Adding and Defining a New Commodity

Adding the Commodity

Adding a commodity involves changes to the Unit System in EnergyCAP. ! Great care must be taken when relating a new commodity to existing units of measure, in order to avoid errors that could potentially skew reporting on energy data! Make certain to devise and execute a quality process to verify unit system changes. Such a process could include running reports on bills using the new commodity, and comparing measurement data from multiple commodity types (and including the new commodity) in PowerView rollups for multiple places/accounts.

There are several reasons why it would be advantageous to add a new commodity. The most common is that the available commodity list does not adequately mirror the accounting structure of an organization. It may be desirable to separate out certain aspects of a commodity. For example, a "Trash" meter may not be adequate when separate reporting and/or accounting for Recycling fees is desired. Perhaps there is a need to associate more than one GL code with the Trash meter. To do this most efficiently, it may be appropriate to 'break down' a single commodity into a group of related commodities.

EXAMPLE: Your organization has six Trash meters. After setting up the new commodity, you use the Account Wizard to create six more Recycling meters, each linked to the same place and account as its counterpart Trash meter, but using the new commodity with a different GL code for your accounting purposes. 


During bill entry, the recyling charges are associated with the Recycling meters and the Trash charges are associated with the Trash meters.

Procedure:

1. Click Tools > Unit System. The Unit System Editor window will open.
   
   
2. Click the Commodities tab.
3. Click the Plus  icon to open the Create Commodity window.
4. Enter the new commodity Code and Display name.
5. Click OK to save the new Commodity

Defining the Commodity

Once the Commodity has been created, it must be associated with other Commodities, appropriate units of measure, and (where necessary) conversion factors to common units of measure used in EnergyCAP reports and PowerViews.

To define the new commodity:

1. Click Tools > Unit System.
2. Click on the Equivalencies tab.
3. Click the Plus button to open the Create Equivalence window.
4. Click the General tab and select the new commodity name from the Commodity drop-down list.
5. Select an appropriate Class from the drop-down list to define the new Commodity. Class should ordinarily be Usage unless this is a special-purpose entry.
6. Select an appropriate Unit Type from the drop-down list to define the new Commodity. Unit type will most often be energy, heat or volume. A Unit type of Counter can be used for information-only entries such as meter readings.
7. In the Relationships list box, click to check the Obervation Types that are valid for bill entry templates involving the selected Commodity.
8. In the Units list box, click to check the units of measure that are valid for the new Commodity. In some cases, it may be desirable to create a unique unit of measure to track the new commodity.
9. If multiple units of measure have been selected, it will be necessary to designate one as the default UOM. Click on the name of the unit to highlight it. Then click the Make Default button.

Setting up Conversions

Conversions are important when it is necessary to relate the commodity’s unit of measure from one Class to another Class (i.e. Therms of Natural Gas to CCF of Natural Gas is a translation of Class Heat to Class Volume.) Also, Conversions are useful to relate units of one commodity to another through the global rollup of commodities to Energy measured by MMBTU. There are other reasons to use Conversions, but these two are the most common. If reports are not turning out as expected, there is a chance the conversions have been set up incorrectly. Or it may be necessary to ADD a conversion in order for EnergyCAP to properly report on the new commodity’s data.

1. The Global Default is Energy-Usage-Heat in units of MMBTU (millions of BTU). If it is necessary for the new commodity’s usage to ‘roll-up’ to units of MMBTU when included in summary reports, a conversion factor must be added!
2. To enter the conversion factor, click the Conversions tab from the Create Equivalence window.
3. Then click the Plus button to add the new conversion. The Create Conversion window will open.
4. Select Energy-Usage-Heat from the Convert TO: drop-down list. Then input the multiplier to convert from the new commodity’s ‘native’ units of measure to MMBTU. 
   OPTIONAL: In the Add this constant: window, enter the value that should be added to the product of commodity and multiplier to complete the conversion.
5. Click OK to save and close.

The new commodity will be listed in the Template Manager (Accounting>Templates). Create the new template to match the invoice received from the vendor. If difficulties are encountered, it may be necessary to revisit the Unit System Editor and verify the units of measure and Classes associated with the commodity. Contact EnergyCAP, Inc. for additional assistance.

Validating Commodity Setup

To ensure that the Commodity has been set up correctly:

1. Run the SU11 Commodity List report to verify the presence of the new commodity.
2. Set up a new account/meter for the new commodity using the Account Wizard. Then input and save one bill for the account with the new commodity.
3. Use the BL01A report to verify the correct GL assignment for the new commodity meter.
4. From the Account Manager, click the Commodity tab for the Account with the new commodity and verify that the new commodity is displaying the correct charts and values. If applicable, select the Cost Center for the Account from the Navigation tree and then click the Summary tab. Verify that the fiscal year totals for the account are displaying correctly. Do the same for the Commodity and Monthly tabs and associated charts/values.
5. OPTIONAL: Locate the associated meter for the new commodity and view the METER Monthly and Bills tabs to ensure that the use/cost data is displaying as expected.
6. Using an AP interface? If so, export the bill(s) entered for the new commodity to make sure the GL assignments and/or interfaces are functioning properly with the new commodity.