Development Update - February 2024

This month:

Welcome back to our February dev update and to be quite honest - it's been a quiet month for new feature releases.

There's a good reason for it though! You may have seen via our social channels that we've hired and made structural changes to both our project and product teams ("Hello" 👋 Clare Mason and Charlotte Bradley).

They're now well and truly embedded within their new roles and we're already seeing the benefits in the form of planned product features and improvements. These are hefty enhancements that mean our dev team have been head down for much of the month.

We can't give away too much at this point but keep an eye on future mailouts for big product improvements coming soon (especially on the BILL VAL front!).

For now, check out the 'Other Bits & Bobs' that we released in February:

Other bits and bobs...

We've added the following other bits and bobs...

Monies Received Dashboard

The Monies Received table in Financials (Tables) has always been great for reviewing the forecasting history of a meter, but we’ve now made it even better by adding in the date and time that the forecast was last updated, which should help save time and make your audits more accurate.

Built for: PRO CRM

Easier to understand exports

When you’re creating meters, it’s possible to choose their AMR status, but previously if you chose Non-AMR it would leave blank cells in your Portfolio export - our logic being that there is no AMR status, so don’t populate the cell. However, we understand that Portfolio exports can be large and it can cause confusion to see blank cells, so we’ve made a simple but effective change that populates the AMR status to Non-AMR when required.

Built for: PRO CRM

Even more contract functionality added

Our contract generation tool is designed to save you time by collating information from customer details, contracts and products to create a quick and accurate contract to send off to the supplier. We’ve added even more functionality to it this month by allowing you to add bank address details to each customer, and easily map them to your supplier contracts.

Built for: PRO CRM

Improved Bill Val Navigation

When uploading bills there are often differences between what has been entered into the system and what is in the supplier bill, these manifest as failures within Bill Val and need to be manually fixed. Previously, there were over 6 steps to take to navigate from failure to failure, now we've made the journey much swifter by adding a 'Next' button to the failures page.

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!


Development Update - January 2024

Welcome back to our monthly update.

As always we've got big plans for the year ahead - but we're especially keen to focus on developing features that empower you, the user. For instance, we're super keen to focus on features that allow customers to self-serve, rather than waiting for our support team to action it. We see anything that streamlines your workflow as a big win.

You'll see there's a theme growing already with some of the features detailed below. Allowing you to bulk-upload the 'Primary Contact Field' within a Contact for example. Or giving the user the ability to author their own additional questions with pre-selectable answers for each Lead.

The apotheosis of all of this is our brand new Utiliversity website. With it, users are able to discover how to utilise specialised features without having to await training or to be shown by colleagues.

For this and 'Other Bits & Bobs', read on for our January Development Update...

Utiliversity Launches

Welcome to our brand new online video learning system. To begin with, the majority of focus is on PRO CRM but we've got big plans ahead! We'll be adding new courses, features and videos over the coming months but you'll find that there's already plenty there to get you started. Take a look.

Create Additional Data Fields To Profile Leads

The Gather Data form (found in Admin > Lead Questions) has been upgraded to make questioning your leads far more efficient, you can now create set answers to repetitive questions and get through the process nice and quickly.

Built for: PRO CRM

Bulk Update Of The Primary Contact Field

It's frustrating when you don't feel in control of your own data, so we're looking at ways to allow you to update your client information however, and whenever you need to. You can now bulk update the Primary Contact Field within Data Imports > Contacts without the need to ask our support team.

Built for: PRO CRM

Commissions Exceptions When Importing

This is a big one! Previously, if any line of your commission import failed then the whole file failed. Importing commissions can be time-intensive, so going forward we’re going to handle things slightly differently.

Now, if there are any errors; they will be imported along with the successes and you can view erroneous data in a new dashboard along with the reason that it failed. Then, simple mistakes like dates, missing accounts and contracts can be updated without delaying other commission records. Please contact your account manager to have this feature switched on.

Built for: PRO CRM (US Only)

Other bits and bobs...

We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

Track usage to specific serial numbers

Previously, you could only enter one serial number per MPAN and there was no work-around to track consumption to individual meters. You can now add multiple serial numbers to a single meter, making it possible to track usage to specific locations.

Built for: PRO CRMBILL VAL

Log meter reads against serial numbers

One of our biggest priorities right now is improving our brilliantly, unique BILL VAL service. This month we’ve made big updates to allow consumption and meter reads to be logged at serial number level to cope with the demand of MPANs with multiple meters.

Built for: BILL VAL

Track and view your flex products

We understand that keeping track of flex products can be quite tricky, so this month we added some new functionality that will make this task easier for you. Now, when you’re quoting, you will see a flag underneath your flex products, and we’ve also made it easier for you to find these products within the pipeline by adding a Flex/Fixed filter.

Built for: PRO CRM

More flexibility for bespoke charges

A while back we added functionality that allowed negative values to be entered into your bespoke charges, but our unit options were limited. We’ve now added the option to add a negative charge value on a 'per contract' basis, giving you more flexibility with your bespoke charge types.

Built for: PRO CRM

More helpful tooltips added

Our Customer Portal gives you monthly meter and site usage stats which we know are really important to you when it comes to reporting. Sometimes this data can be inaccurate due to partial/unimported data. We’ve made those inaccuracies really obvious by flagging any months that are missing days of consumption data and showing you a tooltip to explain how to fix it.

Better handling of mismatched consumptions

You no longer have to do any manual calculations if there is an incorrect value in your Supplier Receipts. Now you can enter both consumption and commission value, and if the calculation doesn’t add up, we’ll let you know of this mismatch underneath the consumption value.

Built for: PRO CRM

View contract info in one place

Contracts are full of handy little bits of information that you need to access quickly, and while we don't want to overwhelm you when viewing your contracts, we do want you to be able to see the likes of tax rates, zones, capacity and transmission tags at the hover of a mouse.

Built for: PRO CRM (US Only)

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!


"You Saved Us Over $100,000"

You've probably seen it - we're a rather self-deprecating team. We’re proud of what we do, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

When a customer proclaims to us about how great our software has been for them, we'll usually politely thank them and never publicly utter it aloud again.

Well, today we make a rare exception...

Ohio-based procurement experts, Statistical Energy recently told us about the staggering amount of money we've helped them save and even with our self-deprecating British hats on (bowler of course), we felt compelled to share.

Take a look at what they said:

“UtilityClick has been a lifesaver for our energy brokerage business. When we started working with them in 2021, we were one of their first clients in the USA and they have been much better than the prior energy broker CRM company which we worked with in the US.

They have helped save us over $100,000 in missed commission dollars over the years and their system is always the first place we go when we get a commission-related question from one of our partners, suppliers or sales reps.

Whenever we want to have them add a reporting capability that makes sense for everyone, they are always willing to help develop it for the benefit of our company and the rest of their USA customer base.

We cannot say enough good things about UtilityClick."

Jim Risk

Ready to track your commission?

Interested in tracking potential missed commissions for your business? Or simply in need of a fast pricing and customer management tool?


Development Update - December 2023

Welcome to a brand new year and with it a recap of what our dev team got up to in December 2023.

December doesn't really differ from any other month for us in the dev team, although there was a short hiatus towards the end, the team as a whole was as prolific as any other time of the year.

Case in point, the number of updates you see below. The showstopper for us has been improving our LOA generation within PRO CRM by giving the user the option to add any relevant meters/sites via an addendum. We pride ourselves at UtilityClick on developing the only CRM that's truly built to handle multi-site and this addition to our LOA creation tool only helps strengthen that.

For this as well as many other features, take a look at our December dev update below.

Addendum generator for multisite LOAs

We know how important it is for you to be able to add multiple meters to your LOAs, so we’ve added some amazing functionality that we think you’ll love.

Now, when you generate an LOA you have the option to add an addendum, and with a quick click of a tickbox, you can add as many meters as you like to your LOA.

Built for: PRO CRM

Other bits and bobs...

We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

Improved UX for Bill Validation Results

Sometimes there are multiple failures when validating a bill; stepping through these failures can be really time-consuming and clunky. We’ve added a Next button to each failure page so you can quickly navigate through your errors and automatically open the next page without the hassle of clicking back, remembering the last failure you checked and finding the next one in the list.

Built for: PRO CRM

Meter lookup: Improved Error Messaging

We're always working hard to make our system more user-friendly. We noticed that the meter lookup tool wasn’t quite up to scratch when multiple results were returned for a postcode. We've now added some user-friendly messages to give a better idea of why things might have gone wrong for you.

Built for: PRO CRM (UK Only)

Improvements to Budget Consumption for Annual and Period Costs

Budget Consumptions can be a little confusing so this month we’ve made some really useful improvements to how you set them. You now have two options: Annual and Period – annual allows for a consumption to be calculated as an annual figure and Period allows for the consumption to be calculated based on the start and end period set by you.

Built for: PRO CRM

Advanced Search Improvements For Bill Validation

We know Bill Val was already great, but we noticed that there could be some little improvements to the Search page.
Our new Advanced Search options allow you to search by reference number, date range, customer and meter number making it super quick to find and update your batches.

Built for: BILL VAL

Simplifying Elec Meter Labelling

The Energy Industry loves an acronym, but sometimes it's just not helpful. This month we’ve removed all references to SE and IE electrical acronyms and replaced them with one simple word: “ELEC” – making it simpler to add contracts and quotes and creating a look that’s easier on the eye.

Built for: PRO CRM (USA Only)

Improved Filtering Within Data Import

When you have multiple members of staff importing data, the Data Import page can get quite hectic and difficult to navigate. We’ve added in the option to filter the page results by Import Type and date range to make it easier for you to investigate who has been uploading what.

Built for: PRO CRM

Dashboards: Updated Monies Received

The Monies Received table in Financials (Tables) has always been great for reviewing the forecasting history of a meter, but we’ve now made it even better by adding in the date and time that the forecast was last updated, which should help save time and make your audits more accurate.

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!


The Christmas Energy Pylon

    Sorry, This Offer Has Expired.

    We’ve already given away hundreds of free packs but why not book a demo with us below and check out some of the great software we’ve created. We may even send you one of our own personal packs.

    Book A Demo

    Development Update - November 2023

    There's a line in the sitcom 'The Office' that springs to mind when writing the dev update for the month of November:

    "Well, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that Neil will be taking over both branches, and some of you will lose your jobs.

    On a more positive note, the good news is, I've been promoted, so... every cloud. "

    To which his colleague replies:

    "There's no good news David, it's only bad news and irrelevant news."

    - The Office (UK) S1 E6

    We're pleased to say there isn't any bad news but it could be seen as irrelevant news (and similarly self-gratifying as Mr Brent's) but bear with us.

    You see, this month we've been onboarding one of the UK's biggest procurement organisations.

    Ok, that does sound irrelevant and self-gratifying!

    Honest, it really isn't. With this onboarding, our user base (especially for the customer portal) has increased significantly and we believe that's great for current UC partners too. Our software has been stress-tested and put through its paces in completely new ways.

    You'll know that we make improvements to our software every single week and with even more people using our software, there's guidance from a wider pool about where the best improvements can be found. It's already started but over the coming months, you'll see more improvements around efficiency and the customer portal.

    For this month, take a look at some of the bigger features we've released as well as the 'Other Bits & Bobs'. All in our November development update:

    Welcome to our October development update.

    Regular readers will know that over the last few months (July and August in particular), we've been focused on many improvements that enhance the user experience (UX) of our software.

    We're happy to say that October has been another month where we've taken strides to make things even better.

    Importing data can be a real pain in the backspace and refining it can become a time-eater. You can tie yourself in knots, attempting time and time again to upload data that's previously failed. Our latest update looks to enhance the import process to give you a clearer picture of where the bad data lies.

    Next on the UX front, we focussed on the customer portal. In particular, we wanted to ensure that your customers can effortlessly interact with you (through the portal), regardless of the device they choose. Making software "responsive" is critical for reaching a broader audience and it also ensures individuals with disabilities can utilise your services effectively, contributing to a more inclusive digital environment.

    Read on to hear about this as well as the usual mix of 'Other Bits & Bobs', all in our October dev update...

    Improved Efficiency Of Data Exports

    Within any software, exporting considerable amounts of data can take a huge resource. Within UtilityClick software we permit customers to export whatever they need, whenever they want. Because of this we previously set aside chunks of server resource in case it was needed to assist with potential large exports.

    It's clear that this wasn't wholly efficient and as such we've now freed up that server resource to power you in other areas. Now when an export is requested, it will only utilise the resource it needs to complete, leaving more power for other important tasks elsewhere.

    Built for: PRO CRMBILL VAL

    Details Of Flat File Version

    Within Supplier > Products you'll find information on any particular product/supplier available to price within your system. Within this page, you'll now find a column labelled "Flat File Version". This column shows the date the flat file was updated and (when hovered) also displays additional detail on which flat file is being used.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Meter Serial Number Added To Customer Portal

    We've added some extra information to the customer portal. On the Meters page within the customer portal, your customers can now see details of a meter's serial number, right underneath the MPAN.

    Built for: PORTAL

    Other bits and bobs...

    We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

    Energy Bill Relief Scheme Allows Negative Value

    When pricing, this optional feature allows UK customers to set a negative value for any EBRS required so that the overall unit rate p/kWh cost of the quote is reduced. You can find this section when creating a new tender (or editing an old one), under the area marked "Add Bespoke Charge for pricing results". This is an optional feature so please contact your account manager for more information.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Sending Emails Via An Alias

    If your organisation utilises our integration with Microsoft's single sign-on technology (i.e. you sign in to UtilityClick using your Microsoft credentials), it's now possible to have emails sent via our software to have them appear as they've come from an alternative email address than your own (known as an alias). This is an optional feature so please contact your account manager for more information.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Filtering Added To Customer References

    The Customer References module is a great place to add additional custom information or link a customer with another piece of stored data. However, if you require a lot of customer references then it can become difficult to navigate. To help (within Customers > Customer References) we've added a set of filters so you can easily locate the reference you need.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Ability To Export Sites/Location With No Meters/Account Present

    When exporting portfolio data, by default our system will omit any sites/location information if no associated meter/account exists. Some partners have found it useful if this information is included. As such, we've created an optional feature that will include all details no matter the presence of a meter/account.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    "Termination" Status Removed

    The majority of US brokers do not require the use of a termination status, as such having it as a definable category within a user's pipeline is unhelpful. This optional feature hides all mention of the 'Termination' term and any related filters.

    Built for: PRO CRM (US Only)

    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!


    Development Update - October 2023

    Welcome to our October development update.

    Regular readers will know that over the last few months (July and August in particular), we've been focused on many improvements that enhance the user experience (UX) of our software.

    We're happy to say that October has been another month where we've taken strides to make things even better.

    Importing data can be a real pain in the backspace and refining it can become a time-eater. You can tie yourself in knots, attempting time and time again to upload data that's previously failed. Our latest update looks to enhance the import process to give you a clearer picture of where the bad data lies.

    Next on the UX front, we focussed on the customer portal. In particular, we wanted to ensure that your customers can effortlessly interact with you (through the portal), regardless of the device they choose. Making software "responsive" is critical for reaching a broader audience and it also ensures individuals with disabilities can utilise your services effectively, contributing to a more inclusive digital environment.

    Read on to hear about this as well as the usual mix of 'Other Bits & Bobs', all in our October dev update...

    Enhancing The Import Process

    We've made helpful improvements to the import process (Admin > Data Imports). Importing data can be a tedious task, especially if it's raw and unformatted. With this latest enhancement, you can now choose to split any attempted imports into two separate sheets, one with the good data and one with the bad. This means you can choose to upload the good with confidence that it will all succeed and then analyse (or disregard completely) the bad data.

    A Responsive Customer Portal

    We've adjusted our customer portal to adapt, no matter the device used to view it.

    Narrower devices (e.g. a mobile phone) will still have access to the same useful features present when viewed on a desktop but the components will automatically adjust to make them easier to view and interact with at a smaller scale.

    Built for: Customer Portal

    Speed Increase When Importing Locations

    If you have a lot of Location data that require importing (Admin > Data Imports), previously you may have been in for a bit of a wait. However, we've made some big SQL changes and it's estimated that large imports will now complete up to ten times quicker than before!

    Built for: PRO CRM (USA Only)

    Other bits and bobs...

    We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

    USA Specific Fields Added

    We've made additions to our software so our US customers can record extra contract/customer information.

    New fields added include:

    Transmission Tag (found in Customers > Accounts).
    Holdover Rate (found in Procurement > Create Quote)
    Bandwidth Percent (found in Procurement > Create Quote)

    Built for: PRO CRM (USA Only)

    Smart Matching of Account ID With Commission Imports

    We've developed a unique 'smart matching system' when importing commissions. Previously our system required an exact match between the suppliers commission statement and the account ID stored, in order to apply the commission to the correct account. With this update, our software will first check for an exact match and if that can’t be found it will expand the search to look for a 'closest' match instead. Meaning that even if a supplier has added additional data to the end of an account ID, the imported commission will still be correctly assigned.

    Built for: PRO CRM (USA Only)

    Customer References Now Searchable

    If you have a Customer Reference assigned to a Customer (Customer > Customer References), you can now use information stored as a reference to search for results within Pipeline, Leads, and Customers.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Time Since Deal Status Was Last Updated

    When Exporting Tenders or Contract data (Analytics > Export Data) we've added a new column called "DS Last Edited Date" that indicates when a Deal Status was last amended.

    This option was already present within Go > History & Notes but we’ve now added a column into the Tenders and Contracts exports too.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Bulk Import of Customer Reference

    When bulk importing Customer or Lead data (Admin > Data Imports), you can now bulk include any custom customer references alongside other customer/lead information.

    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!


    Development Update - September 2023

    A warm welcome to the September edition of our monthly letter from the dev team. If we could sum up this month's dev work in one word it would be 'Useful' (we admit, that does sound slightly underwhelming but bear with us).

    We've felt for some time that our software suite is in a really great place. Much of the showstopper features that you might expect have been built, refined and adapted to fit the sector's ever-changing demands - but we know that you can never stop improving the small things.

    It's these 'useful' features that can really make a difference to people's workflow. They may not have been the reason for a customer to sign up but these 'nice to haves' are vitally important (and incidentally great fun to develop too!).

    Read on to hear more about these new useful features, where we have speed improvements for commission exports, new payment terms, standing charge commission on bespoke tenders, SSE PDF parsing and much more. All in our September dev update.

    Improved Quote Export For Excel

    We've improved the Excel file that's generated when exporting quotes (Procurement > Input Prices > Input Prices > Export Quotes button). The resulting file will be formatted as an .XLSX, should generate no warnings within Excel and contain helpful coloured headers for each column.

    Built for: PRO CRMPRICED

    SSE PDF PARSING

    PDF bills supplied by SSE can now be uploaded through BILL VAL without the need to transfer to a CSV template.

    As well as SSE, PDFs from EDF, British Gas, BG Lite, Crown Gas & Power, Shell Energy, Pozitive Energy, and TotalEnergies are all supported. We'll continue to update BILL VAL to accept many more supplier PDFs. Watch this space!

    Built for: BILL VAL (UK Only)

    Other bits and bobs...

    We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

    Speed Boosts For Commission List Exports

    We noticed some Commision List exports (Analytics > Commissions) were taking a while to complete. We've made some code improvements, ensuring that exports are now completed much quicker.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Auto Marking of Employee Payments as Paid

    Now when a user marks an Employee Payment as 'Paid' (Analytics > Employee Payments) it will automatically show a tick in the 'EP' column within the Invoicing section of 'Commissions (Analytics > Commissions).

    Built for: PRO CRM

    New Payment Term: Split Reconciled at 12 Months

    The system previously allowed payment terms of 'Split Reconciled at 18 Months' (where a percentage was paid on sign and/or live, with the rest paid at 18 months). This new payment term is identical but the rest is paid at 12 months.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Registration Status Added For Electric Meter Lookups

    A new field, labelled 'Registration Status' has been added when performing a meter lookup. Upon a successful lookup, one of the following statuses will be returned: Cancelled, Active, Pending, Secured Inactive, Secured Active.

    Built for: PRO CRM (UK Only)

    Standing Charge Commission On Bespoke Tender Submissions

    A new entry has been added when generating a bespoke tender submission. It has been noted that it would be useful for suppliers to include a dedicated field for any 'Standing Charge Commission'. You can now find this option under at the 'Tender Details' stage when generating a bespoke tender request.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Set Meter Type At Tender Level

    We've added a non-mandatory field within Contracts import labelled Meter Type, that allows the user to enter what meter type (e.g. Standard, Evening/Weekend, Economy 7, etc.) should be stored at the tender/meter level.

    If the meter type matches the one already set against the meter, then no action is taken. However, if it is different, the meter type specified within the contract import will be set at the tender meter level. Note that this will change the meter type at the tender/meter level only.

    Built for: PRO CRM (UK Only)

    Set a Delay On Expected Payments

    If a contract requires a payment term of 'Split Annual Value' but the payment will occur on a subsequent month to the one the contract is signed, you can now specify how many months later you forecast the payment to arrive.

    For instance, if a contract is signed on 01/01/2024, previously, the forecast will show the payment due in January. With this new feature, you can edit the commissions (Pipeline > Go > Edit Commissions) and 'Change Payment Terms' to specify a different calendar month.

    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!


    Development Update - August 2023

    August has been all about data, data and more data. Both improving the way our software handles it and helping customers import large quantities of it (you may have even seen our recent social post containing advice on how to prepare to transfer it!).

    On the handling of it - We've expanded and improved our Data Imports considerably in recent times (the Data Imports module allows our customers to bulk-add information from an external spreadsheet or CSV). Each time we add a new field within our software, we need to ensure that the Data Imports module is updated so that it can accept the new field from a bulk import too.

    Regularly expanding our software capabilities to reflect an ever-changing industry is one of the qualities that we believe sets us apart. However, it does mean imports that have previously uploaded successfully might need to be adapted to reflect any recent changes.

    Users can always download the latest template directly from the Data Imports section to ensure imports are formatted correctly and if a data import does fail, the system will present feedback (found in the 'Details' column) as to why it can't be read.

    Data Import PDF Helpsheet

    In this data-heavy dev update, we've put together a quick PDF helpsheet containing some common reasons for an import failure, together with some helpful tips on ensuring your next data import is a successful one.

    Other bits and bobs...

    We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

    New Live Split Reconciled Supplier Payment Term

    When setting the payment term for a contract you can now select 'Split Reconciled at 18 Months' and choose to have a percentage of the total contract consumption allocated at the 'Live Date' stage. This is as well as the previously available option to allocate at the 'Sign Date' stage.

    Built for:
    PRO CRM

    Smart Filtering Between Your Active and Inactive Users

    Throughout our software (user-level dependent) you can filter information by associated users. E.g. Within the Leads module, you're able to filter leads that are associated with a particular Account Manager. We've updated this account filter dropdown so it's now clear which users are active and which are inactive.

    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!


    Development Update - July 2023

    A Slow Database

    "You click, you wait.
    You wait some more.
    Finally, there it is.
    But no. For crying out loud.

    You forgot to select 'that' filter.
    You select it now and click once more.
    That unbearable wait is about to begin.
    All over again."

    - A poem by UtilityClick

    Welcome to another edition of our monthly dev update. Poetry might not be our strong point but we are constantly striving to prevent a scenario like that detailed above.

    Like any software company worth their salt, speed is massively important. No matter how well-designed a system is, slow software will create a bad UX (user experience).

    In July we took another giant step forward in speed as we transferred to a database that can perform twice as fast as the previous. What's more, it can adapt to a customer's usage and utilise more resources when needed.

    In other news, we've added a new feature that will allow users to jump straight in and mimic any account within the customer portal, without the need to setup a new username and password. Perfect for when you need to see what a particular customer can see.

    Read on to hear about this as well as the usual mix of 'Other Bits & Bobs', all in our July dev update...

    New vCore Database

    The big contributor to speed in software lies in how quickly it can access and deliver data from the database. If the amount of data you hold in a system increases, so will the time it takes to load and present it.

    With our new 'vCore' model, we have a database that not only has more power but can call upon even more if and when your data usage dictates.

    Customer Portal Account Preview

    You can now preview any customer portal account from the 'Contacts & Users' section (within the Customers module). If your customer has at least one user account set (marked as 'Active?' and 'Customer Portal Access?' set to true), then a ‘View Customer Portal’ button will appear.

    Clicking this button will allow you to jump straight into their account and preview how it will appear. Note: You'll be entering a live system and any changes made whilst previewing will affect the live customer account. Be sure to click the 'X' in the bottom right-hand corner to exit and return the account back to its owner.

    Built for: PRO CRMPORTAL

    Other bits and bobs...

    We've also added the following other bits and bobs...

    New Deal Status Added

    We've added a new deal status to use when a COT is completed.

    Now, when a COT is completed, the old contract can be stopped by amending the live end date to the date of the COT and the contract can be identified as a COT Out.

    Built for:
    PRO CRM

    Exports optimization

    We've made some SQL changes to optimise data exports. Exports affected are ones that contain contract information and fields that require next/latest/previous values (e.g. supplier name and CED). These optimisation changes will be most effective when attempting to export large batches of data.

    Built for:
    PRO CRM

    Crown Gas & Power PDF Mapping

    PDF bills supplied by Crown Gas & Power can now be uploaded through BILL VAL without the need to transfer to a CSV template. We'll continue to update BILL VAL to accept many more supplier PDFs.

    Built for:
    BILL VAL

    Measurement Class For NHH Meters

    Within the 'Meters' screen for a 'Customer', we've added an optional feature to store the 'Measurement Class' for their NHH meters.

    Built for: PRO CRM

    Experian Integration

    We've created an optional feature that will allow customers to link with the credit reporting company Experian.

    When enabled it will force the user to hit a “Check Credit” button within the Instant Quote module and pass an Experian credit check before any instant quote can be generated.

    Please note that each partner will be required to set up and manage their own account directly with Experian for this feature to function.

    Built for: PRICED+

    BILL VAL Report Improvements

    We've made a batch of improvements across BILL VAL to help with clarity. Examples of these improvements include:
    + Supplier 'Account Number' added to exports, + Percentage symbol added to the 'VAT percentage expected' report row, + 'Invoice Details' now specifies if the reading is actual, estimated or smart reading, + The option to export individual batches from the invoice validation result row dropdown, + 'Previous Read' added to Consumption Information within 'Invoice Details' when viewing validation results.

    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!