How is billing period determined?

Accurately identifying the billing period for each bill is important. The billing period determines how use and cost are reported and graphed. UtilityManagement assigns a billing period month as bills are entered. Rules determine the billing month assignment.

Determining the billing period for some utility bills is straightforward because the start and end dates fall in one month. For the majority of utility bills, each bill does not cover the exact calendar month; days from two (or more) calendar months are included on the bill.

Used in reports and graphs

Many graphs and reports for utility billing data are based on the billing period. When you have a bill dated June 15 to July 15, choosing the proper billing period can be complicated. In terms of monthly reporting, is it a June bill or a July bill? And what about quarterly billing? How does UtilityManagement decide?

Why use billing period rules?

• To avoid gaps in billing periods when no gaps in billing dates exist.
• To avoid more than one bill in the same billing period.

Affects of overlapping bills

Any chart, graph, or report displaying per day values can be affected by overlapping bills. Other possible issues include:

• Cost Avoidance baseline processor
• Cost Avoidance savings processor
• Creating a budget
• Any Powerview with per day values
• Accrual creation
• Benchmark charts with per day cost and use

Billing period rules

Rules determine the billing period as a bill enters UtilityManagement. These rules apply regardless of the entry method.

Default rule

UtilityManagement splits the difference between the start date and end date; the month the middle day falls in marks the billing period month.

This is the only logic applied when the number of days in the billing period is greater than or equal to 45.

If the number of days in the billing period is less than 45, the default rule is looked at first, but more rules are applied.

If the default rule results in a month being skipped and

• if the split the difference date is equal to or less than the 5th of the selected month and
• if the bill Start Date is earlier than day 1 of the selected month THEN
• the billing period month is moved back one month.

If the default rule results in a second bill for the billing period and

• if the split the difference date is equal to or greater than the 26th of the selected month and
• if the billing period End Date is greater than day 1 of the next month
• the billing period is moved forward one month.

If all these rules don't work for you, an alternative is to choose the billing period during bill import with one of the four choices listed below.