Zortec Utility Billing Intermediate 1. In this session we will discuss the Zortec Utility Billing...

Zortec

Utility Billing

Intermediate 1

In this session we will discuss the Zortec Utility Billing System.

Topics include the exception edit reading report, billing process, adjustments,

balancing the A/R and several

other items.

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Meter Reading

Spin Off Reports

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From the main UB menu select Meter Readings, Spin Off Reports, Meter Readings.

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Use this report to verify the readings that have been

imported to the billing system, before updating to the

accounts.

Meter Reading

Exception Edit Report

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This report is used to check high/low consumption, zero usage, no bill accounts, etc.

It also updates the Skip Next Bill flag on screen 2 and 5 of New accounts to determine when it

should be billed.

We strongly suggest you check this report before starting the billing process.

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From the main UB menu select Meter Readings, then Exception Edit

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Cycle# – Enter the cycle number to print. From/Thru Acct – Enter an account number

range. Billing Month – Enter the month you are

billing…this is important!

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Edit High/Low Consumption – Most of the time this will be Y.

Fix Problems with Service Dates – Y. This will ensure the ‘hidden read dates’ that print on the bill are correct.

Print Problems with Service Dates – Y will print a report of the accounts with date problems.

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Services to Include – Place an “X” above the services to print or leave blank for all.

This is a new option on the report. This is useful if you only want to see a few services on the report, like only water or gas.

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The report shows the service number and meter ID with the errors, the previous and current readings, current and average consumption.

Below are some of the more common errors on the report.

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Errors that require correction before you start the billing process include:

Curr or Prev Reading Month Error (usually caused by updating the readings with the wrong month)Curr Reading < PreviousPrevious Reading Missing

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Billing Process

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From the main UB menu select Billing, Calculate Bills.

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• Billing Period – the current bill period.

• Fuel Adjustment – gas fuel adjustment.

• Cycle – enter cycle or leave blank to enter individual routes.

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• Bill Finals – N if you do not want to bill them.

• Billing Date – date of the billing.• Due Date – date bills are due.• Routes to Bill – will default in if you

entered the cycle # or enter individual routes.

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After the routes are calculated, any errors will be reported on the Billing Calculation Report.

The errors below are caused by either entering the wrong Bill Month or not correcting errors on the Meter Reading Exception Edit Report.

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Individual Rebill is useful when you need to correct a few accounts without recalculating the entire cycle.

Make the corrections needed to the problem accounts, then select Individual Rebill and key in the account number.

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The Billing Register should be checked for any errors, especially large bill amounts.

The Top 100 Billed by Service is another good report to check for accounts that could be

overbilled.

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When all errors have been corrected, you are ready to print bills.

Or if you outsource bill printing, create the mail file.

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Have you ever been printing bills and the printer jams or you run out of bills?

Did you know you can restart the printing where it stopped?

Under both Print Bills options, “Starting Account Number” allows you to restart the printing where it stopped.

Even if you print bills in zip code order, enter the starting bill number to continue.

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Do you need to reprint a single bill?

Both of the Print Bill options will allow you to print a single bill.

Enter the account number(s) at the bottom of the screen. Escape when all the numbers have been entered and the bills will print.

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After all the bills have been printed, the mail file created (optional) and the E-bill file created

(optional), you are ready to update the billing.

This step will update the billing transactions to the customer accounts, add the data to the

Statistical Report and Period File/Daily Transaction Report.

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The Bill Print Exception Report must be printed before the billing can be updated.

The error below will display if you attempt to update the billing before running the Bill Print Exception Report.

Another possible error message is:

“Error: [All Bills have NOT been PRINTED - Aborting: ]”

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Select the Bill Print Exception Report.

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Our sample report below is showing errors under the ‘How Printed’ column.

What do these errors mean?

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Billing Update Errors 

• When the billing register is printed, the first byte of the code on the Bill Printed Exception Report prints an R which means Printed on Register. If the billing register has not been printed, the first byte of the code prints an *.

• If bills have not been printed, the second byte of the code on the report prints an *.

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Billing Update Errors 

If you HAVE printed the billing register and the bills (or built the mail file and/or E-Bill file) and you still get errors on the Bill Print Exception Report, try the following to resolve the error:

• Reprint the Billing Register to the spooler (printer 99).

• Reprint the Bills to the spooler.

Most of the time, one of the above options will clear the errors.

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Billing Update Errors 

• When all the errors have been corrected, the Bill Print Exception Report will display ***All bills have been printed: Edit has been passed!! ***

• You are now ready to update to the accounts.

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Select Update Accounts

This is the point of no return!

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• Enter the Bank Draft Packet name• Energy Credit Packet (if applicable)• Answer Y to ‘Do You Wish to

Update Accounts’• If there are any errors detected

during the update, they will print on the update report.

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Billing Adjustments

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From the main UB menu select Billing, Adjustments.

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Billing Adjustments are used to increate or decrease the dollar amount and/or consumption billed on an account.

Adjustments are reflected on the Statistical Report.

Adjustments should NOT be used to change the balance on an account (payment applied to

wrong account, etc.)

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• Enter the Account Number. F3 will take you to Search & Select.

• The Adjustment Date will be the current date. • Reference Number is optional.

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• Service Number must be entered. The available services are listed to the right. The Service Status is also listed.

• Service Name will appear when Service Number is chosen.

• Tax/Rate to Adjust will default in the current tax and service rate code. This can be changed if the rate code on the account has been updated and the adjustment should be reflected on the previous rate code.

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• Current Billing Period is the current billing month and year.

• Subtract 1 from Stat # Bills should be Y if you are not going to bill the service and you wish to remove it from the current month's stat total.

• Add 1 to Stat # Bills should be Y if service was not previously billed and you wish to add it to the current month's stat total (needless to say these cannot both be Y!)

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• Adjust Current Billing should be determined by the billing period requiring the adjustment. If the current billing period is 03/2014 but the adjustment is being done for the 02/2014 billing Adjust Current Billing should be answered N and the period to adjust should be 02/2014. To make sure the correct billing period is being used, on screen 2 verify the readings and amount billed.

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• If you receive the error “Adjustment Period Cannot be > Last Period Billed”, this means the account has not been billed for the period selected under Current Billing Period.

• Change Adjust Current Billing to N.• Period to Adjust is the billing period the adjustment

applies to.

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• If you receive the warning “Detail Record does not exist for the period; Continue? Y/N”, in most cases you will answer Y to continue.

• The Detail Record is created when the billing is updated. In our test account, it was never billed for 2/2014 so there is no detail record. Answering Y to continue will create the record.

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• Amounts to be adjusted off (or subtracted from the total) should be entered as negatives in whichever field or fields are applicable.

• Amounts to be adjusted on (or added to the total) should be entered as positives in whichever field or fields are applicable.

• A Reason may be entered if desired. If a correction is being made to a previous adjustment, a reason should be entered explaining why.

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• NOTE: If you are adjusting a service that is charged sales tax, be sure to adjust the tax amount also.

• The #1 reason for the Sales Tax Report to be incorrect is adjusting a taxed service and not adjusting the tax!!

• OR adjusting the tax amount incorrectly.• When in doubt, always check the sales tax code on the

service being adjusted.

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• How do you correct an adjustment that was entered in error or incorrectly?

• To correct, we suggest you enter the adjustment again, OPPOSITE of the original entry.

• This will clear/wash out the transaction.• Then it can be rekeyed correctly.

• Did you know, the #1 case of ‘record locks’ (that cause A/R to be out of balance) is having the account you are adjusting, pulled up on another screen?

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• When asked, "Do you want to update this account?" or something similar, make sure to answer Y or the adjustment will not be accepted. If in doubt, check the customer's account transactions to see if the adjustment was accepted.

• Note: Adjustments immediately affect the customer's account balance and transactions. For this reason, adjustment packets should never be deleted or updated using Cash Receipts packet options. You may scroll an adjustment packet. The adjustment packet must be processed before the stat files are updated.

Balancing A/R

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Balancing the utility billing system is a very important part of maintaining your billing system.

This process ensures that customers receive credit for all transactions posted to their accounts and that the

balance due is correctly updated to reflect these transactions.

This process should be done on a daily basis. At the very least, it should be done weekly.

You will need the A/R Report total from the last working day of the previous month. 47

A/R Balance

as of ___________ $____________________________

(last day of previous month)

A/R Balance Today $____________________________

Date: __________

Difference: $____________________________

Net Change in A/R: $____________________________ 

Difference: $____________________________ (should be zero)

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UB Balance Worksheet

1. Process all packets, including adjustment packets.

2. In Cash Receipts, print the Cash Recap report.

3. In Cash Receipts, print a Daily Transaction Report for the current date.

4. In Delinquent Accounts, print an A/R Summary Report.

5. Fill in the worksheet.

6. Deduct the Accounts Receivable grand total for the current date from the Accounts Receivable grand total for the last day of the previous month.

7. This total should match the Month-to-Date Net Change in A/R on the Daily Transaction Report.

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If you DO NOT use Night Process

• If you are out of balance:• Be sure all packets have been processed.• Be sure the cash recap has been processed.• Be sure you printed the Daily Transaction Report was

printed for the correct date.• Be sure you are using the Month-to-Date Net Change

in A/R.• If you are still out of balance, it is most likely a record

lock.

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If you DO NOT use Night Process

1. From the spooler, print the Cash Recap report and Accounts Receivable Report.

2. From Cash Receipts, print the Daily Transaction Report using the previous work day’s date.

3. Fill in the worksheet.

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If you DO use Night Process

• If you are out of balance• Check Packet Control to see if there are any

adjustment packets that were not processed in night process. If there are adjustments entered the previous day but not processed, make a note on the worksheet and it should balance the next working day.

• Be sure that you are using the Month-to-Date Net Change in A/R.

• If you are still out of balance, it is most likely a record lock.

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If you DO use Night Process

• The most common causes for the A/R to be out of balance is a “record lock” on an account or unprocessed adjustment (AJ) packets.

• “Record lock” term that you will hear often when discussing balancing problems with support personnel.

• This occurs when a transaction is processed to an account while another session of the software has the same account pulled up.

• When a record lock occurs, the transaction will post to screen 4 but the balance due on screen 1 is not updated.

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A/R Out of Balance

• Check screen 4. Do you see the same amount repeated over and over in the Balance column?

• Notice how the -20.00 appears on every other transaction?

• If this account did not have a record lock, the balance column would be blank where you see the -20.00.

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How can you recognized record locks?

Use the “Find Specific Transaction Amounts” utility to look for transactions equal to the amount you are out of balance. This option is in 52-Utilities, 2-General Utilities.

• Enter the transaction year. • Enter the date range to search (required). First enter the date

you are out of balance in the From and Thru fields.

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How do you find accounts with record locks?

• If this doesn’t find the account, widen your date range to include two working days before you were out of balance through the current date.

• Enter the amount to search for as a positive amount on one line and a negative amount on another line.

• Print the report and check the accounts listed for record lock.

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How do you find accounts with record locks?

• Since the most common cause of record locks is when penalty or service adjustments are posted, check accounts that received adjustments on the day you are out of balance.

• Print the Miscellaneous Transaction Report to include all adjustment transaction codes (range 600-750) and look for transactions totaling the amount you are out of balance.

• Keep in mind that if an account receives a service and tax adjustment, these are listed separately on the report and need to be added together to see if they match the amount you are out of balance.

• Another common cause of record locks is writing off an account twice. 57

How do you find accounts with record locks?

• Contact Support and we will assist you in correcting the record lock.

• You should not attempt to correct the record lock with an adjustment. This will only lead to more balancing issues.

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How do you fix record locks?

• The customer’s balance due is incorrect. • The customer either owes too much in that they did

not receive credit for adjustments/payments posted to reduce the balance due.

• Or they do not owe enough in that their balance was not updated to reflect adjustments/penalty/billings posted to increase the balance due.

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What happens if record locks are not fixed?

Correcting ACH Entries

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When the billing is updated, the bank draft packet and the ACH Amount Records (what gets sent to the bank),

are created.

If you adjust an account that is on bank draft, you will need to update that account in both the bank draft packet

and the ACH Amount Record.

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To update the bank draft packet, from the main UB menu select Cash Receipts, Packet Handler, Update mode.

Packet ID—enter the packet name

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Notice our packet contains 191 entries.

If you know the account you need to change is somewhat in the middle of the packet, you can enter, say 100, in the ‘Starting Record Number’.

This will keep you from having to F1 and scroll through the entire packet.

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Select the account needed from the scrolling list.

Enter to the ‘Amount’ field and change it to the new balance due on the account, after the adjustment has been posted.

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Now we will update the ACH Amount Record.

From the UB main menu, select ACH Bank Drafts, Bank Draft Pre-Notes/Amounts, Update mode and “A” for amount.

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Enter the account number and change the “Bill Amount” to the new balance due.

Record A/R To History

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The Utility Billing system as the ability to maintain AR history including aging amounts and amounts by service.

This option creates an entry in the AR history file for each account including the date the balance was recorded, aging amounts and amounts by service.

An AR Summary and AR Detail Report can be printed from these records.

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A/R History

Why would you need this option?

How many times have you wished you could reprint the A/R Detail for your auditors?

It allows you to print/inquire on accounts “As Of” the date it is recorded.

This is a very good option to add to your Fiscal Year End procedures.

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A/R History

The option can be added to your Night Process menu and be updated each night.

Or it can be ran from the Period End Process menu, Record A/R History.

•Leave the From/Thru Account Numbers blank for all•A/R Record Date will be the current date•Record As Permanent should be Y

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A/R History

To access the data recorded to A/R History, select Delinquent Accounts from the main UB menu.

There are 3 options for viewing the data:

•A/R History Summary Report—works like the regular A/R Summary Report.•A/R History Detail Report—works like the regular A/R Detail Report.•A/R History Inquiry.

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A/R History Reporting

Both reporting option work the same way as the regular A/R Detail and Summary Reports.

To print the A/R for a certain date, enter it in the “A/R History Date” field.

If you forgot to run the A/R Detail for the auditors on June 30, you would have the ability to reprint it from History--as long as you recorded A/R to history for the day in question!!

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A/R History Reporting

A/R Date/Mode is the date you wish to inquire on.

Enter the account number needed for F9 for a scrolling list.

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A/R History Inquiry

Screen 1 shows the A/R History as of 10/31/2012.

The A/R balance displays for the History date and the Current date.

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A/R History Inquiry

Screen 2 shows the A/R History Service Distribution as of 10/31/2012.

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A/R History Inquiry

Archiving Accounts

Archiving Accounts

When scrolling customer accounts, do you see lots of terminated or write off status accounts with no balance due on them?

Archiving Accounts

•The Archive Old Accounts option in Utility Billing is used to move accounts that have had no activity for a specified period of time from the active customer file to the archived customer file.

•This cleans up customer inquiry.

•It can also be used to permanently delete terminated or written off accounts with no balances on them.

Archiving Accounts

Before Archiving

After Archiving

There are now only three terminated accounts from 001-23500 that appear in inquiry.

Archiving Accounts

•Archived Accounts Listing– Includes accounts that were archived

– Includes accounts that were not archived due to a balance

Archiving Accounts

•The Archived Accounts Listing shows account 001-23500-13 with the message “Service AR has balance”. The total due is zero but there is distribution on screen 3.

Accounts like this can be cleaned up using the AR Refund Process. Contact

LG Support for assistance.

After the balances are cleared, the archive process can be ran again to archive

this account.

Archiving Accounts

•Archiving customer records removes the customer records from 1-Customer Inquiry and makes them accessible only through the Period End Process, Archived Customers option.

•Archived customer records cannot be included in regular reporting options and cannot have transactions posted to them

•The transactions and service details/history are not included in the archiving process.

Archiving Accounts

•Use this option with caution! It is recommended that you run the program in test files first.

•Accounts that have been archived can be “unarchived” on an individual basis as needed. The transactions are restored but most of the service detail/history information is not restored.

•Purging (deleting) terminated or written off accounts removes the customer records from the normal inquiry option. Once a record is purged, it cannot be recovered or seen in the utility billing system.

To Archive Accounts

Enter the range of account numbers to be included in the archiving.

Use the Archive Compare Date to archive accounts that have had no transactions since a particular date.

If the date 12/31/2010 is entered, accounts with transactions after this date will not be archived. Accounts with transactions on or before this date will be archived.

To Archive Accounts

The Archive Process Date is typically the current date. This date is recorded on the customer records to indicate when the accounts were archived.

To archive accounts with particular statuses, enter the correct letter in the Status(s) to Archive field. Typically this field would be W for written off accounts and T for terminated accounts.

To Archive Accounts

Purge Accounts and Archive Accounts options work together.

To Archive Accounts

• If Purge Accounts is answered Y and Archive Accounts is answered Y, the accounts are deleted from the regular UB files and are added to the archived files which are accessed through Period End Process, Archived Customers.

• If Purge Accounts is answered Y and Archive Accounts is answered N, the accounts are deleted from the regular UB files and are NOT added to the archived files. This means that the accounts are purged from the system and cannot be seen or restored.

• If Purge Accounts is answered N and Archive Accounts is answered Y, the accounts are left in the regular UB files and are added to the archived files. You really wouldn’t want to do this unless you planned to immediately go back and run this option again with Purge Accounts answered Y and Archive Accounts answered N to delete the accounts from the regular UB files and not archive them again.

• If Purge Accounts is answered N and Archive Accounts is answered N, nothing is done to the accounts but a report prints to show you a list of the accounts that will be archived or purged based on the options selected.

To Archive Accounts

To archive only accounts with particular services, enter an X under the Services to Archive. To Archive Accounts regardless of services, enter an X under all services.

To Archive Accounts

Leave the DBMS Codes fields blank.

Answer “Is this screen correct?” Y to continue, then enter a printer number. A report of archived accounts will print.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Accounts Listing

Archiving Accounts

•Period End Process, Archived Customers displays the archived accounts. Details can be seen for each account.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Customers-Screen 1 Master Information

This screen contains most of the information from customer inquiry with the exception of the amounts. This screen also shows the archive date and archived by information.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Customers-Screen 2 Master Codes

This screen contains most of the information from the regular customer inquiry option with a few exceptions.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Customers-Screen 3 DBMS Information

This is not used and the screen will be blank.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Customers-Screen 4 Messages

This screen contains the customer message fields from screen 11 in customer inquiry.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Customers-Screen 5 Service Information

This screen displays service summary information. The detailed service information and history are not available.

Archiving Accounts

Archived Customers-Screen 6 Un-archive Account

This screen moves the customer record back to regular inquiry and removes it from archived accounts.

When the account is “unarchived” the transactions are viewable as is some of the service detail and service history information. Not all of the service information is viewable.

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