Overseeing multiple buildings and their functions comes with its fair share of stress and problems. Utility bill management is one of the most difficult aspects of property management. Processing utility bills can be exceedingly time consuming and can result in a loss of money for you and your business. Managing utility bills will take you or an employee away from performing your daily functions, resulting in a loss of productivity. This time could be spent performing much more important tasks. Unfortunately, utility bills are simply a way of life. How can you manage your utility bills without taking this time out of your day?
What is a Utility Bill?
A utility bill is a bill that is received by a consumer for the use of a paid utility. There are many things that count as “utilities.” Most utilities are necessities for daily life. Water is considered to be a utility. It is provided through utility companies, who are obligated to purify the water and ensure that it is safe for human consumption. Gas and Electricity are another utility. They tend to be used in conjunction because they are often provided by the same company. Different appliances will use different types of utilities. A gas stove will obviously use gas for heating and an electric heater will use electricity. Landline telephone services are also considered public utilities. They are available to households, but the actual use of a landline telephone will result in a monthly fee. Cable services, though not exactly a necessity of life, are also included in the “utility” category.
What is Utility Bill Automation?
Utility bill automation is when all of the data across multiple buildings regarding their utility use is compiled into a single place. That data is then stored on a platform that runs analytics on the information. This is particularly helpful for those who manage a large portfolio of buildings, like cities, building owners, or universities. Data is automatically retrieved from the billing company and is processed, paid, and thoroughly managed.
The Benefits of Utility Bill Automation
Utility bill automation shows the energy use of multiple buildings as a whole. This can help you determine the overall energy efficiency of your property. It compiles all of the data into a single place, allowing for easy detection of significant discrepancies. Additionally, the analytic software will locate and flag any unusual activity concerning your utility bills. This will help you find any errors with your utility bill. Without close inspection of every utility bill, you may not notice these errors, which can cost you money. This scrutiny can take a great deal of time when done manually, but utility bill automation does the work for you!
Utility bill automation can help your company understand its overall energy use. This can help them to pinpoint where they can improve and reduce costs. Utility bill automation accurately organizes information, ensuring that all costs are as they should be. The analytic software is capable of noting your average utility bill and will catch anything that significantly varies from that amount. The use of utility bill automation will also prevent late fees, which add up over time. Utility bill automation will allow the accuracy of your utility bill to be checked by a third, unbiased party.
Do I Need Utility Bill Automation?
Utility bill automation can help your business in a variety of ways. It can significantly reduce the amount of time you or an employee has to spend on managing your utility bills. Late fees will be a thing of the past when you implement utility bill automation. Utility bill automation is extremely helpful when you manage multiple buildings. It can also ensure that you’re not paying utility bills that you are not responsible for. If you sell a property but have hundreds of utility bills to manage, you may not notice if that property’s utility bill keeps showing up in your mailbox. Simplifying your utility bill management process is absolutely vital when you manage many properties, buildings, or units with individual utility bills.
Additional Energy Management Tools
Though utility bill automation can be incredibly useful, it isn’t the only solution for managing energy consumption. Other processes can help you track your company’s utility use and pinpoint the areas that could use improvement. Proactive energy management solutions can help you catch problems with energy consumption before they become expensive. Real-time energy management is one of the best ways to take a proactive approach to your energy use. It will track energy consumption as it happens, alerting you to any significant changes. This can help you make changes immediately, which will instantly save you money. Ultimately, energy management tools can help you minimize your energy use, save you time, and lower your expenses.
Additional Utility Management Tools
For landlords, a ratio utility billing system can be used to help you fairly distribute utility bills. This allows tenants to feel like they are more in control of their overhead costs, as well as encourage them to reduce their utility use. This also saves the landlord more money. Utility submetering helps to track individual tenant’s utility use. This is often considered the fairest way to distribute overall utility costs. A well-developed utility management system will allow you to optimize your processes and lower overall expenses.
Utility bill automation can simplify your utility bill management process. Automation will allow your bills to be managed efficiently and consistently. Eliminating the necessity for manually managing your utility bills will significantly increase your productivity, which will save you money. There are many other solutions to help with both energy and utility management processes. These processes can be vital in lowering costs without impacting productivity levels. In fact, setting these systems in place can actually raise your productivity levels, because neither you or you employees will have to spend time figuring out how to manage utility bills or energy use. To learn more about how one of these systems can benefit your business, contact us at Vitality today!
