in some embodiments , network traffic information is captured at network information sources . these sources provide detailed information about the network communications transactions at a network device . importantly , different types of sources can provide different types of information . gatherer devices gather the detailed information from the various information source devices and convert the information into standardized information . the gatherer devices can correlate the gathered information with account information for network transaction accounting . manager devices manage the gatherer devices and store the gathered standardized information . the manager devices eliminate duplicate network information that may exist in the standardized information . the manager devices also consolidate the information . importantly , the information stored by the manager devices represents the consolidated , account correlated , network transaction information that can be used for billing or network accounting . the system thereby provides a distributed network accounting and billing system .