Meter Reads and Billing
When it's time to create a bill for a customer, the system looks for an appropriate meter read for each metered service point on or around the scheduled meter read date. If a single read is found, billing uses it to calculate consumption. However, challenges exist if either of the following two situations occurs:
• When multiple meter reads exist on or around the scheduled meter read date.
• When no reads exist.
Sorting out multiple reads is easy. Every read contains a read type. Each read type has an associated priority code. If multiple reads exist, billing uses the read with the highest priority. If multiple reads of the highest priority exist, one is selected at random.
Fastpath:
For more information about read types and their billing selection priority, refer to the Description of Page under
Meter Read - Main.
Sorting out the situation when no reads exist isn't so easy. When no reads exist, billing generates an estimated read (derived by estimating consumption) if all of the following conditions are true:
• The initiator of the bill allows estimation.
◦ If a bill is created as a result of a bill cycle schedule, the bill cycle schedule must have an estimation date on or after the current date.
◦ If a bill is created real time from one of the bill pages, the requesting operator must specifically allow estimation.
• The service agreement allows estimation.
If estimation is allowed, the billing process estimates consumption as of the scheduled meter read date using the same algorithm used for the purpose of high / low checks.
Whenever billing estimates consumption, it creates a meter read to represent the estimated consumption. You can see this meter read on the meter read queries.
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