Feature Articles

While combining transaction management and billing can reduce handoffs and manual work, it can also limit how transaction data is managed and used across the business.

The better approach is to connect these functions without combining them into one system. This preserves the value of transaction data across the organization while providing an independent record that can help identify billing discrepancies.

Transaction Data Is an Enterprise Asset

Every enrollment, drop, usage record, meter change and invoice that moves between a supplier and a utility provides information about the customer and the market. Billing needs some of that data, but its value extends across the business. Pricing and forecasting teams rely on usage history and load data, while sales and marketing use enrollment and attrition information to understand customer trends. Operations teams also depend on transaction records to identify and resolve issues.

When that data lives inside a billing platform, other teams may only be able to access it through reports and extracts designed for billing. Each new request may require additional support or changes from the billing vendor. An independent transaction data service maintains the complete raw record for every account, regardless of whether that data ever reaches an invoice.

Revenue Assurance from Market Transaction to Customer Bill

The strongest reason to keep transaction data separate is control. Finance teams separate responsibilities for recording, approving and reconciling transactions to provide an independent check. The same principle applies to billing. An independent transaction record provides a way to verify what was received against what was ultimately billed.

When market data and billing come from the same system, there is no independent record to catch discrepancies. Missing usage, an enrollment that never reaches billing or an incorrectly applied cancel-and-rebill can go undetected and lead to billing errors or lost revenue.

With 20 to 22 meter read dates each month, billing exceptions can occur every business day. An independent transaction data service can identify issues as transactions arrive and reconcile market data against billed output throughout each read cycle.

This independent record can help identify unbilled accounts, billing that continues after a customer’s effective drop date, missing or stale usage, rate and pass-through errors and utility invoice or remittance mismatches. Individually, these issues may be small, but across a growing portfolio, they can add up quickly and remain unnoticed until an audit.

A separate data layer makes revenue assurance an ongoing process, helping identify discrepancies before they affect billing.

More Flexibility in Your Billing System

Commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and mass-market customers have different billing requirements. C&I billing may involve custom contracts, complex pricing and multi-site accounts, while mass-market billing requires greater volume and automation. One platform may not be the best fit for both.

Keeping transaction management separate allows suppliers to use different billing systems while maintaining the same transaction data service. This gives suppliers the flexibility to support different customer segments, add new product lines or integrate an acquired book of business without rebuilding market connections.

It also provides greater flexibility to change billing platforms. Establishing market connectivity requires testing and certification with utilities and ISOs, including flight testing in ERCOT and PJM. When transaction management is tied to the billing platform, changing billing vendors can require new testing and migration. With an independent data service, suppliers can change billing systems while maintaining existing market connections, transaction history and processes.

These considerations also affect the total cost of a bundled system. A lower software fee may be offset over time by limitations on data access, the need to work around a single billing platform or the testing and migration required to make a change.

Connected, Not Combined

Transaction management and billing need to work together, but they do not need to operate within the same system. An independent transaction data service can connect with the billing systems a supplier already uses while maintaining a complete transaction record, supporting access across the organization and providing greater flexibility as business needs change.

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Cade Burks is the Chief Digital Officer, Chairman and Founder of Big Data Management Services which provides EDI transaction management and energy data services that integrate with suppliers’ existing billing systems. Learn how Big Data can help you get more value from your transaction data.