CRM › Utilities: a customer information system for a utility or a city
What CRM › Utilities holds — service accounts, premises, meters and IoT reads, bill runs, the counter, collections, field work and the public’s self-service — how it is switched on or off per company, and which role does what.
Utilities is the part of CRM a water, power or gas utility — or a city or county that runs one — uses to bill and serve its residents. A customer’s utility account takes service at a premise, each service is measured by a meter, the reads are rated by a rate plan, and every bill becomes an ordinary AR invoice. The receivable, aging, statements and the general ledger therefore see utility bills exactly as they see any other invoice.
Where it is
CRM › Utilities, on CRM’s group bar. It opens on the Utilities Dashboard. The group has six sections:
| Section | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Utilities | Utilities Dashboard, Service Accounts (and each account’s Utility Account 360), Premises, Service Agreements, Customer Requests, Portal Account Links. |
| Utility Meters & Reads | Meters, IoT Devices, Device Alarms, Meter Reads, Read Exceptions, Read Files (AMR), Meter History, Meter Tests, Read Routes. |
| Utility Billing | Bill Runs, Utility Bills, Rate Plans, Rate Blocks, Rate Fees, Billing Cycles. |
| Utility Cashiering & Payments | Cashiering (the counter), Cash Approvals, Utility Payments, Cash Sessions, Cash Drawers, Online Payments, Lockbox & Bank Files, Autopay, Refunds. |
| Utility Collections | Collections Worklist, Payment Arrangements, Collection Actions. |
| Utility Field Service | Utility Service Orders, My Service Orders, Utility Settings. |
Turning it on or off
- Open Platform › Runtime Settings and find the Utilities group.
- Tick or untick “Use CRM › Utilities (customer information system for utilities and local government)” (crm.utilities_enabled). The setting is per company.
- Save. Off: the Utilities group disappears from CRM, and its screens, the customer portal’s My utility account tab and the public pages all refuse with “CRM › Utilities is switched off for this company”. Nothing is deleted; switching it back on brings everything back.
Until a company sets it, the default is the installation’s: on, unless the operator started TRANXACT with TRANXACT_UTILITIES_DEFAULT=off. The settings screen says which default applies. The switch only decides whether Utilities is shown; who may do what in it is still set by roles.
The same group holds a second setting, “Let the person who prepared a bill run approve it” (crm.utilities_self_approve), off by default. Leave it off unless one person does all the billing. See Bill runs: preview, approve, post, and cancel and rebill.
Who does what
Eight roles are shipped, one per desk. Give them under Platform › Roles; the administrator has all of it.
| Role | What it does |
|---|---|
| Utility Customer Service (util-csr) | Opens accounts; starts, stops and transfers service; premises; service orders, arrangements, customer requests and portal links; records reads. |
| Utility Billing (util-billing) | Rate plans, blocks and fees, billing cycles, reads and read exceptions, bill runs and bill review. |
| Utility Cashier (util-cashier) | The counter: a drawer session, payments and deposits; asks for voids. |
| Utility Cashier Supervisor (util-cashier-supervisor) | Everything a cashier does, and approves voids and drawer closes, drawers, lockbox files, online payments, refunds and autopay. |
| Utility Collections (util-collections) | The collections worklist and run, payment arrangements, disconnect orders and write-offs. |
| Utility Meter Technician (util-meter-tech) | Meters, meter tests, IoT devices and alarms, read routes, reads and AMR files. |
| Utility Field Technician (util-field-tech) | Their own service orders only: start and complete them in the field. |
| Utility Manager (util-manager) | All of CRM › Utilities and its settings. |
Two rules separate duties whatever roles a person holds: a bill run is approved by somebody other than the person who previewed it, and a void or a drawer close is approved by a supervisor who is not the cashier. Nobody approves their own.
The guides
- Setting Utilities up: settings, cycles, rate plans, premises and routes.
- Opening a utility account, and starting, stopping and moving service.
- Meters, reads, AMR files and read exceptions; and IoT meters: registering a device and how it signs its reads.
- Bill runs: preview, approve, post, and cancel and rebill.
- The counter: cashiering and supervisor approvals; and Online payments, lockbox files, autopay and refunds.
- Collections: notices, late fees, arrangements, disconnection and write-off.
- Utility service orders and My Service Orders.
- For residents: My utility account and the public utility pages.
- The Utilities Dashboard and Utility Account 360.