Calculation / Audit Read Details

We use the term "calculation / audit read" to describe a meter read that appears on a bill segment but for which no "real" meter read exists. The following points provide examples of when calculation / audit reads may be required:

  • Some retail companies upload meter read details when they upload pass through charges. They do this in order to print the read details that were used to calculate the pass-through charges. It should be stressed that these reads are not used to derive billable consumption (because the charges have already been calculated). These reads are only uploaded for printing purposes and therefore "real" meter reads are not created. We categorize these reads as "calculation / audit reads". Refer to Billable Charge Upload - Read Details for more information about uploading meter reads with pass-through charges.
  • You may have interval billing rates where you're required to print the intervals that contain, for example, the intervals with the three highest peak charges. To do this, you setup a "calculation only" calculation rule to find these intervals and create a "calculation / audit read" for each such interval. Refer to the RCCL-CVTOSC algorithm for an example of such an algorithm that would be plugged-in on a "calculation only" calculation rule.
  • You may have interval billing rates that map interval consumption into time-of-use consumption. If you use a base-package algorithm to do this (refer to the RCTMPS and RCTMS algorithms for examples), a "calculation / audit read" is created for each resultant time-of-use quantity. These algorithms do this in case you need this information for bill print purposes or in case you have multiple bill lines that need to use the same mapped consumption.
  • You may have situations where a meter has been temporarily removed from a service point but the business practice dictates that usage for the service point should be calculated during billing.
  • When integrating with an MDM, meter reads are stored outside of CCB and usage calculation requests are sent to MDM during billing. Reads used in the MDM usage calculation might be returned to CCB as part of the usage response. These reads are used for printing purposes and therefore "real" meter reads are not created in CCB. Instead these reads are captured as "calculation / audit reads". Refer to Usage Requests for more information.

Both real and calculation / audit reads are stored in a bill segment's read details (the name of the table is CI_​BSEG_​READ ). The following points describe the differences between these two types of rows on this table:

  • Calculation / audit reads may or may not reference a service point.
  • Calculation / audit reads do not reference the prime key of a real read.
  • Calculation / audit reads have a usage flag with a value of Calculation .
  • Calculation / audit reads do not require a UOM code. If a UOM is not supplied, an SQI must be supplied.

If you encounter other scenarios during your implementation that necessitate calculation / audit reads, you can develop bill segment type and calculation rule algorithms to add additional calculation / audit reads to a bill segment's read details.

In order to avoid confusing end-users, we do not show calculation / audit reads on Bill Segment - Read Details (this page only shows "real" reads). Rather, calculation / audit reads are shown in a separate section on Bill Segment - SQ Details.