Accrual overview

An accrual bill is a gap-filling estimate used to close out a fiscal period before receiving the actual utility bill.

Accruals is a licensed feature and is in the Bills module.

You can use an accrual bill to book expected expenses before they are received or paid. Accruals also help generate fiscal period profit and loss statements and provide a more accurate close to each fiscal period.

Accrual calculation notes

  • Use per day is the default method for calculating accruals and is described below.
    • Use is calculated from the same-month average daily use from up to the last three years. Unit cost is calculated from last month's average unit cost (AUC).
    • If a partial bill is in your current accrual period it counts as one of your historical bills.
    • Until you have over one year of bills, the accrual engine uses the most recent bill to calculate use per day.
  • If you prefer a more simplified method using the most recent bill contact technical support. In this method your use and cost is created from the most recent bill.
  • If an account has more than one meter assigned, the accrual engine creates an accrual bill for each of the meters on the account.
  • Accruals are calculated using the configured system currency.

Exclude accounts

You can include or exclude any account from generating accrual bills. Include is the default option when you create an account or edit with the Actions menu.

 

Exclude bills

You can exclude abnormal bills from accrual calculations, select the bills from the bill list and use More actions.

Accrual filter

Add a filter to include or exclude accrual bills in reports and dashboards. Accrual bills are not included in the Buildings and Meters module.

Generate accrual bills

In the Bills module click Accrual Log and then Generate Accrual Bills.

Two options are available for creating accrual bills.

  • Test mode ensures any accrual bills created are not exported to an accounting system without further intervention. Bills are created in a maintenance batch and are approved, voided, and marked as exported.
  • Live mode creates bills that can be exported to an accounting system. Bills are created as unapproved and unexported.

Test accrual bills

All bills in Test mode are ignored by the account reformatter. The following stops the bills from being processed by the reformatter:

  • All bills are in a MAINT_ batch, reformatters ignore MAINT_ batches
  • All bills are void, reformatters ignore void bills
  • All bills are marked as already exported

  1. You can update the batch name. MAINT_  is added for test mode batches.
  2. Set your topmost and commodity filters.
  3. Set the Earliest start date. If there is no qualifying bill that ends on or after the earliest start date, SKIP creating an accrual bill. 
  4. Set the Last accrual date. This is the last date included in the generated bill, the actual end date of the bill is one day later. Remember all utility bills, including accruals, run from noon on the start date to noon on the end date. To avoid double counting days, the end date is not counted. 
  5. Turn on Average Unit Cost Safety Net. 
    An average unit cost (AUC) safety net test compares last month's AUC with the average AUC of the three prior year same-month values. When enabled, when last month's AUC varies more than defined variance, the average of the last three years is used instead. This option is not available when using cost per day.
  6. Bill used for calculations. The last non-voided bill is the default.
  7. Billing period. 
    —Automatic uses the midpoint of the bill.
    —Manual lets you choose the month and year.
  8. Accounting period.
    —Match billing period (default)
    —Manual lets you choose the month and year.
    —None

Live accrual bills

  • Have an accrual flag that cannot be removed.
  • Are included in Powerview charts.

Accruals Log

The Accruals Log automatically reports on settings and filters applied for each run of the accrual engine. You can undo an accrual process with the Accrual Log.