Method of checking daily consumption of postal charges by a postage meter and a postage meter enabling such monitoring to be performed

Claim 1

A method of checking daily consumption of postal charges by a postage meter, the method comprising the following steps: recording cumulative data in a non-volatile memory of the postage meter after each day on which the postage meter has performed at least one franking operation, said data being representative of total consumption of postal charges metered by the meter up to said day, and being recorded in association with a date provided by a calendar circuit of the meter; maintaining a series of such cumulative data in correspondence with respective dates in the non-volatile memory of the postage meter over a predetermined time of time; recovering daily consumption values and corresponding dates from the postage meter on the basis of said cumulative data recorded in its non-volatile memory in association with said dates, each daily consumption value representing the consumption of postage charges metered by the meter for one day's use of the meter; recovering from the postage meter, a certification number calculated by applying a calculation algorithm to said recovered daily consumption values, said cumulative data recorded over said period of time in the non-volatile memory, an encoding key, and an identification number of the postage meter previously recorded in the memory of the postage meter; noting said cumulative data, daily consumption values, identification number of the postage meter, and certification number on a billing form for said predetermined period of time; and after said billing form has been drawn up, recalculating a new certification number on the basis of the cumulative data, the daily consumption values, the identification number of the meter marked on the form and an encoding key identical to that recorded in the postage meter in order to verify whether the certification number remarked on the form is identical to the new certification number calculated in this way.

Claim 2

A method of checking daily consumption of postal charges by a postage meter, the method comprising the following steps: recording cumulative data in a non-volatile memory of the postage meter after each day on which the postage meter has performed at least one franking operation, said data being representative of total consumption of postal charges metered by the meter up to said day, and being recorded in association with a date provided by a calendar circuit of the meter; maintaining a series of such cumulative data in correspondence with respective dates in the non-volatile memory of the postage meter over a predetermined time of time; recovering daily consumption values and corresponding dates from the postage meter on the basis of said cumulative data recorded in its non-volatile memory in association with said dates, each daily consumption value representing the consumption of postage charges metered by the meter for one day's use of the meter; recovering from the postage meter, a certification number calculated by applying a calculation algorithm to said recovered daily consumption values, said cumulative data recorded over said period of time in the non-volatile memory, an encoding key, and an identification number of the postage meter previously recorded in the memory of the postage meter; noting said cumulative data, daily consumption values, identification number of the postage meter, and certification number on a billing form for said predetermined period of time; and after said billing form has been drawn up, recalculating a new certification number on the basis of the cumulative data, the daily consumption values, the identification number of the meter marked on the form and an encoding key identical to that recorded in the postage meter in order to verify whether the certification number remarked on the form is identical to the new certification number calculated in this way.