Excluding Bill Line Items (Taxes) from Power View Average Unit Cost

Question: Is there a way to have a tax bill item included in the bill total, but excluded from the Average Unit Cost (AUC) in the Power Views? For example, a bill for 100 kWh has a total charge of $110, where $100 is the cost for the kWh consumed and $10 is Tax. Currently, the Power View shows an AUC of $1.10, rather than an AUC of $1.00.

Answer: Yes. However, it is important to consider that many reporting organizations may consider taxes as part of the cost of doing business. Therefore, it is recommended that taxes be included in the AUC calculations. That being said, if it is necessary to exclude taxes from the AUC calculations, those taxes will need to be assigned to the Account Level, rather than the Meter Level, during EnergyCAP Bill Entry. There are two methods that can be used to have the taxes assigned to the Account Level.

1. Set up a Special Charge for the tax. Do not include a Bill Line Item for the tax on the Bill Entry template. During bill entry, enter the Pay Amount, consumption, the cost associated with consumption, and other bill information and related costs. The remaining balance for the bill will be the Tax Amount. Save the bill. During the save process, the EnergyCAP software will prompt to determine how to distribute the remaining balance. Select the “Assign Special Charge to Account” option and then select the appropriate Special Charge (for example, “Canadian PST Tax”).
2. Create a ‘Tax’ Template (commodity = Money) to track the Tax Bill Line Item. Assign this ‘Tax’ Template to the Account and have another commodity Template assigned to the Meter. The Bill Entry Screen will show a Bill Line Item for the User to enter the Tax data allocated to the Account, and then it will show the Bill Line Items for the User to enter the commodity data allocated to the Meter.

Disadvantages with moving Taxes to the Account Level:

• The General Tab Power View numbers for the Facility Tree are Meter-Based and will not match the General Tab Power View numbers for the Cost Center Tree, which are Account-Based.
• The General Tab Power View numbers for the Cost Center Tree will not match the Commodity Tab and Monthly Tab Power View numbers, because they are Meter-Based.
• Report Totals between the Analysis Reports (meter-based) and the Billing Reports (account-based) will not match.
• Budgets and Cost Avoidance calculations are meter-based. Therefore, they will not include taxes.