Bill validation
Six questions asked of every bill, in the order they matter.
A difference on its own is not much use. The checks run in the order they cause each other, so when something fails you are told which link in the chain broke, not just that the total is out.
- 01
Identity
Is this bill even yours?
Meter point, supplier and account are matched to a site and a contract you hold. A bill for a meter you left two years ago fails here rather than quietly reconciling.
- 02
Period
Does the period make sense?
Start and end dates, and whether this period overlaps or leaves a gap against the last bill for the same meter. Double-billed weeks hide in the overlap.
- 03
Consumption
Is the usage the meter's own?
Invoiced volumes are compared against the readings or half-hourly data, including whether the figure is an estimate that a real read has since replaced.
- 04
Rates
Is every rate the one that was agreed or published?
Contract rates for the day in question, and every industry charge from the tariff published for that charging year. This is where most money is found.
- 05
Arithmetic
Does the bill add up as printed?
Quantity times rate, the subtotals, VAT and the total. Simple, and still not always right.
- 06
Credits
Has what you were promised actually arrived?
Credits and adjustments the supplier agreed are matched off, so a credit that never landed does not disappear from the story.
The shadow bill
Rebuilt from the same sources the supplier bills from.
An expected bill is assembled for the exact period on the invoice, and the two are compared as documents rather than as totals.
Contract rates by date
Contracts are effective-dated. A rate change mid-period is applied from the day it took effect, not smeared across the month.
Published industry charges
Network and policy charges come from the tariffs published for that charging year and that network, held byte-exact as issued.
Your tolerance, your policy
Set the tolerance and decide per check whether a difference fails, warns or is ignored. The defaults reproduce your existing behaviour exactly.
Non-commodity
Where the money usually is.
These are the charges that change every charging year, arrive half-hourly, or reconcile long after the bill was paid. Each one is rebuilt from its published source.
- DUoSDistribution Use of System
- The local network's charge for delivering power to your meter, banded by time of day and set per network operator each charging year.
- TNUoSTransmission Network Use of System
- The national grid's charge, driven by where you are and your demand in the peak periods.
- BSUoSBalancing Services Use of System
- The cost of keeping supply and demand balanced, published half-hourly and applied per settlement period.
- CfDContracts for Difference
- The low-carbon generation levy, charged at an interim rate and then reconciled to the settled figure quarters later.
- CMCapacity Market
- The supplier charge for security of supply, levied on demand in the winter peak windows.
- AAHEDCAssistance for Areas with High Electricity Distribution Costs
- A levy that subsidises distribution in the north of Scotland, passed through as a rate on consumption.
- Nuclear RABNuclear Regulated Asset Base levy
- The quarterly levy funding new nuclear, charged on metered consumption.
- CCLClimate Change Levy
- The tax on business energy use, with the reliefs that apply to intensive users.
- ImbalanceElexon cash-out
- The settlement price for being out of position in a half hour, from the published system prices.
- RCRCResidual Cashflow Reallocation Cashflow
- The residual redistributed across the market after imbalance settles.
- LLFLine Loss Factors
- The gross-up for power lost in the network between the grid and your meter, by meter class and season.
Precision
No silent rounding, anywhere.
A validation engine that rounds on the way in cannot tell you whether a rate is wrong by a hundredth of a penny, which over a year of half-hours is real money.
- Published figures are stored and displayed exactly as issued, to their full precision
- Rates and quantities cross the calculation boundary as decimals, not floating point
- The only rounding is the final line amount, to whole pence, and it is stated
- Where a figure is missing rather than zero, the bill is held rather than passed
Evidence
Every run is kept, forever.
Validation is only worth doing if the result stands up months later, when the supplier disagrees.
- Re-running a bill writes a new record beside the old one; nothing is overwritten
- Each expected line, each comparison and each check outcome is stored, not just the verdict
- Who changed a contract, a policy or a verdict is recorded with the change
- Findings export to a spreadsheet or a PDF you can send to a supplier
After the finding
From a failed check to money back.
Query and track
Raise a query from the failing line with the evidence attached, and watch it by age until it is credited or closed.
Approve and pay
Approved bills go to an accounts-payable export. A bill that failed does not slip into it by accident.
Answer to anyone
Budgets, accruals and the audit trail come from the same validated figures, so finance and energy are reading one set of numbers.
See it against your own bills
A short call, then we validate a real invoice of yours and walk through what the engine found, line by line.