JP2001350936A - Charging system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a charging system which performs printing even while a server stops and holds a printing history in a system for charging a printing job. SOLUTION: Printing is conducted even while the charging server 130 stops by making a printing request of a printer 120 from a client PC 110 without going through the server 130. The printing history is recorded in a printer recorder 125, and transmitted to the server 130 while the server 130 drives. A charging information managing part 132 prepares charging information on the basis of the printing history and records the charging information in a server recorder 133.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a billing system, and more particularly to a billing system for a print job that can perform print processing even when a billing server stops.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional print job accounting system having a client PC, a printer, and a print server, when job history information such as a print result is stored and used for accounting, the client PC prints to a printer. Instead of transmitting the request directly, the print data is transmitted to the print server, and the print server stores the job history information as billing information.

[0003] A client PC transmits job history information to a print server, and print data is transmitted to the client P.
C, the print server performs job scheduling based on the job history information, and the client PC
According to the scheduling of the print server, the print data is transmitted to the printer.

[0004]

However, in the conventional billing system, the server is required not only to collect billing information, which is the original purpose, but also to function as a print server such as spooling and scheduling of print jobs. There was a problem that must be done.

[0005] Further, since the client PC is connected to the printer via the print server, and the print server controls spooling and scheduling of print jobs, when the print server is stopped, accounting processing is not performed. Of course, there is a problem that the printing process itself cannot be executed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and provides a server having only a charging function without a print control function so that a client PC and a printer can be connected even when the server is stopped. It is an object of the present invention to provide a billing system for executing a printing process only by using the accounting system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a billing system for temporarily storing job history information when a server is stopped.

[0008]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a billing system including a client PC, an image forming apparatus, and a billing server. And connected to the charging server via the PC to directly transmit information to the image forming apparatus.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the client PC is connected to the charging server via the image forming apparatus, and transmits the information directly to the image forming apparatus, thereby providing the charging information of the print job to the user. It is possible to execute the printing process even when the server is provided and the accounting server is stopped.

According to the invention of claim 2, according to claim 1,
In the billing system described above, the image forming apparatus has a print history recording unit that records a print history, and a print history transmission unit that transmits the print history to a billing server, and the billing server performs billing based on the print history. It has a first billing information creating means for creating information and a first billing information recording means for recording the billing information created by the first billing information creating means.

Therefore, according to the second aspect of the present invention, after the image forming apparatus transmits the recorded print history to the billing server, the billing server creates billing information based on the print history,
By recording, the charge information of the print job is provided to the user, the print process can be executed even when the charge server is stopped, and the print history can be recorded in the image forming apparatus.

According to the invention of claim 3, according to claim 2,
In the billing system described above, when the image forming apparatus performs a print process in response to a client request, the image forming apparatus records the client information, the date printed, the type of printed paper, and the number of printed papers as a print history. After that, it is transmitted to a billing server.

Therefore, according to the third aspect of the invention, when the printing process is performed at the request of the client, the image forming apparatus records the information of the client, the date of printing, the type and the number of printed sheets as a print history. Later, by transmitting the billing information to the billing server, billing information according to the user's request can be created.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, according to claim 1
In the billing system described above, the image forming apparatus transmits the print history to the billing server without recording the print history.

Therefore, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the image forming apparatus transmits the print history to the accounting server without recording the print history, so that the accounting processing is performed even when the recording apparatus is not installed in the image forming apparatus. Can be executed.

According to the invention of claim 5, according to claim 1,
In the billing system described above, when transmitting the print history to the billing server, the image forming apparatus includes a reception determining unit that determines whether the billing server receives the print history.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when transmitting the print history to the accounting server, the image forming apparatus drives the accounting server by determining whether the accounting server receives the print history. It is possible to detect whether or not the operation is performed.

According to the invention of claim 6, according to claim 5,
In the charging system described above, the image forming apparatus includes a simple information creating unit that creates simple information based on the print history, a simple information recording unit that temporarily records the simple information, and a simple information recording unit that records the simple information. A simple information transmitting unit for transmitting information to the accounting server, wherein the accounting server is created by the second accounting information creating unit for creating accounting information based on the simple information, and created by the second accounting information creating unit. And a second billing information recording means for recording the billing information.

Therefore, according to the invention of claim 6, the image forming apparatus creates the simple information based on the print history and temporarily records the simple information, so that the image forming apparatus has a small capacity such as a nonvolatile memory. It is also recorded on a recording medium, and even when the accounting server is stopped, a part of the print history can be held.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the charging system according to the sixth aspect, the image forming apparatus transmits the print history to the charging server when the receiving determining unit determines that the printing history is not received. , And creates and records simple information including data of the client information that is a part of the print history and the total number of prints.

Therefore, according to the present invention, when the accounting server is stopped, the print history is not transmitted to the accounting server, and the client name as a part of the print history, the total number of prints, By creating and recording the simple information having the data described above, it is also possible to record the information on a recording medium such as a nonvolatile memory having a small capacity, and retain a part of the print history.

According to the invention of claim 8, according to claim 6,
Or in the charging system according to 7, wherein the image forming apparatus records the simple information by the simple information recording unit.
It is characterized by having a capacity determining means for determining whether there is sufficient free space, and a print history erasing means for erasing simple information recorded by the simple information recording means.

Therefore, according to the present invention, when recording the simple information, the image forming apparatus determines whether or not there is sufficient free space, and erases the recorded simple information. Thus, it is possible to secure a sufficient free space for recording new simple information.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the eighth aspect of the present invention provides
In the charging system described above, the image forming apparatus erases the simple information recorded by the simple information recording unit after printing and outputting the simple information when the capacity determining unit determines that the free space is not enough to record the simple information. It is characterized by doing.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, when the image forming apparatus determines that the free space is not enough to record the simple information, the image forming apparatus prints the simple information before erasing the recorded simple information. By outputting, it is possible to secure a sufficient free space for recording new simple information and to hold the simple information in the form of a document.

[0026]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (Configuration of First Embodiment) FIG.
1 is a configuration diagram of a charging system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The billing system is a client PC 110
, A printer 120 and a billing server 130. Further, the printer 120 has a printing unit 121, a job control unit 122, a recording device control unit 123, a printer communication unit 124, and a printer recording device 125. 131, a billing information management unit 132, and a server recording device 133. A solid line indicates a data flow, and a broken line indicates a control flow.

In this embodiment, the printer 120 is used as an image forming apparatus, and the printer recording device 125 and the server recording device 133 are considered to be large-capacity recording devices such as disks.

(Operation of First Embodiment) The charging process of the charging system according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. The user operates the client PC 110 to cause the printer 120 to print,
The accounting server 130 performs an accounting process.

First, the client PC 110 transmits print data to the printer 120 (step S20).
1). The printer communication unit 124 is a client PC 110
, And passes the print data to the job control unit 122 (step S202). Job control unit 12
2 instructs the printing unit 121 to print (Step S20)
3). The printing unit 121 receives the print instruction and executes a printing process (Step S204).

The job control unit 122 passes job history information including the type and number of output sheets used in the printing process and information on the client who issued the print request to the recording device control unit 123 (step S205). The recording device control unit 123 records the job history information in the printer recording device 125 (Step S206).

The accounting server 130 transmits a request for acquiring job history information to the printer 120 (step S20).
7). The printer communication unit 124 receives the job history information, and requests the recording device control unit 123 to read the job history information (step S208). The recording device control unit 123 reads job history information from the printer recording device 125 (Step S209). The printer communication unit 124 transmits the read job history information to the charging server 130 (Step S210). The server communication unit 131 receives the job history information and passes the job history information to the charging information management unit 132. After the billing information management unit 132 creates billing information from the job history information, it records it in the server recording device 133 (step S211), and ends the billing process.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and can be implemented in various modifications without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, when creating billing information based on job history information, the job history information may be used as it is as billing information, or in some cases, the billing information may be changed to a data format conforming to the billing system. Conceivable.

When the client PC 110 requests printing from the printer 120, the client PC 110
The information relating to the print request is also recorded in itself, and when the accounting server 130 creates the accounting information, the client PC 1
It is also conceivable to merge the ten print request information and the job history information acquired from the printer 120.

(Configuration of Second Embodiment) FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a charging system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
The billing system includes a client PC 310, a printer 320, and a billing server 330. Also,
The printer 320 includes a printing unit 321 and a job control unit 32.
And a printer communication unit 323. The accounting server 330 includes a server communication unit 331, an accounting information management unit 332, and a server recording device 333. The solid line indicates the flow of data.

In this embodiment, a printer 320 is used as an image forming apparatus, and a server recording device 333 which is a large-capacity recording device is installed in the billing server 330 as in the first embodiment. Unlike the first embodiment, the printer 320 is not provided with a recording device, and is inexpensive in terms of cost.

(Operation of the Second Embodiment) The charging process of the charging system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG.

The client PC 310 is connected to the printer 32
The print data is transmitted to 0 (step S401). The printer communication unit 323 receives the print data from the client PC 310 and passes the print data to the job control unit 322 (Step S402). The job control unit 322 instructs the printing unit 321 to print (step S403). The printing unit 321 receives the print instruction and executes a print process (Step S404).

The job control unit 322 sends job history information including the type and number of output sheets used in the printing process and information on the client who issued the print request to the printer communication unit 323 (step S405).

The printer communication unit 323 transmits the passed job history information to the accounting server 330 (step S40).
6). The server communication unit 331 receives the job history information,
The job history information is passed to the accounting information management unit 332. After the billing information management unit 332 creates billing information from the job history information, it records it in the server recording device 333 (step S407), and ends the billing process.

The transmission technique used when transmitting the job history information from the printer 520 to the accounting server 530 may be an existing technique such as FTP or HTTP.

(Configuration of Third Embodiment) FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a charging system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
The billing system has a client PC 510, a printer 520, and a billing server 530. Also,
The printer 520 includes a printing unit 521 and a job control unit 52.
2, a recording circuit control unit 523, a printer communication unit 524
And a temporary recording circuit 525. The charging server 530 includes a server communication unit 531 and a charging information management unit 53.
2 and a server recording device 533. Also,
The solid line shows the flow of data.

In the present embodiment, a printer 520 is used as an image forming apparatus, and a server recording device 533 which is a large-capacity recording device is installed in the accounting server 530 as in the first or second embodiment. However, the printer 520 of this embodiment is provided with a temporary recording circuit 525 having a smaller capacity than the printer recording device 125 of the first embodiment.

(Operation of Third Embodiment) Hereinafter, FIGS.
The charging process of the charging system according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

The client PC 510 includes a printer 52
The print data is transmitted to 0 (step S601). The printer communication unit 524 receives the print data from the client PC 510 and passes the print data to the job control unit 522 (Step S602). The job control unit 522 instructs the printing unit 521 to perform printing (step S603). The printing unit 521 receives the print instruction and executes a print process (Step S604).

The job control unit 522 sends job history information including the type and number of output sheets used in the printing process and information on the client who issued the print request to the printer communication unit 524 (step S605).

The printer communication unit 524 transmits the passed job history information to the accounting server 530 (step S6).
06).

Considering the communication state between the printer 520 and the accounting server 530, the job history information transmitted from the printer communication unit 524 to the accounting server 530 is stored in the accounting server 530.
Is determined (step S607).

The printer communication unit 524 sends the billing server 53
0 is determined to have been received by the accounting server 530 (step S607 / Ye).
s), the server communication unit 531 receives the job history information,
The job history information is passed to the charging information management unit 532. After the billing information management unit 532 creates billing information from the job history information, it records it in the server recording device 533 (step S613), and ends the billing process.

The operation of the accounting server 530 has been stopped,
If it is determined that the job history information transmitted from the printer communication unit 524 to the charging server 530 has not been received by the charging server 530 (step S607 / No), the printer communication unit 524 temporarily stops until the charging server 530 returns. It instructs the temporary recording circuit 525 to record the job history information (step S608).

However, the temporary recording circuit 525 of this embodiment has a smaller recording capacity than the printer recording device 125 of the first embodiment, and therefore cannot record the entire job history information. Therefore, in the present embodiment, simple information limited to a part of information is recorded without recording the entire job history information.

Hereinafter, a specific example will be described with reference to FIG. 7, and the recording process of the job history information when the operation of the accounting server 530 is temporarily stopped will be described.

In FIG. 7, the charging server 530 sets
Driving from 1/1/99 to 01/01/06,
Stopped from 07 to 99/01/10, 99/01/99
Suppose you return during

Reference numeral 701 in FIG. 7 is job history information when the accounting server 530 is being driven, and records time-series information on the date of printing, the client name, and the size and number of printing paper sheets used. .

If the accounting server 530 is stopped and cannot be recorded in the server recording device 533, the server 702 in FIG.
, And simple information of only the total number of print sheets used until the accounting server 530 returns.

The temporary recording circuit 525 in the printer 520
Although the capacity is small, the information to be recorded is simple information of only the client name and the number of printing papers used, so that even if the number of clients increases, recording does not require a large capacity.

When the operation of the accounting server 530 returns, the accounting server 530 requests the printer 520 to confirm whether or not the simple information is recorded in the temporary recording circuit 525 (step S609).

The printer communication unit 524 is connected to the charging server 53
When the confirmation request is received from 0, a request is made to the recording circuit control unit 523 to confirm whether or not the simple information is recorded in the temporary recording circuit 525 (step S610).

If it is determined that the simple information is not recorded in the temporary recording circuit 525 (step S610 / No),
The printer communication unit 524 transmits that no simple information is recorded to the charging server 530 (step S614), and ends the processing.

If it is determined that the simple information is recorded in the temporary recording circuit 525 (step S610 / Yes),
The printer communication unit 524 transmits the simple information received from the recording circuit control unit 523 to the accounting server 530 (Step S611).

Server communication unit 531 that has received the simple information
Passes the simple information to the charging information management unit 532. The billing information management unit 532 creates billing information based on the simple information, causes the server recording device 533 to record the billing information (step S612), and ends.

Hereinafter, the process of creating billing information will be described with reference to FIG. 7 again. Based on the time-series information at 701 and the simple information at 702, the charging information is created when the charging server 530 returns. In 703, the hatched portion is a portion obtained from the simple information of 702, and the date of printing is indicated by the billing server 53.
0 is recorded on the date when it is returned, and the size of the printing paper is unknown. The number of prints is also determined by the billing server 53.
Since 0 is the total number of sheets during the stop, it may not be the number of sheets actually printed in one print job.

(Configuration of Fourth Embodiment) FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a charging system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
The billing system has a client PC 810, a printer 820, and a billing server 830. Also,
The printer 820 includes a printing unit 821 and a job control unit 82
2, a recording circuit control unit 823, and a printer communication unit 824.
And a temporary recording circuit 825. The charging server 830 includes a server communication unit 831 and a charging information management unit 83.
2 and a server recording device 833. Also,
The solid line indicates the flow of data when the capacity of the temporary recording circuit 825 is insufficient when recording job history information according to the present embodiment.

In this embodiment, a printer 820 is used as an image forming apparatus, and a charging server 830 has a server recording device 833 which is a large-capacity recording device as in the first, second or third embodiment. Is installed,
The printer 820 of this embodiment is provided with a temporary recording circuit 825 having a smaller capacity than the printer recording device 125 of the first embodiment.

(Operation of Fourth Embodiment) Hereinafter, the charging process of the charging system according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 and along FIG.

The client PC 810 is connected to the printer 82
The print data is transmitted to 0 (step S901). The printer communication unit 824 receives the print data from the client PC 810 and passes the print data to the job control unit 822 (Step S902). The job control unit 822 instructs the printing unit 821 to print (step S903). The printing unit 821 receives the print instruction and executes a printing process (Step S904).

The job control unit 822 transfers job history information including the type and number of output sheets used in the printing process and information on the client who issued the print request to the printer communication unit 824 (step S905).

The printer communication section 824 transmits the passed job history information to the accounting server 830 (step S90).
6).

The job history information transmitted from the printer communication unit 824 to the accounting server 830 is stored in the accounting server 830 in consideration of the communication state between the printer 820 and the accounting server 830.
Is determined (step S907).

The printer communication unit 824 sends the billing server 83
0 is determined to have been received by the accounting server 830 (step S907 / Ye).
s), the server communication unit 831 receives the job history information,
The job history information is passed to the charging information management unit 832. After the billing information management unit 832 creates billing information from the job history information, it records it in the server recording device 833 (step S912), and ends the billing process.

The operation of the accounting server 830 has stopped,
If it is determined that the job history information transmitted from the printer communication unit 824 to the charging server 830 has not been received by the charging server 830 (step S907 / No), the printer communication unit 824 temporarily stops until the charging server 830 returns. The temporary recording circuit 825 is instructed to record the simple information (step S908). Further, the simple information recorded at this time is information in which only the client name such as 702 in FIG. 7 and the total number of print sheets until the return to the accounting server are recorded, as in the third embodiment. .

Here, it is determined whether or not there is sufficient free space for recording simple information in the temporary recording circuit 825 (step S909). If there is not enough free space for recording (step S909 / No), the printing unit 82 prints the simple information currently recorded in the temporary recording circuit 825.
1 to print out (step S910). When the printing process is completed, the printed simple information recorded in the temporary recording circuit 825 is deleted (step S911), and the free space of the temporary recording circuit 825 is determined again (step S90).
9).

If the temporary recording circuit 825 has sufficient free space for recording simple information (step S909 /
Yes), after the driving of the charging server 830 is restored, the charging server 830 requests the printer 820 to check whether or not the simple information is recorded in the temporary recording circuit 825 (step S913).

The printer communication unit 824 is connected to the charging server 83
When the confirmation request is received from 0, a request is made to the recording circuit control unit 823 to confirm whether or not the simple information is recorded in the temporary recording circuit 825, and the judgment is made (step S914).

If it is determined that the simple information is not recorded in the temporary recording circuit 825 (step S914 / No),
The printer communication unit 824 transmits to the charging server 830 that no simple information is recorded (step S917), and ends.

If it is determined that the simple information is recorded in the temporary recording circuit 825 (step S914 / Yes),
The printer communication unit 824 transmits the simple information received from the recording circuit control unit 823 to the charging server 830 (Step S915).

Server communication unit 831 that has received the simple information
Passes the simplified information to the charging information management unit 832. The billing information management unit 832 creates billing information based on the simple information, causes the server recording device 833 to record the billing information (step S916), and ends.

In the present embodiment, since the simple information output on the printing paper is deleted, the simple information cannot be transmitted to the charging server 830 even if the charging server 830 returns. Therefore, the simple information is directly input to the billing server 830 by the operation of the user.
The simple information to be printed is automatically given the date printed on the printing paper, and is effective when organizing and inputting the job history information.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented in various modifications without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, if a problem occurs in terms of security by automatically outputting the simple information, it is conceivable that the simple information is output as encrypted data without printing.

Before printing the simple information, the user is asked
It is also conceivable that a notification is made using an e-mail or the like, printing is not executed until the user instructs printing of simple information, and printing processing from another client PC is stopped.

[0080]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the client PC is connected to the charging server via the image forming apparatus, and transmits the information directly to the image forming apparatus, so that the print job can be performed. Is provided to the user, and the printing process can be executed even when the accounting server is stopped.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, after the image forming apparatus transmits the recorded print history to the billing server, the billing server creates billing information based on the print history.
By recording, the charge information of the print job is provided to the user, the print process can be executed even when the charge server is stopped, and the print history can be recorded in the image forming apparatus.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when print processing is performed at the request of a client, the image forming apparatus
After recording the information of the client, the date of printing, the type and the number of printed sheets as a print history, and transmitting them to the billing server, billing information according to the user's request can be created.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the image forming apparatus transmits the print history to the accounting server without recording the print history, so that the accounting processing is performed even when the recording apparatus is not installed in the image forming apparatus. Can be executed.

According to the invention of claim 5, when transmitting the print history to the accounting server, the image forming apparatus drives the accounting server by determining whether the accounting server receives the print history. It is possible to detect whether or not the operation is performed.

Further, according to the invention of claim 6, the image forming apparatus creates simple information based on the print history and temporarily records the simple information, so that the image forming apparatus has a small capacity such as a nonvolatile memory. It is also recorded on a recording medium, and even when the accounting server is stopped, a part of the print history can be held.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when the accounting server is stopped, the print history is not transmitted to the accounting server, but the client name as a part of the print history, the total number of prints, By creating and recording the simple information having the data described above, it is also possible to record the information on a recording medium such as a nonvolatile memory having a small capacity, and retain a part of the print history.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, when recording the simple information, the image forming apparatus determines whether or not there is sufficient free space, and erases the recorded simple information. Thus, it is possible to secure a sufficient free space for recording new simple information.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, when the image forming apparatus determines that the free space is not enough to record the simple information, the image forming apparatus prints the simple information on the printing paper before erasing the simple information. By outputting, it is possible to secure a sufficient free space for recording new simple information and to hold the simple information in the form of a document.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a charging system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a charging process according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a charging system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a charging process according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a charging system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a charging process according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a process of creating billing information in the third and fourth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a charging system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a charging process according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 110, 310, 510, 810 Client PC 120, 320, 520, 820 Printer 130, 330, 530, 830 Billing server 121, 321, 521, 821 Printing unit 122, 322, 522, 822 Job control unit 124, 323, 524 , 824 Printer communication unit 131, 331, 531, 831 Server communication unit 132, 332, 532, 832 Charging information management unit 133, 333, 533, 833 Server recording device 123 Recording device control unit 125 Printer recording device 523, 823 Recording circuit Control unit 525, 825 Temporary recording circuit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) G06F 3/12 G06F 3/12 K

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A client PC, an image forming apparatus,
An accounting server, wherein the client PC is connected to the accounting server via the image forming apparatus, and transmits information directly to the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus includes: a print history recording unit that records a print history; and a print history transmission unit that transmits the print history to the billing server. A first billing information creating unit that creates billing information based on the first billing information; and a first billing information recording unit that records the billing information created by the first billing information creating unit. 2. The charging system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a printing process is performed in response to a request from a client, the information of the client, a date of printing, a type of printed paper, and the number of printed paper are used as the print history. 3. The accounting system according to claim 2, wherein the information is transmitted to the accounting server after being recorded. 4. The charging system according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus transmits the print history to the charging server without recording the print history. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a reception determining unit configured to determine whether the charging server receives the printing history when transmitting the printing history to the charging server. 1. The charging system according to 1. 6. The image forming apparatus, comprising: a simple information creating unit that creates simple information based on the print history; a simple information recording unit that temporarily records the simple information; A simplified information transmitting unit that transmits the simplified information to the billing server, wherein the billing server creates billing information based on the simplified information, a second billing information creating unit, The charging system according to claim 5, further comprising: a second charging information recording unit that records the charging information created by the charging information creating unit. 7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiving determination unit determines that the accounting server does not receive the print history. The image forming apparatus does not transmit the print history to the accounting server. 7. The charging system according to claim 6, wherein the simple information including data of the client information and the total number of prints is created and recorded. 8. An image forming apparatus comprising: a capacity determining unit configured to determine whether there is sufficient free space when the simple information is recorded by the simple information recording unit; 8. The accounting system according to claim 6, further comprising: a print history erasing unit that erases the recorded simple information. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said simple information recorded by said simple information recording means is read when said free capacity is not sufficient for recording said simple information. 9. The charging system according to claim 8, wherein the data is erased after being printed out.