Controlling Facility Energy Costs > Combining Approaches to Energy Cost Control > Supply Side (Utility Account) Cost Control

Utility invoices are not like most other invoices. They're complicated, potentially unpredictable, and resist simple business analysis. If an organization is going to track energy use and analyze it confidently, ERP and accounting systems like SAP or J.D. Edwards can't do the job. The invoices often have many variables that are just not captured in general-purpose applications, and generate billed amounts using internal calculations that ERP systems are not designed to verify. You can store consumption figures and dollar amounts, but you can't do much with them. And there are some very good reasons to analyze your energy use.

If you're already doing some invoice analysis with a spreadsheet, you know that it's time-consuming and awkward. The required manual entry is prone to error, and it also involves significant double-entry (once for the accounting or ERP system, once for the spreadsheet). If you're using a desktop or server-based energy accounting system, you know there are inputs like local weather data that you have to pay for and enter on an ongoing basis.

A subscription to the ManagingEnergy system is typically priced at about 1/10 of 1% of energy expenditure, and provides absolutely the best system at the best value for managing critical energy billing data information.

Your local weather data is provided without charge.

Our billing rate engine is designed to duplicate any utility tariff, of any complexity, to the penny. This power lets you to quickly spot data errors and over-billing, and in those cases make a solid claim for cost recovery from the utility.

ManagingEnergy can often justify itself from day 1, just in labour savings in invoice processing. In medium and large organizations, utility invoices are typically handled by four or more people, which costs far more than a single-entry system using ManagingEnergy.

Single Entry

ManagingEnergy can be easily customized to exchange accounting data with an ERP or accounting system. And if you want, it stores the scanned invoice along with the entered data. For those utilities that can deliver invoices electronically, ManagingEnergy will import them either individually or in batches, and check them for validity on the way in.

The sample below is a real case study for a client, in which ManagingEnergy provides a 70% reduction in the staff time required to process invoices, with better analysis and all the other advantages of the system. Although we can't share the details, the complexity of the process flow charts gives an idea of the reduction in monthly effort.

Before - Using an ERP system with spreadsheets

After - Using ManagingEnergy. Labour reduction of approximately 70%.