Which Energy Billing System is Right for You?

Everybody receives energy bills at the end of each month, whether you rent or own a home. These bills can be the source of much confusion because they could vary from month to month. In this article, we will look at how Energy Billing System with our innovative cloud billing software lowers the costs of your business on one side and lowers the consumption of your clients and their user experience on another side. 

Energy Billing System and how does it work? 

In the most basic definition, The Energy Billing System (EBS) is software that offers energy and utility costs and consumption in different time intervals. It allows users to view current and historical information about their consumption, compare payment plans, and see trends over different periods.  

What does it include? 

• Specialized solutions for all kinds of utility billing needs 
• Energy & utility billing (water, electricity, gas) 
• Property Management (cost allocation, fees, and taxes) 
• APIs for integration with other systems 
• Integration with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) 
• Possibility to customize and add extra functionalities 
• 24/7 support to help you set up and maintain a system 

Importance of Tariffs and Dynamic Tariffs  

For example, electricity is sold to consumers via a tariff linked to different conditions and terms. A tariff is a daily charge for domestic customers, a cost per unit rate, or both. Here we can also mention Time of Use Tariffs that control different rates depending on the energy used. 

Designing dynamic tariffs can be more complicated than for large consumers due to significant infrastructure requirements and political economy issues surrounding the electricity supply to individual citizens and households. Nevertheless, dynamic tariffs are becoming more prevalent to efficiently integrate more variable renewable energy sources and manage the grid constraints. 

Why does your business need a Billing system?  

There are many reasons why your business should adopt the billing system. In fact, if your business wants to be at the top, it should complete its activities on time and satisfy customers’ needs.  

Automated billing process and reporting   

In fact, without automated billing, your business often cannot optimise sustained business growth. That’s why every company interested in development needs to automate. The correct energy billing system helps automate billing functions such as generating invoices for customers on a recurring or one-time basis for different utility types. This can include invoicing, payment collection, provisioning, dunning, approvals, and customer-event energy and utility consumption triggers. 

Invoice analytics  

We live in a world full of data. These data need to be analysed frequently and correctly to identify the actual costs and savings opportunities. Good analysis guides good decisions, which raises maturity and competitiveness. With the right billing system that allows easy and practical analytics of invoices, it is possible to identify the primary consumers, know consumption patterns for each unit, and set more realistic goals in the future. All these analytics are available in a few clicks.  

Reduced time spent (speed up invoicing and increase the cash flow)   

The correct billing software can also simplify any billing process by integrating time tracking and invoicing in a single platform. Typically, businesses are still using different spreadsheets for invoicing. In the worst case, some of them are still using Excel spreadsheets. When you think it’s time to implement this kind of billing software, you’re no longer must go through such a time-consuming and painful billing process.  

Some of the leading causes of Energy Billing Errors 

Don’t let energy and utility billing errors silently bleed your business. We mention the leading causes that can inflict trouble on your business to avoid these errors. 

Old meters 

Old energy meters can still provide incorrect readings. Some properties have ancient meters still in place, and they gradually become less efficient and reliable over time. As with any piece of technology, utility and energy meters can and do go wrong. A fault ‘smart’ meters can provide erroneous energy reading too. An energy supplier should do all they can to fix these errors as soon as possible.   

Human errors 

The more complex the billing process is the more chance for human error. That’s why companies use automated systems instead to avoid mistakes and less opportunity for human errors. However, some errors occur when meters are replaced, and the new meter has a different multiplier than the previous or if the last multiplier was incorrect, to begin with.  

Company neglect 

The most significant cause for incorrect billing is a result of energy suppliers’ neglect. Many errors are caused by suppliers applying the wrong tariff details to an account.  

Think about your infrastructure as well…   

On the consumer side, the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home technology are driving increased interest in energy usage, motivating consumers to monitor their consumption and assert more control over it. Utilities and other energy stakeholders are developing mobile apps that educate consumers about energy usage, allow them to control thermostats remotely, act as portals to request service calls or pay bills, and more. Some apps even tap into metering data to paint a picture of a consumer’s energy usage. 

Start using the smart meters instead

Today’s smart meters also enable utilities to check grid status instantly and manage many problems remotely. Automated Meter Reading (AMR) has given way to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or smart metering, providing utilities with a constant connection to meters.  

Easier invoicing of product bundles  

With a smart billing solution, you can help utilities automate their business processes and enhance customer experiences. Tridens’ Energy billing system will automatically import time entries in bulk to its system and rapidly create invoices out of these time entries without the need to move from one application to another. You can also reach these invoices to your clients from the same software and also combine multiple utility services, for example, energy like electricity and gas connected and payment plans.  

With Tridens’ product catalogue, creating packages and bundles can’t be easier with point and click configuration. With our easy-to-use configuration tools, you can quickly develop products, manage existing products and contracts, set pricing and discounts, and schedule rate changes. Then set dependencies and exclusions to pinpoint exactly how and what is sold, saving administrative time and eliminating costly errors. 

How to choose the best billing software  

For more information on starting and managing energy & utility bills, get in touch with our specialist. Even better, request a demo and dive deep into energy billing software. Follow us on social media, especially LinkedIn, to keep up to date with the latest news and updates in the energy industry.