Accrual overview

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

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

Use accruals to:

1. Book expected expenses before bills are received or paid.
2. Support accurate profit and loss reporting.
3. Improve fiscal period close accuracy.

Accrual bills fill in gaps by estimating bills based on historical usage and cost data.

Accrual calculation notes

• Use per day is the default calculation method.
  • 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).
  • Partial bill is in your current accrual period it count 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 customer 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.

Prevent accrual bill creation

To prevent accrual bills you can:

• Mark the account as inactive. Bills can still be created for inactive meters.
• You can unlink the meter from the account
  • Add an end date for the account/meter relationship or
  • Delete the relationship

Exclude accounts

Accounts can be included or excluded from accrual generation.

Include is the default setting when creating or editing an account.

Exclude bills

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

Accrual filter

• Reports and dashboards can include or exclude accrual bills.
• Accrual bills do not appear in the Sites and Meters module.

Generate accrual bills

1. In the Bills module.
2. Click Accrual Log.
3. Click Generate Accrual Bills.

Accrual modes

Test mode

• Bills are created in a MAINT_ batch.
• Bills are approved, voided, and marked as exported.
• Bills are not sent to accounting systems.

Live mode

• Bills are unapproved and unexported
• Bills can be exported to accounting systems

Test accrual bills

Test bills are ignored by the account reformatter because:

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

Generate accrual bills steps

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. This determines the time frame for the accruals process. See the table below.
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

Bill used for calculations details

Live accrual bills

• Accrual flag cannot be removed.
• Included in Powerview charts.

Accruals Log

• Records settings and filters used for each accrual run.
• Lets you undo an accrual process.