Account level charges

These guidelines help ensure you place charges in the correct location (account vs meter) and maintain accurate cost calculations in reporting. Placing fees incorrectly at the meter level can inflate unit costs.

By following these guidelines, you will maintain more accurate billing data and ensure that late fees or other non-use charges do not distort your meter-level analysis.

What are account charges?

Account charges are one-time or periodic charges that may not be part of your bill format. A charge is typically assigned at the account level when it does not have a link or relation to the use or demand on the bill.

Filters in dashboards, reports, and bill lists are available to include or not include account charges.

Some examples of account charges are:

  • Late fees
  • Deposits
  • Credits
  • Connection charges

Meter unit cost does not include account charges.

You can add account line items to:

  • An existing bill 
    • Edit a current bill to include an account charge line item.
  • To the bill format
    • Customize the bill format so certain account line items appear every time you create a new bill for this account.
  • At the vendor level
    • Add account line items that will always appear on new bills for a specific vendor.
    • Helps maintain consistency in reporting.
    • You can copy these line items from one vendor to another as needed.

When to use account charges vs meter charges

Account charges

Account charges are appropriate when the cost is not tied to a specific meter's use and does not factor into Meter unit cost calculations. For example, a late fee should be at the account level if it applies to the entire bill rather than a particular meter.

Meter charges

Meter charges are applied when the cost is related to use or demand on a specific meter. For example, a demand charge for a specific meter.

Incorrect placement of late fee on a meter

There are 3 electric meters on this bill. This month shows an incorrectly placed late fee on the first meter. This results in an inflated unit cost for the first meter.

Meter Powerview

Meter Powerviews do not include account line items when calculating unit cost.

Account Powerview

Account Powerviews include all charges when calculating the unit cost.

Correct placement of late fee

The late fee for this bill is added as an account line. Notice the correct unit cost for the meter.

High-level steps to update a bill format

  1. Select the account and enter your utility bill information.
  2. Click the pencil for Edit Account Bill Lines.
  3. Add your new line types and captions, click Save.
  4. Enter the dollar amounts for each account bill line.
  5. Save the bill.
  6. Apply the new bill format. Select how you want to apply the new format.
  7. Click Apply and Close.