Setting Utilities up: settings, cycles, rate plans, premises and routes
Before the first bill: Utility Settings (notice days, fees, deposits, read checks, ledger accounts, public forms), Billing Cycles, Rate Plans with their blocks and fees, Premises and Read Routes.
Set these up in this order. Each later step picks from the one before it: a rate plan names its tax code, a premise names its read route, an account names its billing cycle.
1. Utility Settings
CRM › Utilities › Utility Field Service › Utility Settings holds one row for the company. Until it is saved the shipped defaults apply, shown here in brackets.
| Field | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Grace days before a late fee (5) | Days after the due date before a late fee is charged. |
| Past-due notice after (days) (10) | When the past-due notice goes. |
| Final notice after (days) (25) | When the final (disconnect) notice goes. |
| Propose disconnection after (days) (40) | When the account is proposed for a disconnect order on the worklist. Nothing is disconnected automatically. |
| Late fee (flat) (5.00) and Late fee (% of past due) (1.5) | The greater of the two is charged, once per bill. |
| No late fee below (10.00) | Past-due amounts under this are not charged a fee. |
| Reconnect fee (35.00) | Charged when a reconnect order is completed, unless the technician waives it with a reason. |
| Deposit, residential / Deposit, commercial (0) | The deposit asked of a new account of that class. |
| High-use exception above / Low-use exception below (% of average) (250 / 20) | A read using more or less than this share of the meter’s average is held as a read exception. |
| Bills due in (days) (21) | The due date of a bill when the cycle does not say. |
| Utility revenue account, Customer deposits account (2410), Customer credit balances account (2420), Bad debt account (6150) | The ledger accounts utility postings use. Blank revenue: the chart’s default revenue account. |
| Take start-service and problem reports from the public (on) | Opens or closes the public Start service and Report a problem forms. |
| Portal sign-up proves the bill by (either) | What a resident types beside the account number to link it: the amount of the last bill, the postal code of the service address, or either. |
2. Billing Cycles
- Open Utility Billing › Billing Cycles and press New.
- Enter a Code and Name, the Read day of month, the Bill day of month and Due in days.
- Save. Accounts in the same cycle are read, billed and due together.
3. Rate Plans, Rate Blocks and Rate Fees
- Open Utility Billing › Rate Plans and press New. Enter Code, Name and Service (water, sewer, electric, gas, refuse or stormwater). Choose For class to limit it to one class of customer, or leave it blank for any.
- Enter the Unit (gal, ccf, m3, kWh, therm, month …), the Customer charge per period and a Minimum bill.
- For seasonal rates, list the Summer months by number (for example 6, 7, 8, 9). Blank means no seasons.
- Choose the Tax code. Tax is worked out by the company’s own tax engine on the taxable charges, as on any invoice. Revenue account is optional.
- Set Effective from and to, and Status active when the plan is ready.
- On the plan’s row press Blocks. Add one row per block: Season (all, summer or winter), Block number, Above, Up to (blank: everything above) and Rate per unit.
- Press Fees for fees on the plan’s bills: a Code and Description, Type fixed, per_unit or percent of the service’s charges, the Amount (or %), and whether it is Taxable.
A bill for each service is: the customer charge, prorated by the days the service was on in the period; the use split into the blocks (summer blocks in the summer months, winter blocks otherwise, “all” blocks always); the fees; a top-up to the minimum bill (prorated too); and the tax. A move-in on the 20th of a 30-day period pays 11/30 of the customer charge.
4. Read Routes and Premises
- Utility Meters & Reads › Read Routes › New: Code, Name, Read by (manual, amr or ami), Billing cycle and the Reader.
- Utilities › Premises › New: the Address, City, State / region, Postal code and Country; Parcel (APN) and District if you use them; the Type; the Read route and Walk order (the order the reader visits); Latitude and Longitude for the map; and the Services it can take.
- Premises can be imported from a file like any list.
Then add the meters (see Meters, reads, AMR files and read exceptions) and open the accounts (see Opening a utility account, and starting, stopping and moving service).