Wednesday 14 June 2017

Assure yourself your energy invoices are correct

Companies cannot disregard the importance of energy bill validation.

Energy costs are on the rise and non-commodity charges are forecasted to grow and account for roughly 60% of a business’s electricity invoice. An ever-increasing amount of different charges are appearing on invoices, such as unit daily, TNUoS, BSUoS, DUoS, RO, CM, and CfD charges, as well as Transmission and Distribution losses and FiT tariffs.

While commodity prices may fall, you will still be paying more as most of the cost on the invoice will be non-commodity.

Are you sure you are paying what you should?

Are you validating your invoices beyond just the math? If your answer is yes, then you are ready for the increasingly confusing invoices. If the answer is no, then you need a solution that provides you with the assurance that your invoices are correct.

Let us examine what is key to look after aside from the jargon-filled charge names:

• Site information
• Meter information
• Commodity cost
• Non-commodity costs
• Thresholds (cost and consumption)
• Future legislation and cost

Each of the above segments has subsections to focus on but these six are key. The main takeaway is that you need to be sure the amount you are paying is what you should be paying.

Doing invoice validation manually is a cumbersome task where attention to detail is of crucial importance. You also need to stay up-to-date on legislation changes. All of this either takes time away from your day-to-day core business or obliges you to hire someone full-time to do it in-house, affecting your cash flow.

Can outsourcing help?

Another solution would be to outsource energy invoice validation to a consultancy with a system built specifically to target each of these elements and scrutinise the invoice fully. This system could then assure you that you are paying exactly what you should or perhaps see a refund due to incorrect billing.

Imagine total control and easy reporting capabilities available from anywhere at any time, an energy cost control platform at your fingertips providing you with full insight and enforcing accurate billing. You could then shift your focus to your core business activities.

The right platform

ASSURE from Alfa Energy is such a platform. It was built specifically for targeting every item on the invoice along with all the segments. ASSURE has an intuitive interface for staying on top of queries being dealt with on your behalf, as well as savings generated using that service. You can run different reports, customising them to suit specific sites and/or meters.

Why not take back control of your energy costs while retaining focus on your core business? Contact Alfa Energy for more information at 020 3031 0051 or sign up to receive more information at https://www.alfaenergygroup.com/components/com_assure/.

Written by Samer Muratovic, Bureau Services Manager.

This is a promoted article.