HOWEVER, THERE IS A BETTER WAY!

Physical bills can be scanned and reproduced in .jpeg, .png, or .pdf format for easy electronic viewing. Scanned bill images, whether sent from the utility or scanned in-house, are easier to manage than stacks of paper bills, but much like the methods of processing paper bills, OCR or manual entry are the only options to get it into your organization’s reporting system.

Some utility providers will generate invoices in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) format and post it directly to bill payment systems. The EDI format varies from provider to provider, causing a great amount of chaos when it comes to standardizing the data. Although posting the data does not require manual entry, EDI does require an organization to invest time and money in interpretation tools in order to understand and analyze the data points. Furthermore, EDI does not provide the bill image and generally historical data cannot be accessed.

Although not a popular option amongst utility providers, the XML format has been chosen by few providers. Utility bill data delivered in XML format is a raw “system dump” of information. The data is rich and complete, and the structure and relationships within the bill is preserved. However, like EDI, XML-formatted bills also require an investment in technical know-how to write rules for interpretation in order for the data to be digestible and easily understood.

THE DATA YOU RECEIVE FROM URJANET IS:

CALL (678) 439 - 8752 OR VISIT WWW.URJANET.COM TO EXPLORE AUTOMATED UTILITY BILL DATA ACQUISITION WITH URJANET.

PDF files generated by the utility can typically be downloaded from the utility’s website or sent via email. Text PDFs are a great alternative to paper bills as they reduce the impact on the environment and provide an easy-to-read, electronic version of your utility bill data. However, if your organization does not have an automated way to get text PDFs into your energy management systems and software, manual data entry is required.

Utility providers have also been known to send invoice data by way of .xls or .csv file formats. If your utility provider sends your bill data in text file format, you can typically recall and export certain outputs following a request given to your account representative. While the data may be easily imported into your organization’s backend systems, it generally isn’t as rich of a data source as EDI, for example. The data set can be very limiting, closing in on missed opportunities for analysis and cost savings.

Paper was the original method of transferring utility bill data, with millions of paper bills still circulated in the mail each month. Receiving one paper bill each month for electricity and gas at your home is pretty manageable, but when you are the energy manager at a multi-facility corporation, receiving thousands each month for the hundreds of facilities you manage is not so manageable. Getting all of this data into bill payment or business intelligence systems may require OCR technology or manual data entry, not to mention hours of filing away the physical bills for safekeeping.

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)

TEXT FILE

XML FILE

STRUCTURED PDF

SCANNED IMAGE

PAPER BILLS

HOW DO YOU RECEIVE YOUR UTILITY BILLS?Utility bills from multiple providers can arrive in several different formats from various sources, adding an additional layer of complexity for anyone attempting to manage energy spend and consumption. We determined the top 6 ways utility bills are typically received, and outlined the implications of each.

Urjanet’s intelligent, automated data platform collects electronic utility bill data from your utility provider. Next, our unique data model converts disparate utility bill data into one standardized, consistent, usable format while preserving source fidelity to capture all relevant data points. Finally, our data delivery architecture makes it easy to seamlessly import your data into the program of your choice. To maximize data quality, our advanced quality assurance process includes over 150 distinct data audits that span the entire process, from collection to delivery.

TIMELY ACCURATE THOROUGH CONSISTENT