If you are the owner of a multi-family home or apartment block, you must be seriously considering sub-metering and billing individual families for the utilities they consume. When you are looking out for utility billing companies ensure that the utility billing system they have in place is foolproof and error free to reduce complaints from tenants and increase compliance in payments.
Integration
If the utility bill payment services you are using employs utility billing accounting integrations, then the bills generated by them and the reports they submit are likely to be error free. While most companies that offer these services have remote reading of meters as part of their system, they do not always integrate this with the accounting systems. Manual entry of data leads to errors and delays all of which can lead to complaints.
Reducing Errors
By using electricity billing software, billing companies generate the bills for individual families. They might then have a separate accounting billing software to keep track of payments received. This leads to manual reconciliation of bills, which can result in delays and errors.
It is easier for tenants to pay their bills on time, if they receive them early. Utility management software helps in the quick generation of bills and timely processing of payments. While all tenants intend to pay their bills, some might not be able to do so if the bills are presented late. A regular schedule of bills is possible with the use of utility billing solutions. These solutions ensure that individual bills for each utility are delivered to each family residing in the apartment complex you own.
Money Coming your Way
Once the company offering utility bill payment services collects all the money due to you, it deducts its charges, typically $7 per bill, and makes out a consolidated check to you for that amount. New utility software takes into account newer methods of paying for utilities such as electronic transfer of funds and makes sure that all payments methods are possible.
A Win-Win
Energy billing systems as well as utility software and water billing software help generate awareness about the consumption levels of utilities. This awareness usually translates into more responsible use, leading to a significant drop in consumption. This is a win-win situation for both the landlord and the tenant as lower bills for utilities means cost savings for everyone.
Trust
Utility bill payment services, by employing software and automating most of the tasks, ensure that the cost of metering individual families is kept low. By using the services of such companies, landlords are saved the hassle of employing staff to install and read meters, prepare bills, and collect payments. With utility billing accounting integrations, companies offering utility billing services offer a low-cost, effective way of metering individual family use of utilities. As tenants are convinced that they are only paying for utilities they use, they are more willing to pay their bills, making collection easier. Using energy billing software is a fair and transparent way of billing tenants for the energy they use.