Dev Update: November 2024
November
Twenty Twenty Four
How To Build
Energy Software
(A monthly dev update)
Each month we coax our dev team into a room (using an elaborate set of food based traps) and get them to tell us what they’ve been working on. Then we write it all down for you to read.
This month:
1. Improved COT Submission For The Customer Portal
2. Tender Consumption Added To Bulk Imports
3. Clearer Note Visibility Within The Customer Portal
4. Customer Financial Details Logged In History
5. Save & Add Button Added To Quick Add Batch
6. Log Call Button Added To Customer Snapshot
7. New Bill Validation Checks
8. Better Error Checking Within Meter Reads
9. New Mapping For PE Solutions Bills
10. New Referral Partner Commission Types
Welcome to the November issue of our monthly dev update. Depending on whichever side of the pond your heart lies, November typically makes you first think of either Fireworks or Thanksgiving.
We'd say on the UtilityClick dev team that we've felt a bit of both.
There's been the 'pop' 'pop' 'pop' of some really illuminating new features, like the UI adjustments made to make note visibility from Activities to the Customer Portal more obvious.
And there have been new features added to be thankful for too. Ones that aim to save time and effort, like the addition of Tender Consumption on Bulk Imports OR the new 'Save & Add' button within Quick Add Batch for BILL VAL.
For this and much more, take a look at everything we released throughout November:
Improved COT Submission For The Customer Portal
Our COT submission tool (within the customer portal) has proved useful for many of your customers but you've told us it would be great if we collected a few more questions within the form.
You've also told us that it would be useful upon a successful COT submission if an Activity could be auto-created with the details of the submission. Good news. We've added a new optional feature that ticks both these boxes. Contact your account manager to find out more.
Built for: PRO CRM
Tender Consumption Added To Bulk Imports
Previously there was no way to bulk update tender consumptions. We've added a column to Data Imports > Updates > Tenders so that multiple tenders can be overwritten. If the cell is empty then the system will leave the consumption as it is. When an update is made in this manner, you'll also see a change to History & Notes with the details of the change.
Built for: PRO CRM
Clearer Note Visibility Within The Customer Portal
We've built the Activity module to be as comprehensive as possible. With that brings complexity, especially around which Task and Activity types allow their subsequent notes to be visible within the customer portal.
We've added some better UI so that now, when an Activity is created with a Task or Activity Type that isn't compatible with the customer portal, the user is shown via a greyed-out checkbox. We're hoping this will help offer less confusion about which combinations can be sent to the customer and which can't.
Built for: PRO CRM
Customer Financial Details Logged In History
When a customer's financial details (e.g. Direct Debit) are created, updated or deleted, you can now see a 'History & Notes' log (via the Select Action button) of what's been changed and when.
Built for: PRO CRM
Save & Add Button Added To Quick Add Batch
We love efficiency gains and you told us it's annoying that when using the 'Quick Add Batch' feature, once completed, the popup disappears and you have to find and reload the feature to add another quick batch. We've made a simple change that means you can now choose to "Save & Add New Bill". Getting you right back to where you want to be quicker.
Built for: BILL VAL
Log Call Button Added To Customer Snapshot
Within the Leads module of our CRM you're able to quickly log any and all calls made to a specific prospect. You told us that it would be great to also have this feature within the Lead Snapshot section (when viewing each individual lead), rather than returning to the main Lead page each time. Consider it done.
Built for: PRO CRM
New Bill Validation Checks
We've added two new validation checks should you wish to utilise them. The first checks if the Customer Name on the invoice/batch matches the Customer Name against the corresponding contract in the system.
The second, checks if the First Line Of The Billing Address on the invoice matches Billing Address Line 1 against the relevant Customer within the system.
Built for: BILL VAL
Better Error Checking Within Meter Reads
When a customer first submits a meter read via the customer portal, we've added additional error-checking to help the customer spot when they've misentered their meter read.
Built for: PRO CRM
New Mapping For PE Solutions Bills
We've added new mapping details so that PDF bills from PE Solutions (previously Pozitive Energy) will now be correctly validated within the system.
Built for: BILL VAL
New Referral Partner Commission Types
We've created two additional commission types to use with your referral partners. There's "Fixed Fee" which will calculate a fixed fee regardless of the consumption or commission put in place by the agent.
And there's "Combined" which will accommodate the scenario when both a p/kwh commission and a fixed amount is required.
Built for: PRO CRM
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!
A Very Merry Attack Of The Energy Pylons
A Very Merry
Meet Billy.
(The likeness to our CEO is purely coincidental.)
He's been out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. He's grabbed a Nintendo Switch, a lightsaber, a karaoke machine and seven other wonderful gifts.
On Billy's walk home, laden with gifts, something very strange happens. The energy pylons that he passes... they're coming alive and they want his presents!
An idea strikes – the karaoke machine! Quickly powering it up, he begins to sing. What follows is a sound so haunting that even the evil of the energy pylons are powerless to resist...
(Yes, it is quite an unbelievably convenient plot point but we're pretty sure this did actually happen.)
Can you help Billy defend off the angry horde of pylons with just the power of his voice (and a few extra power-ups)? In return, he'll happily share one of his Christmas gifts with you.
Unfortunately our Christmas giveaway is over but you can still play the game for fun.
Play Now
The Prizes
& Final Prize Winners
Congratulations to the following winners who held the top spot on the leaderboard when the competition closed.
1
Nintendo Switch Handheld
Currently owned by Pylon Paul who survived for 1565 seconds
2
Premium Lightsaber
Currently owned by Laura Jane who survived for 956 seconds
3
Karaoke Machine
Currently owned by WillBU who survived for 882 seconds
4
£/$50 Amazon Gift Voucher
Currently owned by MWesten who survived for 801 seconds
5
Klask Board Game
Currently owned by Bailey T who survived for 783 seconds
6
Instant Print Camera
Currently owned by smburns08 who survived for 773 seconds
7
Remote Control Stunt Car
Currently owned by amybu who survived for 728 seconds
8
MP3 Player
Currently owned by LucyJane89 who survived for 670 seconds
9
The Very Best Of MeatLoaf
Currently owned by EpiNick who survived for 601 seconds
10
Lynx Gift Set & 24 Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Currently owned by Leanne who survived for 560 seconds
Disclaimer
This offer is open to UK and USA residents only.
Your data will only be used for internal purposes and NEVER sold or supplied to a third party.
To ensure fairness we are limiting this promotion to employees and colleagues of the energy management, energy supply and energy procurement industries. For verification purposes, we suggest you use a company email associated with the energy industry. We may contact you directly for verification.
We reserve the right to remove this promotion at any time or swap prizes to that of equal value if exact prizes can’t be sourced.
We love funny names as much as the next person but any names appearing on the high score table that could be considered rude, vulgar or offences will be removed and no prize will be given.
Unfortunately this competition is not open to UtilityClick employees or their family members.
Dev Update: October 2024
October
Twenty Twenty Four
How To Build
Energy Software
(A monthly dev update)
Each month we coax our dev team into a room (using an elaborate set of food based traps) and get them to tell us what they’ve been working on. Then we write it all down for you to read.
This month:
1. Supplier Matrix Contract Pads: New Fields Mapping
2. Quick Add Activity
3. Bulk Uplift Tool Improvements
4. History/Notes for Vendor, MOP and DC
5. Easily Re-Assign Open Activities
6. 'Need A Refresher?' Utiliversity Content Tab
7. A Total Count Added to All Pages
8. Additional Auto-Calculations in Quick Add Batch
9. Bulk Creation and Amendments to Products
10. Lead Questions - Ability to Bulk Export
Welcome to the October edition of our regular look back at everything released last month. Just like the "years" in the All Star hit song by Smash Mouth: the features start coming and they don't stop coming.
This month you'll find a variety of features designed to help improve efficiency, like Quick Add Activities, Bulk Uplift improvements and Account Manager reassignment tools. There is also one particular release that in all honesty, some of us wish to put far out of our minds (Hello 'Supplier Contract Field Mapping'). It's been a long hard slog with many manhours spent but the team has done a great job and they are all now updated.
For this and much more, take a walk through everything that went out in October, right here:
As Smash Mouth would say:
"Hey now, you're a UtilityClick user, Get your game on, go play"
Supplier Matrix Contract Pads: New Fields Mapping
A couple of new requirements were updated within the new contracts so we’ve now got a field called Standing Charge Uplift ready to map which will automatically populate with the £/M/Y value stored in our system.
We’ve also asked the developers to create a new mapping for Annual Broker Commission to save you having to manually enter this value. While we were mapping the contracts, we also added some new LOA mappings for Sole Trader Date of Birth and Home Address (for the last 5 years).
Built for: PRO CRM (UK Only)
Quick Add Activity
Our Activity section is great for reminding you that an action is required on a customer, tender or bill for example - however, we've been looking at ways we can make actually adding an activity much quicker for users.
So, now when you’re updating a deal status on a tender, keep an eye out for our new Quick Add Activity checkbox which allows you to (you guessed it) quickly add an activity from the same location as your status is updated.
Built for: PRO CRM
Bulk Uplift Tool Improvements
Previously, you could use the Bulk Uplift tool to change the uplift for matrix tenders. We've now improved this feature to also allow bespoke tender prices to have their uplift changed.
What's more, we've tailored the tool to be compatible with date filtering. So now, you can make a duration selection within 'Input Prices' (e.g. selecting the '12 months' tab) and then use the checkbox to select all quotes you wish to affect, finally, you can select the 'Bulk Change Commissions' option from 'Tender Tools'.
Note this is an optional feature so you may need to contact your account manager in order to see this new feature.
Built for: PRO CRM
History/Notes for Vendor, MOP and DC
You might have noticed that we’ve already got a way of seeing a history of changes within many parts of the system. We want to expand that functionality to all areas so that it’s easier for you to track who has changed what.
Vendor, MOP, DC and DA have been sitting in the background of our system a little neglected but it’s about to be their time to shine (more to follow on that in the near future) - we’ve started by ensuring any changes to Vendor, MOP, DC and DA are logged in their history.
Built for: PRO CRM
Easily re-assign open activities
Each customer in your system is assigned to an account manager, and as the account manager works through their daily tasks they might create multiple activities to action later.
But what happens to those activities when a customer's account manager changes? Well, at the top of our main customer screen, there is a button labelled ‘Actions’ which allows you to re-assign any selected customers to a new account manager. Within that screen, we’ve now added a checkbox that allows you to also re-assign all of the open activities to the same new account manager, all in one go!
Built for: PRO CRM
'Need A Refresher?' Utiliversity Content Tab
No matter how much training you had at the beginning of your UtilityClick journey, there are always going to be things that slip your mind that you need a refresher on. Our most common queries are related to customers, data imports and BILL VAL - look to the top right-hand corner of any of those screens and you’ll see a new ‘Need a Refresher’ tab has appeared. If you rollover it you will see a video tutorial and links to other useful helpers for the section you’re visiting.
A Total count added to all pages
This is only a small one but a great little update in terms of user experience. Maybe you know this already, but each user can choose how many items they’d like to see on their results page (just go to My Settings > Items per Page within your user profile).
When result lists roll over to multiple pages we naturally show the page numbers at the top so you can navigate between them; included alongside that, we show a total number of records. If the results all showed on one page though, there was no way of knowing how many items were listed. We’ve fixed that so you can now see the total count of results no matter how many pages they’re listed on.
Additional auto-calculations in Quick Add Batch
Quick Add Batch has been a lifesaver for when suppliers change the layout of their bills and they temporarily can’t be read by our BILL VAL parser.
We touched on this in our last update but it’s definitely worth mentioning again: we already had time-saving auto-calculations for Total Unit and CCL charge but we’ve now added an auto-calculation for Total Standing Charge too, this is based on the read from and read to dates so it’s really accurate, and because we’ve got so many other fields populated, the Amount Due net of VAT can now also be calculated leaving less and less for you to manually fill in.
Built for: BILL VAL
Bulk Creation and Amendments to Products
We love giving you a bit more freedom to be in charge of your own data. One job that we get asked to do quite a lot is update payment terms and payment term settings.
You no longer need to request this via support. Anybody with SuperAdmin status can now do this by visiting ‘Suppliers’ and downloading a pre-populated template that can be edited in bulk.
Our system will recognise the changes and overwrite each product with the new information. These changes only apply new contracts after the amendments have been made, to retain your contracts and their historical forecasts.
Built for: PRO CRM
Lead Questions: Ability to bulk export
Two exciting additions have been made to our exports this month. The first is the ability to download lead questions from Analytics > Export Data. This is something that wasn’t possible until now but gives you the chance to view all of your data-gathering questions in one place, or filter to just one customer/lead, or even to a specific account manager.
The next great addition is our meter read export. Again, until recently you could only export meters from a singular customer screen, now it’s possible to download reads for all of your customers, or to filter by customer, site name and utility to name just a few.
Built for: PRO CRM
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!
Hello Austin: Food Truck Heaven
Did You Know?
Austin is world famous for its food trucks.
They've upgraded food like we've upgraded energy software.
Just like how R&B’s has levelled up the cheesesteak, or Burro Cheese Kitchen has taken the grilled cheese sandwich to a whole new level, we've added some serious meat to our flagship product, PRO CRM.
You’ve helped shape it
We've been continuously engaging with our US partners to elevate PRO CRM way above the competition. Take a look at the top things we've added to help US firms attack the energy market:
We're hitting the road
We're coming to see you.
We're coming to the TEPA National Conference in Austin this month where we're looking forward to: Catching up with old friends, demoing how we've adapted our software following your feedback, and trying some of that amazing Texan-inspired food!
Book A Meet With Us In Austin
Don't just take our word for it
Our US partners have told us how much they love the improvements, but it's the commission module where they've seen the most impressive gains.Take a look at what US firm Statistical Energy told us:
"You helped save us over $100,000 in missed commission"
Jim Risk – Statistical Energy
Read The Full Testimonial
Dev Update: September 2024
A Dev Update
Special
Better Bigger Billyer?
This month we bring you something a little different as we focus on the many features we’ve added to BILL VAL.
We’re delighted to have Charlotte (our Head of Product) present us with a whistle-stop tour of the fifteen latest (yes fifteen!) features to be added.
More On BILL VAL
This month:
New Quick Add Batch Option
We've developed a 'Quick Add Batch' option so that if an import fails (or you simply need an invoice in the system as soon as possible), you now have the ability to quickly add a batch by manually adding the details.
Improved Sorting Of All Batches
We've overhauled the batch overview screen with better organisation of your uploaded invoices. Here you'll now find batches sorted under 'Batch Exceptions', 'Batch Imported', 'Under Query', 'Complete' 'Manual Batches' and 'All'. With the ability to move batches from one process to another via a simple 'Go' and click.
Monthly Consumption & Cost Tolerance Added
You can now choose to validate and set a tolerance for the previous month's consumption or the previous month's cost tolerance. This means that if a customer's cost or consumption has varied drastically from the previous month, you'll be alerted to it. Previously you could only validate from data for the previous year.
Pass And Fail Multiple Entries At Once
We've added a multi-select UI to the invoice screen so you can quickly bulk-select entries to mark as either passed or failed.
Allow 'Quick Add Batch' With Errors
You told us how useful the 'Quick Add Batch' button was but one of its quirks was that it was super fussy with its validation of data.
It's fair to assume that if you want to quickly add something you'll likely not mind if the data isn't 100% complete. As such, now when adding data via the 'Quick Add Batch' button the system allows the data to be submitted but will alert the user with relevant warnings on the incorrect data.
Editable Meter Type Via 'Quick Add Batch'
The 'Quick Add Batch' button is great at pulling through the relevant meter details where you need them but what if the meter type is now different to when it was first setup? (Ok, we admit we hadn't foreseen this as a possibility)
You've told us that for various reasons you may have initially set a meter with a different meter type than what is now required. Now when adding data via the 'Quick Add Batch', you can change the meter type (for that specific validation).
New High-Level Fail Summary
You told us that going through each individual invoice that has failed and checking the reason can be time-consuming whilst also making it difficult to spot trends.
Now when viewing all invoices within a batch, we've added a failed overview summary button that can be clicked to reveal further information on each failure. We've also added a handy 'Fail Reason' search field so you can drill down to invoices that have failed for a particular reason.
Improved Advanced Search Functionality
We've made it easier to dig through completed batches by adding the ability to search via Reference Number, Date Range, Customer Name and Meter Number.
Toggle Specific Meters
You now have the ability to toggle all meters that should be validated (and the date range in which the validation should occur). When toggled, the system now understands which meters to alert for if validation data is missing.
Mark Half Hourly Received
Within the reporting dashboard 'Efficiency: Meter Analysis' users can now see the cumulative days that HH data has been received against any given meter. Useful if the HH collection has failed/wasn’t available for a portion of the month.
Better UI When Viewing Validation Results
Users can now easily navigate through validation results. With the aid of a handy 'Next' button, you can quickly jump through each result one after the other without having to return to the main validation result screen.
Ability To Save Batch Notes
When creating a batch of invoices, users can now save notes against them to be recalled at any given date or by other team members. Simply click 'Go' - 'History & Notes' within the invoice overview screen.
Unique Activity References Added
If you're looking to assign a new activity via the batch overview screen (or when examining individual invoices), the system will now automatically utilise the unique reference from either entry when creating the activity. Making it much easier to trace back the activity to the specific batch or invoice in future.
Notes Flag Added At Batch & Invoice Level
Within the batch overview screen and at the individual invoice level, we've added a useful flag to each row to show if there are any notes associated with that entry.
New Bill Validation Trends Dashboard
We've added a new bill validation trends dashboard, allowing users to see a detailed history of validation results against an individual supply. Here users can see an 'Invoice Summary', an 'Invoice Reads Summary' and a quick '12 Month Read History'.
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!
Dev Update: August 2024
August
Twenty Twenty Four
How To Build
Energy Software
(A monthly dev update)
Each month we coax our dev team into a room (using an elaborate set of food based traps) and get them to tell us what they’ve been working on. Then we write it all down for you to read.
This month our focus has been on reducing the time it takes for you to complete everyday tasks.
We’ve made some really positive, time-saving changes by adding filters to pages that contain lots of results, meaning you can see only what you need to and reduce the time it takes to find and display those results.
In addition, we’ve added more bulk functionality to BILL VAL so you can update your validation results super quickly!
We’ve also had an overhaul of our help guide section to help you be more self-sufficient, spend less time waiting on a response and more time being proactive. As always, if there’s anything you think would be useful to see on Utiliversity please let us know via our Support desk, we’re always open to suggestions!
For this and everything else, take a look below:
Highlighting Exceptions
If you’re ever wondering why a sale isn’t showing in your dashboards then our 'Comms Exceptions' tab in Pipeline can be super helpful.
Originally there were only two reasons a contract would show in this tab: If payment terms weren’t present and if Opportunity Type was set to N/A. We’ve now extended the reasons to include any accepted contracts that aren’t included in forecasting, they will appear in the 'Comms Exception' tab with a reason of Comms Excluded, helping you keep tab of which contracts need attention.
And with this update comes a friendly reminder to check this tab regularly - ideally there shouldn’t be anything in this list.
Built for: PRO CRM
Speedier Tender Generation
This is a small change but it could save you a few precious seconds when creating contracts. When you’re going through the process of creating a new contract, you’re asked to select the durations you wish to price for. We’ve added a ‘Select All’ checkbox to this page in case you want to select all without the manual work of clicking each duration. Small design change, big time saver.
Built for: PRO CRM
Smoother Manual Overrides
Another small change we made this month is to the BILL VAL journey. Often when uploading a large batch, there can be multiple failures. Previously, you could either pass each line manually, or bulk pass ALL items.
We realised that this wasn’t perfect and we’ve added some more functionality to our Bulk Actions - you can now select which lines you would like to pass or fail, giving you much more flexibility over manual overrides.
Built for: BILL VAL
Keeping Track of Account IDs
As Account IDs can often change in the US, it’s vital that we can store historic meter information against imported commissions to ensure the commission is applied to the correct location.
Until now, we weren’t able to export historic meter information but we understand how important it is to have visibility over this, so, you will now see a checkbox on the 'Portfolio' export where you can decide whether to export Account IDs to see when and who, various accounts were changed to and from.
Built for: PRO CRM (US Only)
Better Search Functionality
If you’ve ever uploaded an invoice you’ll know that they appear in the Customer > Supplies > Invoices section, but you’ll also know that until now they haven’t been filterable - meaning that large, unsearchable lists have lived in your system; not anymore!
You can now choose from a range of filters such as supplier account number, invoice and billing dates, invoice numbers and validation results to narrow down your results drastically, and for the cherry on top, you can put everything in date order too!
Built for: BILL VAL
Time-Saving Auto-Population
More usability-enhancing functionality here - when creating activities linked to a particular bill, we now pre-populate the ‘Linked To’ field with the relevant batch reference. That's not all, we’ve gone one step further and if you create an activity at the invoice level, we copy both the line reference and the batch reference into your activity - saving you tons of time and effort.
Built for: PRO CRM
A Handy Helper
You might have heard us talking about Utiliversity a lot recently. We’ve now started to remove all of our old 'Help' content and replace it with up-to-date guides on how to use our system.
If you’ve not visited our 'Help' section before, it can be found in the top menu bar on the right-hand side. Our ‘Online Learning’ section links to all courses or allows you to search for a course if you’re looking for specific help. You’ll find answers to FAQs and guides on how to set up new sites, supplies and contracts to list a few.
Built for: BILL VAL
BILL VAL Fail Summary
Adding on from our other BILL VAL update, there are times when you might upload a batch of invoices and you’re aware that multiple items will fail for various reasons.
It is now much easier to view these failures in one place. Within the overview, you can use our new dropdown to select which 'Failure Reasons' you would like to view results for. This will populate a list of invoices that failed due to your selected parameters, you can even select multiple reasons!
As well as this, you can view a quick breakdown of the error by clicking ‘Summary’ to see the failure reasons within the batch overview screen, rather than having to click away and revisit multiple times, we love this update and hope you do too.
Built for: BILL VAL
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!
Coffee Morning For The Energy Industry
An Energy Industry
Coffee Morning
Hey Energy industry! We know Mondays can sometimes be a slog! So we'd like to offer a boost to start the week. A caffeine boost to be exact.
Let's Call it
We love creating software that boosts productivity. In fact, boosting the energy industry is what has driven us since 2016.
But what boosts us?
Coffee, that's what!
If you fancy a cup on us to start the week then head over to the UtilityClick LinkedIn page.
As this Monday we're giving away coffee vouchers to anyone working in the energy industry who's in need of a brew.
We've set it up as an event, so all you have to do is enter your details and we'll send the first 5 UK & US submissions a voucher for a well-known coffee shop (don't worry there's no actual event to attend).
Visit Our LinkedIn Page
Good To Know
We need your details to send the voucher but that's it. Your details will only be used for voucher sending and we won't keep a record.
One More Thing:
...But the Monday good times don't stop there! For every submission we receive on Monday, we'll donate to Macmillan Cancer Support. So even if you're not one of the first five to grab a coffee, we'll be sending a donation on your behalf to a great cause.
Macmillan Cancer Support is a fantastic UK charity that runs donation drives through coffee mornings to help raise funds for people and families suffering from cancer.
If you've benefited from a free coffee from us, please consider sending them the money that you would have spent via a donation.
Make A UK Based DonationMake An International Donation
Tenant Rebilling Is Here
Introducing
Tenant
Rebilling
With Tenant Rebilling, you can upload utility bills directly from suppliers and offer landlords or property managers a complete breakdown of each sub-tenant's bill.
Book A Demo
Why Do I Need It?
Do you have customers with complex billing requirements, where one primary supply point services multiple tenant sub-meters?
With our Tenant Rebilling module, you can give your customers some much-needed relief in creating tenant invoices whilst adding even more value to your brokering portfolio.
How Does It Work?
1. Upload The BillSimply take the supplier file, upload to BILL VAL and let the system get to work. 2. Let Us Do The WorkBILL VAL will extract all the necessary data (including any charges and fees) to calculate an average pence per unit cost. 3. Analyse UsageThe system will take sub-meter usage information from manual meter submissions OR automatically import the data from Half Hourly / AMR meters. 4. Crunch Those NumbersIn no time at all you'll be presented with a clear exportable breakdown for each tenant, together with any overriding residual costs attributed to the landlord. The system will even create your own white-labelled tenant invoices. Good To KnowBILL VAL also supports validation in layers so even if sub-meters are broken down further between multiple occupants, these results can also be calculated.
Book A Demo
Picture This
Jarrod owns a shopping centre with one energy supply point overseeing multiple stores with their own sub-meters.
He receives a regular bill from the supplier but calculating the correct subtenant breakdown (including averaging out fees and overarching charges) takes hours of admin.
You can save Jarrod from a life of unnecessary admin headaches! (whilst also charging for an extremely beneficial value-added service).
How Can I Present
This To My Customer?
As with the majority of our services, you can easily present the results back to landlords within your very own white-labeled portal.
We'll help you get set up with your own logo and brand colours, after which you can offer customers a secure login to easily retrieve sub-meter and billing results.
Book A Demo
Dev Update: July 2024
July
Twenty Twenty Four
How To Build
Energy Software
(A monthly dev update)
Each month we coax our dev team into a room (using an elaborate set of food based traps) and get them to tell us what they’ve been working on. Then we write it all down for you to read.
The lead-up to the summer holidays is always a busy time for us but it hasn't stopped our devs speeding through BILL VAL parsing whilst adding some really useful functionality to the CRM (much more detail to follow on that one).
Another seven suppliers have been added/had their mapping updated but that's not all we've done on the BILL VAL front! We've developed a 'Quick Add Batch' option so that if an import fails (or you simply don't want to upload a bill), you now have the ability to quickly add a batch by typing out the details.
In other news, we've made our HH Data Imports far easier to handle and we've integrated with another document signing service which is 12x faster (on average) at returning LOAs and contracts than DocuSign.
Read on for a more in-depth look at what we've been up to so far...
Signable Integration
We're always on the lookout for ways to make processes speedier for you, and this month we've made the move towards Signable where we're seeing much faster returns on LOAs and contracts - an average of 5 minutes as opposed to 1 hour.
There's also the added bonus of it being a lot cheaper - don't worry if you're not a fan of change though, we're not forcing anything on you, DocuSign is still integrated for uninterrupted use.
Get in touch with your account manage if you're interested in trying Signable in place of DocuSign.
Built for: EVERYTHING
New Support Area
UtilityClick sees a near future where you have instant answers to as many of your questions as we can pre-empt.
We've been working really hard on updating our help content via the Utiliversity site. If you haven't seen it already, head over to utiliversity.com to have a look around and if you have any questions this should be your first port of call. It's jam-packed with courses that show you how to use the system to its full capability, and we have an FAQ section where you can read about subjects like how to reset a password, how to make a user active again and tips on checking your data import errors for common mistakes.
We are continuously adding to this knowledge base and are open to suggestions on content that might be helpful to you.
Also, keep an eye out for how the pages in your CRM are changing; we are adding help tools to each page to show you the answers to common questions and issues without even having to leave your site.
Built for: EVERYTHING
Charity Reg Number LOA Mapping
Our LOA mapping functionality makes creating LOAs simple and quick. We noticed though, that we hadn't provided a way of mapping a charity registration number, so we've now added that in for you. Just go to Admin > LOA Templates and you will see the newly added charity registration number option ready to map.
Built for: PRO CRM
Improved VAT Validation
We were recently made aware that, in certain situations, it could be useful for VAT to be set up at the site/supply level rather than the customer level. Our previous limitations were causing issues within BILL VAL but now, when adding or editing a supply, you will see that there is a new field to add VAT at the supply level, simply add the VAT here and BILL VAL will do the rest for you.
Built for: BILL VAL
Commissions Overview: New Filters
If you've ever tried to remove a meter from an existing tender you might have come across a little red error message saying that Supplier Receipts exist and you need to delete them before removing the meter.
You've told us though that it's sometimes difficult to locate said Supplier Receipts. Because of this we've added some extra filters to Analytics > Commissions so you can now search easily for Supplier Receipts based on the meter number, tender reference and customer.
Built for: PRO CRM
More BILL Parsing
We've continued adding to our long list of existing BILL VAL ready suppliers. This month we've made amendments to Crown Gas & Power, Pozitive, EDF, Bryt, Brook Green, 100 Green and F&S.
Built for: BILL VAL
Quick Add Batch Button
You might have noticed that we've added a really useful button called 'Quick Add Batch' which aids in importing bills that are slightly different to our current mapping rules.
In the past, you'd have uploaded the bill, seen an error warning and been unable to import any of the values, now you can import values based on the contract details that are already in your system and add/change any extra information as you go - no delays or support tickets required!
Built for: BILL VAL
Improved Consumption Data Imports
HH and AMR data can be a pain to import just due to the sheer amount of values that need adding.
It's easy to miss a date or a reading, and really frustrating to have to sift through your import to find the error. You'll be very happy to know that we've changed the way our data import works for this part of the system - now, if you're missing a date, or you've left a reading empty, our system will first warn you and then allow you to choose whether to cancel the import completely or go ahead and add the empty values as zeroes instead.
We've also looked at the issues you were having with Daylight Savings data, the system now fully supports the missing and extra hours in March and October respectively.
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!
Dev Update: June 2024
June
Twenty Twenty Four
How To Build
Energy Software
(A monthly dev update)
Each month we coax our dev team into a room (using an elaborate set of food based traps) and get them to tell us what they’ve been working on. Then we write it all down for you to read.
If you've been keeping up to date with our regular mailouts, it will come as no surprise to you, that this month we've worked on *drumroll* more BILL VAL mapping - but we of course have plenty of other updates to tell you about too!
We've mostly been busy in the background speeding up databases, site searches and making the dashboards more functional - these are things you won't necessarily notice straight away, but over time you'll realise your work day is far more efficient. We've also done some work to the meter lookup tool to integrate with our new MSN functionality, as well as mapping bills for BES, Ecotricity and Opus.
Take a look below for this and more and we'll see you back here next month for more updates.
More Bill Mapping
Three more suppliers joined our BILL VAL family this month: BES Utilities, Ecotricity and Opus, meaning you can now upload both NHH and gas bills for Opus, gas and electricity for Ecotricity and BES bills for all utilities. This means we now have 13 suppliers available for BILL VAL parsing, with multiple utilities for each supplier!
Built for: BILL VAL
Speedier Service
We love welcoming new customers, and recently we've onboarded some with some rather chunky data requirements. We want to make sure that both new and old users don't experience any unnecessary slowdown, no matter how large their datasets. Because of this, our devs have been working hard in the background to speed up our databases and in turn speed up your searches.
Built for: EVERYTHING
Meter Lookup tool & MSNs
The meter lookup tool is great for saving you time when entering customer/lead information - it literally does the job for you. As you know, we recently added in the ability to assign multiple MSNs to a meter. We’ve now made sure that if you use the meter lookup tool, the MSN returned from there is entered into your system and used by default as the Primary MSN. Don't worry, we’re keeping any MSNs you’ve added manually too, just in case you do want to overrule the lookup tool for any reason.
Built for: PRO CRM
Dashboard Enhancements
Minor Display Improvements
As our work continued with BILL VAL mapping, we noticed a small issue where the count of failed and skipped invoices would change depending on which tab you were viewing. Small display bugs like this don’t affect data quality but we’re perfectionists, so it triggered us to have a really good look around BILL VAL and make some small but important display alterations.
Built for: BILL VAL
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!