JPH09190318A - Printing management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To ensure a fair and rational charging between a job that is processed with preference and another job that is processed with no preference and also to enable a job issuer to interactively change the priority of a job after its issue when the job issuer instructs the preferential processing to a print management device for issue of a job and a printing management device processes the job with preference as instructed. SOLUTION: When a job X is received while jobs A to E are accumulated, this printing management device decides the processing order of the job X based on the precedence of these jobs X and A to E and then calculates the fee of the job X according to its processing order. The processing order and the fee of the job X are notified to its issuer. When the job issuer instructs the change of precedence of the job X, the print management device changes the processing order of the job X and calculates its fee.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print management apparatus for a print service system that accepts a job from a job issuer for printing and charges the job issuer for each job execution.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A job issuing device on a client side and a printing device on a server side are connected on a network, a server side accepts a job from a client side for printing, and a fee is charged to a client for each job execution. A network print service system that imposes a print job is considered.

When printing or copying is generally performed by a printer or a copying machine including such a network print service system, the charging target when charging the user is the size of the used paper, The number of sheets printed or copied, the printing mode such as single-sided printing or double-sided printing, the presence or absence of post-processing such as staple binding after printing or copying, and the type are considered.

However, in JP-A-5-108961,
It is shown that a printer that forms image data from print data and performs printing considers the time required to form the image data as a charging target.

Further, as a charge management method for charging a user, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-51162 shows that charges are aggregated and managed for each department to which a user of a copying machine belongs. According to this, it becomes easy to manage the budget for each department in a company.

[0006] Generally, it is known to notify a user of the system of a charge for using the system after or before using the system.

For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-97495 discloses that
After the copying operation by the user, the electronic copying machine calculates the copy charge for each paper size from the copy unit price for each paper size,
The idea of displaying the result to the user is shown, and in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-114991, the time and fee required for a facsimile transmission in a facsimile machine can be set in advance or at any time.
The idea to be displayed to the user is shown.

[0008]

As a network print service system as described above, a print management device capable of accumulating a plurality of jobs is connected on a network,
It is conceivable that the print management apparatus receives a job from the client side, the print management apparatus transmits print data to the printing apparatus, and the print management apparatus performs charge management.

In this case, when the printing apparatus is in full operation and unprocessed jobs are accumulated in the print management apparatus, the job issuer has to wait until the job is issued until the job is executed, and the job should be urgently processed. In the case of a job, it causes inconvenience.

Therefore, in such a system,
A job issuer who wants to preferentially process the job instructs the print management apparatus to perform preferential processing when issuing the job, and the print management apparatus gives priority to the job when instructed. It is possible to process.

However, the charge in this case is calculated from the size and number of sheets used, the printing mode, the presence / absence and type of post-processing, the time required for the processing, or the like, or only from these, as in the prior art. Loses fairness between jobs that are preferentially processed and jobs that are subordinately processed because of that job, even when it isn't rational and doesn't need to be specifically prioritized. The original purpose of the job issuer is to give priority to only the jobs that really need it, as a result of the fact that many jobs have to be given priority to be processed by instructing the priority processing. There is an inconvenience that can not be reached.

[0012] Therefore, a first object of the present invention is to provide a fair and rational charging between a job preferentially processed and a job subordinately processed in the print management apparatus as described above. Is to be able to.

A second object of the present invention is to change the priority of job processing after the user issues a job interactively with the print management apparatus when such a reasonable charge is made. Is to be able to do.

[0014]

When the reference numerals of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and described later are quoted in parentheses after each means, in the invention of claim 1, the print management apparatus (2
0), a job receiving unit (21) for receiving a job from the job issuing apparatus (10) in which the priority of the job processing is added to the print data, and the job receiving unit (2).
The job accumulation unit (22) that accumulates the job received by 1) and can accumulate a plurality of jobs, and the processing order of the jobs accumulated in this job accumulation unit (22) are added to each job. According to the reception processing unit (23) determined according to the priority and the processing order determined by the reception processing unit (23), the job receiving unit (2)
1) The charge calculation unit (24) for calculating the charge to be applied to the job received by the job storage unit, and the print data of the job stored in the job storage unit (22) are stored in the reception processing unit (2).
And a transmission processing unit (26) for sequentially transmitting to the printing apparatus (30) in the order of the processing order determined by 3).

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the print management apparatus (20) of the first aspect of the invention, a charge notifying means (23) for further notifying the job issuer of the charge calculated by the charge calculating section (24). , 21), an instruction receiving means (21) for receiving a priority change instruction from the job issuer in response to the notification, and accumulating in the job accumulating section (22) including the job according to the changed priority. Processing order changing means (23) for changing the processing order of the executed job
And a charging recalculating means (24) for recalculating the charge charged to the job according to the changed processing order.

[0016]

In the print management apparatus (20) of the first aspect of the present invention configured as described above, when the job from the job issuing apparatus (10) is received by the job receiving section (21), the reception processing section ( 23) determines the processing order of the received job concerned according to the priority added to the received job concerned and the job already accumulated in the job accumulation section (22), and the relationship therewith. Then, the processing order of the jobs already stored in the job storage section (22) is changed, and the received job is assigned the determined processing order and the job storage section (2
Accumulate in 2).

Then, the billing calculation section (24) stores the received processing order of the job in the job storage section (22) according to the processing order determined by the reception processing section (23). If the processing order of the received job is increased, the fee charged to the received job is calculated so as to increase the fee charged to the received job according to the increased amount.

Therefore, a fair and rational charge is made between the job processed preferentially and the job processed subordinately. Further, when the job issuer gives a higher priority to the job processing, the charge is accordingly increased, so that the job issuer may give a higher priority even when it is not necessary to give priority to the job. It is avoided and only those jobs that really need it are given priority.

In the print management apparatus (20) according to the second aspect of the present invention configured as described above, the job issuer uses the job issuing apparatus (10) to charge the fee notified by the fee notification means (23, 21). Knowing, in light of the need to preferentially process the job, if you want the job to be processed more preferentially at higher prices, or if the job is processed subordinately. Even if the user wants to lower the charge, the instruction receiving means (21) receives the instruction by giving an instruction to change the priority, and the processing order changing means (23) changes the instruction. Job storage unit (22) including the job according to the priority
The processing order of the job accumulated in the above is changed, and the charging recalculation means (24) recalculates the fee charged to the job according to the changed processing order.

[0020]

1 shows an example of a network print service system including a print management apparatus according to the present invention. The network print service system as a whole includes a job issuing apparatus 10 and a print management apparatus 2.
0 and the printing device 30 are connected and configured on a communication network 40 such as a LAN (Local Area Network).

The job issuing device 10 is composed of a personal computer, a workstation or the like, and sends a print job to the print management device 20 through the communication network 40.

For the job, for example, for print data expressed in a page description language such as PostScript (registered trademark of Adobe Systems), a job name, identification information such as the name and name of the job issuer, and printing If the printing apparatus 30 includes a post-processing unit that performs post-processing such as staple binding after printing, job attribute information such as necessity or type of post-processing is added, and a job to be described later. The processing priority is added.

The printing device 30 receives the print data transmitted from the print management device 20 through the communication network 40 as described later, performs printing according to the instruction from the print management device 20, and When the print management apparatus 20 is instructed to perform the post-processing, the post-processing is performed according to the instruction.

The print management device 20 is composed of a personal computer, a workstation, etc., and as an example,
As shown in FIG. 2, the communication unit 21, the job storage unit 22, the reception processing unit 23, the charging calculation unit 24, the charging coefficient storage unit 25,
A transmission processing unit 26, a billing management unit 27, and a billing information storage unit 28 are provided.

The communication section 21 receives the job transmitted from the job issuing apparatus 10 to the print management apparatus 20 through the communication network 40, and as will be described later, the charging calculation section 2
The information about the charge to be applied to the job, which is calculated by No. 4 and obtained through the reception processing unit 23, is transmitted to the job issuing device 10 through the communication network 40, and the job issuing device 10 gives priority to this charge notification from the job issuer 10. The instruction to change the degree is received through the communication network 40.

Further, the communication section 21 transmits the print data sent from the transmission processing section 26 to the printing apparatus 30 through the communication network 40 as described later, and at the same time, sends the print completion notification from the printing apparatus 30 through the communication network 40. The data is received and sent to the transmission processing unit 26. Further, the communication unit 21 transmits, to the job issuing device 10 through the communication network 40, information on the fee to be charged for the job finally determined by the charging management unit 27 as described later.

The job storage unit 22 is capable of storing a plurality of jobs. The job received by the communication unit 21 is stored in the job storage unit 22 after the processing order is determined by the reception processing unit 23 as described later. To be done.

When the communication unit 21 receives a job from the job issuing device 10, the reception processing unit 23 adds a priority to the received job and the job already stored in the job storage unit 22. According to the above, the processing order of the received job is determined, and the processing order of the job already stored in the job storage unit 22 is changed in relation to this, and the received job is The determined processing order is added and accumulated in the job accumulating unit 22.

Further, when the charge calculation unit 24 calculates the charge to be applied to the received job, as will be described later, the reception processing unit 23 outputs information on the calculated charge from the charge calculation unit 24. The job is received and stored in the job storage unit 22, and the job is stored in the communication unit 2.
1 for transmission to the job issuing device 10.

In accordance with an instruction from the reception processing unit 23, the billing calculation unit 24 uses the billing coefficient registered in the billing coefficient storage unit 25 in advance and is received according to the processing order determined by the reception processing unit 23. Calculate the fee charged for the job.

In this case, when the processing order of the received job is higher than the processing order of the job already stored in the job storage section 22, the charging calculation section 24 is raised, as will be described later. Depending on the minutes, the fee charged to the received job is calculated so as to increase the fee charged to the received job.

In the charging coefficient storage unit 25, as the charging coefficient, in this example, an initial charge, which will be described later, and an additional charge added every time the processing order is advanced by one are registered.

The transmission processing unit 26 monitors the job storage unit 22, and when there is an unprocessed job in the job storage unit 22, it is determined by the reception processing unit 23 as described above and assigned to each job. The jobs are sequentially taken out from the job storage unit 22 in the order of the processing order, and the print data is transmitted to the printing apparatus 30 by the communication unit 21.

In this case, the transmission processing unit 26, together with the print data, print instruction information indicating the size of the paper to be printed, the number of copies, etc., and post-processing if the printing device 30 has a post-processing unit as described above. The post-processing instruction information indicating the necessity and type of is sent to the printing device 30.

When the communication unit 21 receives the print completion notification from the printing device 30, the transmission processing unit 26 attaches the notification together with the notification to the job as described above.
Information on the fee charged for the job is sent to the charging management unit 27.

The billing management unit 27 thus receives the information from the transmission processing unit 26, and finally determines the charge to be applied to the job, and the charge information is classified by job and by job issuer. It is recorded in the charging information storage unit 28. Also,
The charging management unit 27 notifies the job issuer through the communication unit 21 of the finally determined charge to be applied to the job when the job ends.

As shown in FIG. 1 and as described above,
The print management device 20 is composed of a personal computer, a workstation, etc., and is provided with an operating device such as a keyboard and a display device such as a CRT display.
The administrator reads the billing information recorded in the billing information storage unit 28 at any time by operating the operation device, and displays on the display device the fee for each job for each user or for each group to which the user belongs or the cumulative fee. In addition to being displayed, the billing information can be converted into print data, transmitted to the printing device 30, and printed out on paper.

The job processing priority is represented by an ordinal number, for example. FIG. 3 shows a state in which five jobs are stored in the job storage unit 22 in this case (A). Any of ranks 1, 2, and 3 can be selected as the priority, and rank 1 has the highest priority. In this example, the initial charge is 100 yen, and the additional charge added each time the processing order is advanced by 100 is also 100 yen.

Then, the job D having the priority of rank 3 is received first, and hereinafter, the job B having the priority of rank 2,
This is the case where the job C having the priority of rank 2, the job E having the priority of rank 3, and the job A having the priority of rank 1 are sequentially received.

However, since job B is ranked higher than job D received earlier, its charge is 200 yen, which is 100 yen added to the initial charge, and job C is
Also, since the job D received earlier has a higher priority, the charge is 200 yen, and the job A has a higher priority than the previously received jobs E, D, C, B. The charge was 400 yen added to the initial charge. 5
00 yen, and as a result, jobs A, B, C, D, E
Are sequentially ranked as the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth processing orders.

When the priority of the job processing is represented by an ordinal number as described above, the print management apparatus 20 uses the order determination / charge calculation processing routine 100 shown in FIG. I do.

That is, the processing of order determination and billing calculation in this case is started by the communication unit 21 receiving a job or priority change instruction from the job issuing device 10, and first in step 101, the reception processing unit 23.
However, when the job is received, the process proceeds to step 102, and the reception processing unit 23 takes in the received job X.

FIG. 3A shows that, in the state where the jobs A to E are accumulated in the job accumulating section 22 as described above, the job X having the rank 2 is newly received. . In the following, the job storage unit 22 will be referred to as a job queue.

Next, proceeding to step 103, the reception processing unit 23 sets the variable i for determining the order as the last job number in the job queue (the lowest processing order). FIG.
In the case of (A), i = 5.

Next, in step 104, the reception processing unit 23 determines whether or not the variable i is zero, and when the variable i is not zero as in the case of FIG. 3 (A),
Further, in step 105, the reception processing unit 23 determines that the priority of the received job X is higher than the priority of the job Ji having the job number i in the job queue, that is, in the case of FIG. Determines whether the priority of job E is higher.

Then, when the priority of the job X is higher than the priority of the job Ji as in the case of FIG. 3A, the process proceeds to step 106, where the reception processing unit 23 makes the variable i
Is decremented by 1, that is, i = 4 in the case of FIG. 3A, and the process returns to step 104.

Therefore, until it is judged at step 104 that i = 0, or until it is judged at step 105 that the priority of the job X is equal to or lower than the priority of the job Ji,
The processing of steps 104 to 106 is repeated.

In the case of FIG. 3A, the priority of the job X is higher than the priorities of the jobs E and D and equal to the priority of the job C, so that i = 3 in step 106, The processes of steps 104 to 106 are repeated until it is determined at 105 that the priority of the job X is equal to the priority of the job C.

As described above, when the reception processing unit 23 determines in step 105 that the priority of the job X is less than or equal to the priority of the job Ji, or in step 104, the reception processing unit 23 determines that i = 0. Sometimes, the process proceeds from step 105 or 104 to step 107, and the reception processing unit 23 sets the job number of the job X to i + 1,
The job X is inserted into the job queue, and accordingly, the job numbers of the jobs whose job numbers are i + 1 or less are decremented by 1.

In the case of FIG. 3 (A), as shown in FIG. 3 (B), the processing order of the job X is fourth and the job C is the fourth.
Is inserted between the job D and the job D, and the jobs D and E are the fifth and sixth jobs.
It is regarded as the processing order of rank.

Next, in step 108, the billing calculation unit 24 determines, according to the processing order determined as described above,
Calculate the charge to be applied to job X, and then step 109
Then, the reception processing unit 23 writes the fee information in the job queue.

In the case of FIG. 3B, since the job X is prioritized over the jobs E and D, the charge is 300 yen, which is 200 yen added to the initial charge.

Next, the process proceeds to step 110, where the reception processing section 23 charges the fee charged to the job X together with the job queue status, that is, the job name and processing order of each job existing in the job queue. Notify the issuer and finish the process of ranking determination and billing calculation.

The contents of this notification are C of the job issuing device 10.
Displayed on a display device such as an RT display, the job issuer can instruct the job X to change the priority of the job X by operating the operation device such as the keyboard of the job issuing device 10. In the case of FIG. 3 (B),
The priority can be increased from rank 2 to rank 1.

When it is determined in step 101 that the reception processing unit 23 has received not the job but the instruction for changing the priority, that is, the communication unit 21 receives the above-mentioned instruction for changing the priority from the job issuer. If so, the process proceeds from step 101 to step 112, and the reception processing unit 2
3 takes in the instruction content.

Next, proceeding to step 113, the reception processing unit 23 sets the variable i for determining the order to be one less than the job number of the job X in the job queue. FIG.
In the case of (B), i = 3.

Next, in steps 104 to 106,
The same processing as when a job is received is performed. Therefore, FIG.
In the case of (B), the changed priority of the job X is higher than the priorities of the jobs C and B and equal to the priority of the job A. Therefore, i = 1 is set in step 106, and step 1 is set.
The processes of steps 104 to 106 are repeated until it is determined in 05 that the changed priority of the job X is equal to the priority of the job A.

As described above, in step 105, the reception processing unit 23 determines that the changed priority of the job X is the job Ji.
When it is determined that the priority is equal to or lower than the priority of, or when the reception processing unit 23 determines that i = 0 in step 104, the processing from step 105 or 104 to step 107-
In step 110, the same processing as when the job is received is performed.

In the case of FIG. 3 (B), as shown in FIG. 3 (C), the processing order of job X is the second highest, and job B is job B.
And the job A, and the jobs B and C are the third and fourth jobs.
Job X, job X, job B,
Since it was ranked higher than C, the charge was 200 yen added to the 300 yen determined when the job was received, 50
It will be updated to 0 yen.

As an example, the print management apparatus 20 performs print processing by the print processing routine 200 shown in FIG. That is, in the print processing routine 200, in step 201, the transmission processing unit 26 monitors the job queue and determines whether or not there is an unprocessed job in the job queue.

Then, if there is an unprocessed job, the process proceeds to step 202, where the transmission processing unit 26 takes out the job having the first processing rank from the job queue,
The print data is sent to the printing device 30 by sending it to the communication unit 21.

Next, in step 203, the transmission processing unit 26 receives the print completion notification from the printing device 30 through the communication unit 21, and the charge information attached to the job, It is sent to the billing management unit 27 together with the identification information of the job issuer who issued the job.

Next, in step 204, the charge management unit 27 finally determines the charge to be applied to the job and records the information in the charge information storage unit 28 for each job and each job issuer. Then, in step 205, the charge management unit 27 notifies the job issuer of the charge and the end of the job through the communication unit 21.

As another example, the priority of the job processing can be represented by the upper limit charge that the job issuer can accept for the job. FIG. 6 shows this case, and FIG.
5 shows a state where five jobs are stored in the job storage unit 22. In this example, the initial charge is 100 yen, and an additional charge of 100 is added each time the processing order is advanced by one within a range not exceeding the upper limit charge.
A circle is added.

Then, the upper limit charges added to the jobs A to E are the amounts shown, and as a result, the jobs A, B, C, D, and E are processed by the processing of order determination and billing calculation described later.
Are sequentially set to the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth processing orders, and the fees charged to the respective jobs A to E are set to the amounts shown in the figure.

In this way, when the priority of the job processing is represented by the upper limit charge, the print management apparatus 20 determines, by way of example, the order determination and charge calculation processing routine 300 shown in FIGS. Performs billing calculation processing.

That is, in the processing of order determination and billing calculation in this case, first, in step 301, the reception processing unit 23 determines whether the communication unit 21 has received a job from the job issuing apparatus 10, and determines the job. When received, the process proceeds to step 302, where the reception processing unit 23
The received job X is fetched.

FIG. 6A shows that, in the state where the jobs A to E are accumulated in the job accumulating unit 22 as described above, a new job X having a maximum charge of 500 yen is received. There is. In the following, the job storage unit 22 will be referred to as a job queue.

Next, in step 303, the reception processing section 23 determines that the current fee P of the received job X is P.
Using (X) as the initial charge, the process proceeds to step 304, and the reception processing unit 23 sets the variable i for determining the order as the last job number in the job queue (the lowest processing order). In the case of FIG. 6A, i = 5.

Next, in step 305, the reception processing unit 23 determines whether or not the variable i is zero, and when the variable i is not zero as in the case of FIG. 6A,
Further, in step 306, the reception processing unit 23 determines that the received upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is the upper limit charge T of the job Ji of the job number i in the job queue.
From (i), that is, in the case of FIG. 6A, it is determined whether the charge is lower than the upper limit charge of job E.

Then, as in the case of FIG. 6A, the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is the upper limit charge T (i) of the job Ji.
When it is above, the process proceeds to step 307, and the reception processing unit 23 advances the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X and the current charge P (X) of the job X by one rank. Sum of additional charge Q added for each {P
(X) + Q} is determined.

Then, as in the case of FIG. 6A, the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is the sum of charges {P (X) +
If it is higher than Q}, proceed to step 308,
The reception processing unit 23 calculates the current fee P (X) of the job X,
The sum of the charges is {P (X) + Q}. That is, FIG.
In the case of (A), it will be 200 yen.

Next, the processing proceeds to step 309, where the reception processing section 23 updates the current charge P of the job X.
(X) is based on the current charge P (i) of the job Ji having the above-mentioned job number i in the job queue, that is, FIG.
In the case of, it is determined whether the charge is lower than the current charge of job E.

Then, as in the case of FIG. 6A, when the updated current charge P (X) of the job X is equal to or higher than the current charge P (i) of the job Ji, the process directly proceeds from step 309. Proceeding to 311, the reception processing unit 23
Decrement the variable i by 1, that is, FIG. 6 (A).
In this case, i = 4 is set and the process returns to step 305.

Updated current charge P (X) for job X
Is lower than the current charge P (i) of job Ji,
In order to balance the charges between the job Ji and the job X, which are subordinate to the job X, the process proceeds from step 309 to step 312, and the reception processing unit 23 determines the current charge P (X) of the job X. After making it equal to the current charge P (i) of the job Ji, the process proceeds to step 311, and the reception processing unit 2
3 decrements the variable i by 1, and then step 30
Return to 5.

Therefore, until it is determined in step 305 that i = 0, or until it is determined in step 306 that the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is lower than the upper limit charge T (i) of the job Ji, or the step The processes of steps 305 to 312 are repeated until it is determined in 307 that the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is less than or equal to the sum charge {P (X) + Q}.

In the case of FIG. 6A, the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is higher than the upper limit charges of the jobs E, D, and C,
Since it is lower than the maximum charge for job B, i
= 2, and the upper limit charge T of the job X is set in step 306.
The processes of steps 305 to 312 are repeated until (X) is determined to be lower than the upper limit charge of job B.

As described above, in step 306, the reception processing unit 23 determines that the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is the job Ji.
If it is determined that the charge is lower than the upper limit charge T (i) of the reception processing unit 2 from step 306 to step 314.
3 determines whether the current charge P (i) of the job Ji is lower than the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X. In order to balance the charges, the process proceeds from step 314 to step 315, and the reception processing unit 23 determines that the job Ji
Current charge P (i) of the job X is made equal to the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X, and the process proceeds to step 317.

In the case of FIG. 6A, when i = 2 is set in step 311 and it is determined in step 306 that the upper limit charge of job X is lower than the upper limit charge of job B that is job Ji, the job is The current charge of B is lower than the maximum charge of job X. Therefore, in step 315, the current charge of job B is changed to 500 yen, which is the upper limit charge of job X.

In step 314, the reception processor 23 determines that the current charge P (i) of the job Ji is the upper limit charge T of the job X.
If it is determined that the value is (X) or more, step 314
Directly to step 317.

In step 307, the reception processing unit 23 determines that the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X is the sum of the charges {P.
Even when it is determined that (X) + Q} or less, that is, when the processing order of the job X is raised to a higher level, the charge imposed on the job X becomes equal to or higher than the upper limit charge T (X) of the job X. The process directly proceeds from step 307 to step 317.

Further, in step 305, the reception processing unit 23
When i determines that i = 0, that is, when no job is stored in the job queue when the job X is received,
Or even when the processing order of job X is set to the first place,
The process proceeds from step 305 directly to step 317.

Then, in step 317, the reception processing section 23 inserts the job X into the job queue with the job number of the job X set to i + 1, and accordingly, the job number of the job whose job number is set to i + 1 or less. The job number is decremented by 1.

In the case of FIG. 6A, as shown in FIG. 6B, the processing order of the job X is the third, and the job B is the job B.
Is inserted between job C and job C, jobs C, D, and E are the fourth,
The processing order is ranked fifth and sixth.

Next, in step 318, the billing calculation unit 24 determines, according to the processing order determined as described above,
Determine the fee to charge Job X. That is, when the current charge P (X) of the job X is finally made equal to the current charge P (i) of the job Ji in step 312, the current charge P (X) of the job X is changed to the job X. It is charged as a fee.

Finally, at step 308, the current fee P (X) of job X is the above-mentioned fee {P (X) +
Q}, the current fee P of the job X is
(X) is the charge imposed on job X.

Further, if no job is stored in the job queue when the job X is received, step 30
The current charge P for job X, which was the initial charge in 3 above
(X) is the charge imposed on job X.

In the case of FIG. 6B, since the job X has a higher priority than the jobs E, D, and C, the charge is 400 yen, which is 300 yen added to the initial charge.

Next, proceeding to step 319, the reception processing section 23 writes the charge information in the job queue. Further, as in the case of the current charge of the job B in the case of FIG. 6B, information about the changed charge, which is imposed on the job whose charge has been changed by the determination of the processing order of the job X, is also included.
Write in the job queue instead of the charge information before the change.

Next, proceeding to step 320, the reception processing section 23 notifies the job issuer of the charge to be imposed on the job X together with the status of the job queue, and finishes the order determination and charging calculation processing. To do. In this case, the reception processing unit 23 also notifies the issuer of the job whose fee has been changed as described above, of the fee change.

According to the above-described embodiment, fair and rational billing is performed between the job processed preferentially and the job processed subordinately. Further, when the job issuer gives a higher priority to the job processing, the charge is accordingly increased, so that the job issuer may give a higher priority even when it is not necessary to give priority to the job. It is avoided and only those jobs that really need it are given priority.

Further, when the priority of the job processing is represented by an ordinal number and the processing of order determination and billing calculation is performed by the routine as shown in FIG. 4, the user communicates with the print management apparatus 20. Thus, it is possible to interactively change the priority of job processing as needed after the job is issued.

However, although omitted in FIGS. 7 and 8,
Even when the priority of the job processing is represented by the upper limit charge that the job issuer can accept for the job, similarly, the user interactively interacts with the print management apparatus 20 as necessary after the job is issued. The priority of job processing can be changed.

[0094]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, fair and rational billing is made between the job processed preferentially and the job processed subordinately, and When the job issuer gives higher priority to job processing, the charge will be correspondingly higher. Therefore, it is possible to avoid giving priority to the job issuer even when it is not necessary to give priority to the job. , Only jobs that really need it will be processed preferentially.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the case where such a reasonable charge is made, the user interactively interacts with the print management apparatus to execute the job processing as necessary after the job is issued. You can change the priority.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of an example of a network print service system including a print management apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a print management apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a specific example of order determination and billing calculation when job processing priority is represented by an ordinal number.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a rank determination charging calculation processing routine executed by the print management apparatus of FIG. 2 when the priority of job processing is represented by an ordinal number.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a print processing routine executed by the print management apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining one specific example of order determination and billing calculation when the priority of job processing is represented by an upper limit charge.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a part of an example of a ranking determination charging calculation processing routine executed by the print management apparatus of FIG. 2 when the priority of job processing is represented by an upper limit charge.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a continuation of the ranking determination charging calculation processing routine of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 job issuing device 20 print management device 21 communication unit (job receiving unit, charge notification unit, instruction receiving unit) 22 job storage unit 23 reception processing unit (charge notification unit, processing order changing unit) 24 billing calculation unit (billing recalculation) 25) Charge coefficient storage unit 26 Transmission processing unit 27 Charge management unit 28 Charge information storage unit 30 Printing device 40 Communication network

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A job receiving unit that receives a job from a job issuing device, to which a job processing priority is added to print data, and a plurality of job storage units that store the job received by the job receiving unit. A job storage unit that can store jobs, a reception processing unit that determines the processing order of the jobs stored in this job storage unit according to the priority added to each job, and the processing determined by this reception processing unit A charge calculation unit that calculates the charge to be applied to the job received by the job receiving unit according to the order, and print data of the job accumulated in the job accumulating unit,
A print management apparatus comprising: a transmission processing unit that sequentially transmits to the printing apparatus in the order of processing order determined by the reception processing unit. 2. The print management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print management apparatus further includes a charge notifying means for notifying the job issuer of the charge calculated by the charge calculation unit, and a job issuer for the notification. Instruction receiving means for receiving a priority change instruction of the job, processing order changing means for changing the processing order of the job stored in the job storage section including the job according to the changed priority, and the changed order. A print management apparatus comprising: a charge recalculation unit that recalculates a charge imposed on the job according to the processing order.