This new rule enables a percentage tolerance to be set to ensure the average monthly or yearly cost of a meter does not move outside of a preset level. This can be set on a month-on-month and year-on-year comparison. By default, this value is set to 10% meaning that a validation error is reported when the monthly (or yearly) cost for this meter exceeds the tolerance in place when compared to the previous comparative period.

The ‘de minimis’ level states that if energy usage falls below a set level then a lower 5% VAT charge must be used. This is regardless of whether the premises is used for business or domestic purposes. We've added a new validation check to adhere to this and ensure that each invoice has been billed to the correct VAT rate based on the de minimis level.

By default, BILL VAL will validate against the contract start and end date. When enabled, this optional feature will ensure validation against the contract live dates instead.

The Supplier Account Number and Meter Serial Number have been added to the BILL VAL export file.

It's now possible to add and recall custom notes to any batch or individual invoice within the BILL VAL system. Simply click 'Go' and select 'Notes' to start composing.

When reviewing the details of a previous invoice within a site we can now present even more information than before. New information presented includes Invoice From and To dates, Rates, Standing Charge, Available Capacity, Available Capacity Cost and any Bespoke Charges.

We've amended the process when adding a new site via Meter Lookup. You can now choose to amend the Site Name directly from the result of any lookup.

When exporting details of your Activities, the system will now include the primary contact's telephone and email, or if no primary contact exists, then the first available saved contact will be used instead.

Users can now add their own custom Terms and Conditions (via PDF) for each product. If present the custom PDF will be used in place of any global T&Cs and will be appended to the supplier contract being generated.

Users with sufficient privileges can now access and compose notes (and view their history) of all users within the system. This can be found within the 'Admin - Users' section.

This addition means it's now even quicker to add a new Lead or Customer. Simply select 'New Lead/Customer' and a popup will appear. As you start typing (either the company name, address or reg number) the results will be shown live, allowing you to select the company you require. Once selected, the details will be shown pre-populated within the new Lead/Customer screen.

To aid with the changes directed by OFGEM on the UK energy industry, we've added an additional option when creating PDF quotes that will allow you to export a quote with the annual commission value included. Note that it is still possible to export quotes with the commission information omitted, should you plan to relay this information to your customers through other means.

Since launching gas and electric lookups we noticed that some users were looking up the same meters, multiple times a day. Essentially creating a new lookup each time, which would be chargeable. We didn't think this was very fair. So we've spent time coding a clever caching system to record lookups you've already completed and, if you've already looked them up within the last 24 hours, they'll be recalled, free of charge.

You can now upload receipts from Pozitive Energy directly in to the BILL VAL system for immediate validation.

USA Account IDs are more varied from their UK counterparts. Because of this, we've made adjustments to the validation procedure to accept a larger variety of US MPAN formats.

When recording a meter reading it is now possible to also add a serial number. This could be useful in case of a future meter exchange, where the history of reads can easily be linked to a respective meter.

We've now expanded our list of supported data providers for importing HH data. You can now utilise data provided by Siemens. This is in addition to the previously announced, Stark, Npower and EDF.

Many components within our software has an inbuilt history state that allows users to review historical changes to an item, such as an Activity or Leads. We've now expanded this feature so admin users can review changes to Users too. This could be useful for checking when a user has changed a password or why they might have had their account locked (e.g. persistently entering an incorrect password).

Last month we brought you news that Super Admins can specify which email types are sent via a user's Office 365 email and which are sent via traditional SMTP. This month we've extended this functionality so you can now choose to route specific emails through Office 365 or SMTP. This can be configured under Admin > Email Settings.

Within the Commission module, invoice tab you can now review the "Invoice Frequency" when a contract is set as "Customer Pays". Note that Customers Pays is an optional feature. Please contact your account manager for further information.

When viewing monthly Commission data for contracts set as Customer Pays, you can now view and filter by Account Managers.

We've built our own non-specialist, standard CRM! We've nicknamed it 'Engage' and although it won't directly impact our users it will allow us to assist customers better and keep on top of things like custom modules, feature requests and anything else that might help manage your account better. We plan to share more on our progress with a blog post soon, so watch this space.

If you utilise the Microsoft 365 login for your users then Super Admins can now specify which email type are sent via the user's Office 365 email and which are sent via traditional SMTP. This can be configured under Admin > Email Settings.

Within the Leads module, there is a column labelled ‘Next Action Due’ which shows the open activity against that lead with the oldest due date. With this update, that column is now also available on the Customer module.

It's possible to add a VAT status for each Customer that you hold information on (either at 0%, 5% or 20%). This extra piece of information can now also be included as part of a bulk import or exported within any relevant reports.

We've added the fields 'Invoice Number' & 'Invoice Date' to the Referral Commission export (found in Analytics).

We've updated the language used within our software so the vernacular is more appropriate for users from North America.

We've made some helpful modifications that will allow every user to change the way their account looks and functions (unless disabled by a Super Admin user). With it, users will be able to personalise settings such as pagination and optional features via the profile section. We'll be adding more options in the coming months!

Previously when pricing, our software only allowed the quote duration to be set whilst creating a brand new pricing request. We've now adapted the process so that within each matrix tender the user can select "Tender Tools > Update Tender Durations". Once the revised dates have been selected and saved, the resulting prices will reflect the newly-selected durations.