Here’s What You Need to Know about Using Utility Bill Tracking Software to Help Your Company Manage Complicated Utilities Data

• Standard
• Utility Bill Tracking, Utility Tracking Software, Vendor Management

One of the most complex tasks every company has to consider involves managing and paying for utilities. Utilities billing can get complicated very quickly, especially when you’re managing more than one facility.

When managing multiple facilities, there’s a good chance you’re going to have to deal with different types of data coming from each location. Your facilities could have multiple accounts with one vendor, or be spread across several different providers. Some of your facilities might have contractual pricing obligations while others don’t. Some use all the utilities offered by a vendor, while some only use a select few.

You need a way to organize all this data effectively while still paying the bills on time. The easy answer is to leverage utility bill management software. This type of software can help any business, but it’s particularly valuable and important for organizations that are multi-location.

However, not every type of automation software can provide all the features your company needs for utilities tracking and billing. You’ll need to research your options carefully and find one that includes all the features to effectively manage your utility vendors. We’ll cover how to do that in this article, along with outlining the perks you can expect from using quality utility bill tracking software.

Reasons to Use Utility Bill Tracking Software

• When you’re managing multiple types of utilities bills, especially in multi-location companies, the data gets very complicated. There are multiple charges, commodities, taxes, units of measure, vendors, and more to keep track of. Software provides a solution to making sense of all this complicated data.

Utility tracking software isn’t just about paying the bills. It’s also about managing all the data associated with utilities billing. Utility tracking and bill management software helps your company in a variety of ways:

• Utilities bills contain a lot of useful data. Tracking and storing all that information is simple with utility account tracking software. The software system stores all the data in a digital database that is sharable and searchable in ways that non-digital data is not. This provides convenient access to your utilities history. It also makes it easy to access data for tasks like budgeting, auditing, and analysis.
• If you’re not using automation, then utility bill tracking involves a lot of mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks. It’s also prone to errors that can so easily creep into spreadsheets. Process automation software saves time and effort while also reducing the risk of errors. Employees can use utility management software to compare bills, run reports, and check for errors in a matter of seconds instead of spending hours or days pouring over paper records.
• High-quality utility bill management software is very flexible. You’ll be able to configure it to organize your utilities information in the way that’s most helpful for your business. The software also scales to your needs, easily adapting to however many company locations and utility vendors you need to add.

Your Automation Options

There are several companies out there that let you create logs, track spend, or make adjustments. However, they’re not all a good choice for your business. If the bill tracking software isn’t efficient, using these services often consumes extra time and can cause payment delays. The last thing you want to do is try and upgrade the way you manage utilities billing and find out the “upgrade” actually makes things harder!

NextProcess is the smart alternative. Our extensive technology toolkit provides a complete solution to your utilities billing needs. We’ve developed a simple and manageable method to combine granular reporting details with automated payment processing. And it works just as well when managing multiple facilities as it does for one.

Major changes in technology have increased the popularity of cloud-based accounting and management tools. This type of system requires less support from your IT department and is accessible from virtually any location with internet access. Real-time updates will give you the most current data with the click of a button. NextProcess’ cloud-based solutions bring this immediate access to your utilities management so missed payments and contract disputes can become a thing of the past.

Perks of Utility Bill Management Software

NextProcess’ Utility Bill Tracking Software is a supplemental feature within our Accounts Payable automation system. It also acts as a standalone product. Harnessing this technology, you can:

• Manage your various utility providers and the types of services you utilize in a centralized location. You can link multiple facilities to the same software using Cloud-based vendor tracking technology.
• Capture usage detail for electricity, gas, water, waste services, and any combination in between.
• Process without delays. All of the utility data is captured within the same standard 24-hour turnaround time established for our Accounts Payable Invoice capture. Speedy processing means you won’t face any late fees or disconnect issues with your utility vendors.
• Customize how the system handles utility invoices, such as automatically generating a unique invoice number and automatic GL coding.
• Set preferred locations and expected invoice receipt dates. When the system doesn’t receive documents on time it sends you an email notification so you can follow-up with vendors.
• Check for errors by using your new utility management system as a bill auditing software.

More Complete Reports

Another major benefit to using Utility Bill Tracking Software comes from the reports it generates. The system automatically collects data and sorts it into an easy-to-use database. This helps you with forecasting and budgeting, and also makes audits easier. Our system lets you:

• Identify changes in usage patterns. The more detail you collect about how utilities usage fluctuates, the better you’ll be able to forecast expected utilities use. Sudden changes can also alert you to problems, such as a high water bill signaling there may be a plumbing leak.
• Easily compare how different facilities are using utilities. This lets you see which facilities are more energy-efficient and which are more wasteful so you can focus improvement efforts.
• Create custom reports to provide line level detail of utility consumption, billing rates, and off peak-discounts.
• Reports can be provided to relevant employees daily via email or loaded into a data warehouse through an automatic file feed. It’s your choice.
• Generate reports within the utility bill tracking software to analyze usage detail by vendor, location, time periods, and more.
• Regional, district, or area managers can automatically receive reporting information about their facilities for quick and simple review.
• Standardize methods of presenting reports (which is harder to do when you’re using spreadsheets). This helps you present unbiased results to auditors and/or clients.
• Leverage data related to utilities use to create more accurate budgets, track expenses, and manage supplier contracts.
• Use the accurate, easy-to-access data to calculate energy savings and ensure your company’s energy use complies with EPA energy benchmarking requirements in cities like Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia.

Take The Next Step Toward Intelligent Utilities Management

With reliable utility billing tracking software on your side, you’ll soon be managing your utilities with ease. You can also start leveraging utilities data to benefit your company in a variety of ways. And you can take start taking advantage of these benefits quickly.

All the perks of NextProcess’ Utility Bill Tracking Software come in a user-friendly package that is fast and simple to implement. NextProcess handles the set-up and we’re responsible for maintaining the software, so there’s no burden on your IT department. Plus, we designed the system for ease of use and you can customize it to your company’s policies and employee preferences.

If reading this article convinced you that your company needs utility bill management software, then get in touch with us here at NextProcess. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and set up a free demo so you can see how our system works before you buy anything.