an apparatus includes a processing module and a network interface . the processing module is operably coupled to : access user level metadata based on account identifier to identify a plurality of files associated with a user and retrieve user level metadata for the plurality of files ; access file level metadata associated with the plurality of files to retrieve , for each of the plurality of files , file level metadata and determine , for each of the plurality of files , a plurality of file slices associated with a corresponding file of the plurality of files ; and generate billing transaction information based on the user level metadata and the file level metadata of the plurality of files . the network interface is operably coupled to : convert the billing transaction information into a network billing transaction information message and transmit it .