Before starting this section, be sure to complete How do I create utility bills?
Updating utility bills will apply the current read from Manage Meter Reads to the current pending bills. Various rate changes, default charges, and consumption settings can be updated if the default setup was changed after bills were created. Contact BIAS Support for any non-standard processing, as necessary.
Go to Utility Billing > Update Utility Bills
Update Meter Readings and Save Existing Reads are checked by default the first time the tool is run for a billing date. This will save any manual reads already added to bills and move all the other current reads from Manage Meter Reads onto the bills.
- Check Update Meter Readings to update all bills with the current read from
- Check Save Existing Reads to exclude any current read already on a bill from being overwritten from
- Verify Billing Date
- Leave Route blank to update all routes or select Route to update individually.
- Click Run
There are many other functions on this screen that are not used very often, don't let them confuse you!
Other Functions:
- Check Update Estimated Water Use to update all pending water bills with estimated water use from each customer account. If estimated water use is changed while bills are pending, run this tool to update all bills with the estimate.
- Enter number of Months if billing for multiple months worth of consumption and bills have not been set accordingly. Then check the box for each utility effected. Months is typically set when creating bills but can be updated here.
- Check Update Garbage Rates to update garbage rates on pending bills then click Run. Garbage rates are typically excluded from automatic updating due to significant manual work that goes in to each billing.
- Check Use Estimate to estimate reads based on a prior period's consumption. The Estimated Reads dropdown menu will appear to the left of Use Estimate. Select the Billing Date to use as the basis for the estimate. Fill in the percentage of prior consumption to use in the Water and Electric field. For example, to use 105% of the prior month consumption, enter 105 and make sure the prior month billing date is selected in the dropdown menu. This is useful for months that reads cannot be retrieved during winter or due to technical issues.
