Determine The Meters' Start And Stop Meter Reads

The system retrieves a start and stop meter read for each meter linked to the service agreement during the bill period.

The start read can come from any of the following sources:

• If this is the first bill segment for a service point, the start read is defined on the service agreement / service point relationship.
• If the meter was installed at an existing service point during the bill period, the start read is defined on the service point installation history. This happens when a meter is exchanged for another meter during a bill period.
• Otherwise, the start read is the same as the end read on the customer's previous bill segment.

  The stop read can come from any of the following sources:

• If this is the final bill segment for a service point, the stop read is defined on the service agreement / service point relationship. Refer to Service Agreement - SA / SP for more information about the start and stop reads.
• If the meter was removed from an existing service point, the stop read is defined on the service point installation history. This happens when a meter is exchanged during a bill period. Refer to SP / Meter Installation for more information about installing and removing meters while a service agreement is in effect.
• Otherwise, the system looks for the next scheduled meter read date. Not just any date can be used, the system attempts to find a read that meets the following criteria:
  • Is after the end date of the last bill segment plus the rate's frequency's minimum offset days, and
  • Is on/before the cutoff date of the bill

  If no such meter read date could be found, the service agreement is skipped. Otherwise, the system then looks for a read that exists in the time period that starts X days before the service point's next scheduled meter read date, and ends Y days after the scheduled meter read date (where X and Y are the rate's frequency's minimum and maximum offset days, respectively).

  If more than one such read exists, the selection is based on the priority of read types (the read with the highest priority read type is selected). For example, verified reads are preferred to regular reads. Refer to the Description of Page section under Meter Read - Main for more information about read types and their billing selection priority.

• If no read can be found, the system estimates consumption and generates a corresponding estimated meter read if:

  • The service agreement allows estimation.
  • The user allows estimation (if the bill is produced as a result of an ad hoc request);
  • The bill cycle schedule (if one is being used) allows estimation.
  • The register is not a peak register (this is an artificial constraint, but most organizations do not estimate peak consumption).
  • The rate schedule allows estimation;
  • The register is subtractive. This is because only subtractive registers are self-correcting. For example, assume we estimate a reading of 100 and the next real read is 102, the customer will only be charged for 2 units. However, consider what would happen if we estimated a consumptive register - the consumption associated with the next real read would be billed in its entirety.
  • The register does not measure peak consumption.
  • Negative consumption is not allowed for the SP/meter combination.

The number of days in the bill period is then computed (this equals the start date of the bill segment through the date of the end read). If this is less than the SA type's minimum number of days on a bill, the service agreement is skipped.