit is paid by the user, transmitting an order to a third party to fulfill the request.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein if the cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device that exceeds the threshold limit is paid by at least one of the following schemes: automatically charging a user credit card, automatically charging a user account, automatically performing a payroll deduction, and combinations thereof.
11. A system for automatically allocating costs of a mobile telecommunications plan between a user and an entity comprising:
a server, having a network connection and a storage;
said storage having user information stored thereon;
software executing on said server to present at least one billing scheme to the user;
software executing on said server to receive a selection of a first one the at least one billing scheme to define a selected billing scheme, the selected billing scheme comprising a ruleset for determining future billing allocations between the user and the entity for mobile telecommunications use by a mobile device; and
software executing on said server to configure the server to allocate billing between the user and the entity based on the selected billing scheme.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein the server is configured when there is an associated approval with the selected billing scheme, the approval based, at least in part, on data received from an administration computer.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein if an approval is not associated with the selected billing scheme, the system further comprises:
software executing on said server to receive a second selection of a second one of the at least one billing scheme such that the second one of the at least one billing scheme replaces the first one of the at least one billing scheme as the selected billing scheme such that the server is configured with second one of the at least one billing scheme.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one billing scheme is selected from the group consisting of: a percentage of all charges attributed to the user's mobile device during a period; as a percentage of notated line items from a bill; and combinations thereof.
15. The system of claim 11 , further comprising:
software executing on said server to receive a mobile telecommunications device procurement request;
software executing on said server to determine if a cost for procuring a mobile telecommunications device identified in mobile telecommunications device procurement request exceeds a threshold limit;
wherein, if the cost for procuring the mobile telecommunications device does not exceed a threshold limit, software executes on said server to transmit an order to a third party to fulfill the request.
16. The system according to claim 11 wherein the user accesses said server via a web page interface.