It's Not Just a Back Office Problem, it's a Missed Opportunity

The Utility Bill Processing service is a turnkey solution for energy management and utility administration. By taking on the burden of processing and verifying utility bills, Direct Energy is able to ‘mine’ your energy consumption and cost data for efficiency opportunities and error reduction.

This service enables organization wide energy management– no matter which utility or regulatory jurisdiction your facilities are located in. Process utility bill data once and leverage it many times:

• Online Accounting reports for your back office: payables, accruals, allocations, budget tracking, etc.
• Online access to bills, 24 hours after they are received
• Positive validation of each utility tariff and retailer rate plan
• Energy consumption and cost tracking
• Compare and benchmark facilities within a group and subgroup
• Auditable energy emissions reporting
• A cost effective database to support your energy procurement strategy
• Process multiple bill types and formats - Electricity, Gas, Water/Sewage, Propane, etc. and eliminate your time spent keying and consolidating

Utility Bill Processing Benefits

Reduced Bill Handling Costs

• Bills processed and in your A/P in 24 hours
• Web access to reports and bill images
• No IT costs in servers, software, etc.
• Never key billing data again!!!

• Cost Centre, and other G/L accounting functions performed
• Accruals adjusted for irregularities
• Outsource activity in a problem area (payables and accruals)

• Online analysis tools
• Energy management with high quality data
• CO2 emissions by energy type
• Take the first steps towards becoming progressive in Energy Management
• Track improvements and identify issues

• Reconciliation, follow up on billing anomalies
• Every bill is recalculated against the current tariff
• Utility bills handled by specialists

• We will either interface your Accounts Payable or use Pre-Approved Payment - you control your own cash
• We will anticipate and alert utilities when bills are not received on time

Need help leveraging the data and assessing opportunities?

Let Direct Energy’s experts monitor and evaluate your energy data on schedule with our Energy Interpretation Service

UBP Reporting Services Online

Direct Energy offers a self-serve web site to access and assess your billing data. This web site simply assembles the raw data through the UBP process into information you can use for:

• Energy & Emissions Reporting
• Accounting & Payment
• Budgeting & Forecasting
• Energy Management & Efficiency Opportunities
• Energy Procurement Strategies
• Monitoring & Verification

Through the UBP service, Direct Energy will provide the following standard automated reports and services via the Web Site:

• Year-to-date actual cost (configurable units of measure)
• Year-to-date actual consumption (configurable units of measure)
• Consumption per Square Foot - Energy Intensity, Building Energy Performance Index (BEPI), Energy Benchmarks, etc.
• Cost Per Square Foot – Cost Intensity, Building Energy Cost Index (BECI), Cost Benchmarks
• Year-to-date accrued cost versus budget (dependent on available data)
• Year over year comparisons for each facility against the available baseline data or previous year
• Energy consumption conversion to Greenhouse Gas Emissions tonnage
• Reports allowing comparisons data at a Corporate, Regional, District, Franchisee and Facility specific level
• Basic annual energy cost and consumption information for use in various analyses

For the Utility Bill Processing Service Direct Energy will:

• Prepare the Letters of Authorization that are required by Direct Energy to engage your energy utilities as your agent for the purpose of providing the service
• Direct Energy will receive your utility billings directly from the utility
• Direct Energy will scan and enter utility billing data into the software program as bills are received from your utilities on a daily basis
• Multiple checks for accuracy are applied. Error/issue identification
  • Broken meters
  • Misapplied rates
  • Misread meters
  • Consumption variances
• When billing errors are identified, the relevant utility will be contacted for reconciliation
• The delivery of energy commodity, and utility-related information via a web-based delivery mechanism
  • Bill Images
  • Meter Data
  • Location information
  • Prorated reports to match calendar months or other reporting periods
  • Accounting Reports
  • User selectable criteria
• Technical support via online form, email, fax or by telephone
• Capability for users to update relevant location information (floor area, production units, etc.)
• User Authorization capabilities through individual user
• All bills will be returned on a monthly basis

For more information on how Direct Energy Business Services can help you find the Energy Management solution that's right for your organization, call 1-888-393-5553 or contact us online.