Audit List with Explanations

Bill Audits

The following are recommended bill entry audits: 3, 8 and 46

Audits 1-2, 5-7, 9-10, 14-19, 30-35, and 37-39 are covered by consolidated Audit #46 and therefore are not recommended for individual use.

1. Abnormally Long Billing Period: Billing period is longer than recent bills. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user defined variance.

2. Abnormally Short Billing Period: Billing period length is shorter than recent bills. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance.

3. Bill Cost Duplicate: The cost on this bill is the same as the most recent bill for this account. Check for duplicate. Alert created if the cost is the same amount as the last bill.

4. Invoice Numbers Duplicate: Invoice number is a duplicate of a prior bill. Check for duplicate. (only when invoice number <> null).

5. Gap in Billing Dates: Compares billing start date for the billing period with most recent bill in the system for the same account. Alert is created if variance between the dates exceeds the user-defined variance.

6. Billing Ends After Today: Billing period end date is later than today’s date.

7. Abnormal Bill Due Date: Due date (if not null) is abnormal. Either it is earlier than the bill date OR exceeds end date by more than the user-defined variance.

8. Possible Estimated Bill: Alert created if the bill is not marked as an estimate and either the total usage is the same OR the use/day is the same for a user-defined number of bills in a row.

9. Use/Day Exceeds Last Year: Calculates current average daily use for each meter and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical use.

10. Cost/Day Exceeds Last Year: Calculates current average daily cost and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical value.

11. Highest Cost/Day: Compares the cost/day with the previous highest cost/day for a user-defined number of billing periods. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance and current total cost exceeds minimum. A negative variance indicates less than historical cost.

12. Highest Use/Day: Compares the use/day for each meter with the previous highest use/day for a user-defined number of billing periods. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance and current total cost exceeds user-defined minimum.

13. Bill Overdue: Calculates the expected entry date of the next bill for an account. Alert is created if today is more than a user-defined number of days past the expected entry date and the total cost exceeds the user-defined minimum.

14. Highest Cost/Unit: Compares the cost/unit for each meter with the previous highest cost/unit for a user-defined number of billing periods. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance and current total cost exceeds user-defined minimum.

15. Demand/Day Exceeds Last Year: Calculates current average billed demand/day for each meter and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical value.

16. Highest Demand/Day: Compares the billed demand/day for each meter with the previous demand/day for a user-defined number of billing periods. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance and current total cost exceeds user-defined minimum.

17. Abnormal Billing Period: The assigned billing period is outside of the service dates of the bill.

18. Use/Day Under Last Year: Calculates current average daily use for each meter and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical use.

19. Cost/Day Under Last Year: Calculates current average daily cost and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical value.

21. Bill Maximum-Minimum Cost: Total cost for each bill is compared with defined high/low limits or baseline year data.

22. Bill Maximum-Minimum Use: Total consumption for each bill period is compared with defined high/low limits or baseline year data.

23. Bill Period Demand: Compares current demand with historical bills. Alert created if variance from historical bills selected exceeds user-defined variance limit. Severity 1 – 4 fails with results. Use Type Class to specify Demand type.

25. Average Daily Cost by Bill Period: Calculates average daily cost (total cost divided by number of days in the billing period) and compares it with historical bills. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance. Severity 1 – 4 fails with results. The audit will always check and compare the same billing period from last year, as well as the immediate prior month and any ‘lookback’ month(s) specified as -1 or -2, etc.

26. Average Daily Use by Bill Period: Calculates average daily use (total usage divided by number of days in the billing period) and compares it with historical bills. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined variance limit. Severity 1 – 4 fails with results. The audit will always check and compare the same billing period from last year, as well as the immediate prior month and any ‘lookback’ month(s) specified as -1 or -2, etc.

27. Bill Maximum-Minimum Demand: Unique demand values for each bill period are compared with defined high/low limits or baseline year data.

28. Consecutive Zero Bill Use: If the use/consumption is zero for X months in a row, the account may be inactive. This alert identifies accounts that may be inactive and monthly service charges may be wasting money.

29. Same Average Daily Bill Use: If the average daily usage is exactly the same for a number of bills in a row, this is an indicator that the bill is estimated, indicating the meter failed or is blocked. Often times, vendors over-estimate bills.

30. Average Unit Cost by Bill Period: Calculates average unit cost (total cost divided by total usage) and compares it with historical bills. Alert created if variance from historical comparisons exceeds user-defined limits.

31. Bill Unit Cost High-Low: The average unit cost (total cost divided by total usage) for each bill is compared with a defined high/low limit or baseline year data.

32. Overlapping Bill Periods: Two consecutive bills have billing period dates that overlap by more than the specified number of days. Normally, dates should never overlap because the end date of one bill is the start date of the next. Possible data entry or billing error.

33. Multiple Bills in Period: Normally one bill will exist in each billing period. The application defines a bill period as monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or other. This alarm sounds if there is more than one bill in a period.

34. Abnormal Bill Period Length: The billing period length is shorter or longer than normal length. The normal length is set for each bill during setup (monthly, semi-annual, etc.). This audit flags any bills with periods that exceed the normal period by user-defined number of days.

35. Bill Load Factor: In theory, the load factor can never exceed 100%, so this is often an indicator of a data entry or billing error, in which either (1) the billed demand is too low, or (2) the electricity usage is too high.

36. Bill Cost Total: Compares the bill total (pay amount) to the sum of all line item costs.

37. Demand/Day Under Last Year: Calculates current average billed demand/day for each meter and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical value.

38. Cost/Unit Exceeds Last Year: Calculates current/cost unit for each meter and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical use.

39. Cost/Unit Under Last Year: Calculates current cost/unit for each meter and compares it with the same billing period last year. Alert created if variance from historical bills exceeds user-defined limit. A negative variance indicates less than historical use.

41. Meter Reading Reconciliation: Meter template tracks start/end meter readings and billed usage. Alert created if billed usage varies from usage calculated via meter readings. A negative variance indicates calculated use less than entered use. This audit requires a special setup in order for it to function properly. Meters that you want to use this audit on should be setup with a Bill Template which has the following Observation Types for the Start Reading, End Reading, Multiplier (optional), and Usage.

Start Reading Observation Type should be: STARTREADING

End Reading Observation Type should be: ENDREADING

Multiplier Observation Type is: MULTIPLIER

Usage Observation Type should be: USE

When a bill has been entered on a meter which has these observation types, the audit will calculate the difference between the Start and End readings, multiply by the multiplier value, and calculate the usage. If the calculated value violates the variance set for the audit, the audit will report the problem.

For more information about setting up Bill Templates, see the Bill Templates topic group.

42. Rate Schedule: Reconciles billed cost with calculated cost.

43. Cost via Unit Cost: Meter template tracks cost per unit and usage. Alert created if billed cost varies from the cost calculated from the unit cost and usage. A negative variance indicates calculated cost less than entered cost.

46. Bill Entry Audit: A single multi-purpose audit that checks each bill multiple ways to catch bill entry errors.

For additional details regarding Audit 46, see the Audit 46 topic.

47. Duplicate Control Codes: Looks for duplicate entries in the control code field for all accounts. This is important when the control code field is used to hold the file name of the scanned image file.

48. Actual vs. Budget audit: Compares actual values to the values set in the budget version that you select in the audit.

49. Bill Flag audit: Lets you flag bills with certain line items on them such as Late Fees, Deposits, Adjustments, etc.

This audit looks at the underlying Observation Type of the line item on the bill to see if it exists. This audit also contains a cost parameter.

Channel Audits (Interval Data)

20. Meter Channel Maximum-Minimum: Unique channel values for each meter are compared with defined high/low limits or baseline year data.

24. Meter Channel Change from Historical: Compares current channel data with historical. Alert created if variance from historical data exceeds user-defined variance limits.

40. Channel Limit Exceeded: Values in a channel are totaled in a start/end date range. Alert created if total value exceeds a maximum limit.

44. Channel Setback: The channel data before and after the setback time is examined to see if the setback was performed and the difference is greater than the setback amount. Alert created if difference is less than expected amount.

45. Channel Startup: The channel data before and after the startup time is examined to see if the startup was performed and the difference is greater than the startup amount. Alert created if difference is less than expected amount.

How Percent Variance is Handled in EnergyCAP

There are 18 Auditors with a “Percent Variance” property.

Two of these do a one-way comparison – assumed always positive

• 01_DaysTooMany: Only compares one way
• 02_DaysTooFew: Only compares one way

The remainder do a two-way comparison – Greater Than when the Percent Variance value is Greater Than Zero and Less Than when the Percent Variance value is Less Than zero.

• 09_UPDOvrYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 10_CPDOvrYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 11_HghCostPDay: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 12_HghstUsePDay: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 14_HighCstPUnit: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 15_DmdPDOvrYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 16_HighDmndPDay: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 18_UPDUdrYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 19_CPDLssYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 23_BILL_PD_DEM: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 25_BILL_PRD_ADC: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 26_B_PERIOD_ADU: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 30_BILL_AVUNTCST: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 37_DmdPDLssYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 38_UCost_YrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0
• 39_UCstUndrYrAgo: Compares GT if Pct Variance > 0 and LT if Pct Variance < 0