Overview: Exporting Bills from EnergyCAP to an AP/GL System

About 50% of EnergyCAP Enterprise clients export billing data to their organization Accounts Payable or General Ledger system. The specific process and necessary software tools can be developed during software implementation. First, the information is entered or received into EnergyCAP. EnergyCAP audits the bills for billing errors, flags the issues and then passes the bills onto a supervisor for approval. When approved, the billing data is exported to the AP/GL system for payment. Once the AP/GL system pays the bills, information such as payment date, check number, etc can be imported back into EnergyCAP. The result is a complete bill record.

There are several advantages to doing business this way:

• Bill entry efforts are simplified. Many organizations enter billing data twice – once in an energy information system and again in their AP/GL system, doubling their efforts. By using EnergyCAP’s bill export capability, the organization saves valuable manpower by avoiding duplication of efforts.
• EnergyCAP becomes a “smart” front end to the AP/GL system. AP/GL systems are designed to facilitate the accounting process but not to analyze energy information. In most cases, as long as the vendor and date are correct, the system will issue payment. But if there are billing errors or if usage is irregularly high, the AP/GL system may not catch those types of savings opportunities.
• EnergyCAP can catch billing errors before payment is made. Many organizations pay the bill and look for errors later. When a mistake is caught, the payment has already been made. The organization has to recover the cost, which can take months. But with busy schedules, some organizations don’t go after their credits. They throw their money away because they don’t have the time to recover it. Catching a billing error before payment can save time and money.
• Consumption issues are spotted right away. With EnergyCAP’s audits and automatic benchmarks, you can spot problem facilities immediately. In one case, EnergyCAP benchmarks led a city energy manager to discover water pipes that were pouring directly into a drain. He quickly turned off the water. Although they eliminated future losses, they had already wasted thousands of dollars. AP/GL systems will not pick up many consumption issues but EnergyCAP will.

EnergyCAP can export to any AP/GL system. The company has extensive experience mapping data to and from a variety of different accounting systems. Typically, EnergyCAP exports to an intermediary file. A custom application reformats the EnergyCAP data to fit the AP/GL system and then imports to the system. When bringing data into EnergyCAP from the AP/GL system, the process is the same. This method ensures EnergyCAP’s compatibility with any system and at the same time protects the AP/GL system’s security and integrity.

NOTE: Bill Export and Import for AP/GL integration is a customized process for each organization. For pricing and implementation details, and/or a list of the applications interfaced with to date, contact EnergyCAP sales at sales@energycap.com.