Metered Utilities

Metered utilities bill each tenant for the electricity or water their site used, from readings you take off the site's meters, with an optional supply charge. Enter a new reading and its date, and the bill from the previous reading to that one is worked out straight away and waits for you to issue it. Each bill is a separate invoice beside rent, laid out the way a retailer's is: the dates and their day count, the readings it was taken from, usage at the rate, the supply charge, and the daily averages.

Your state may regulate what a park can charge tenants for utilities and how long they have to pay. Check the rules that apply to your park before you set a rate or the days to pay, and ask your accountant which GST treatment applies to each utility you pass on.

The first time you open Utilities, a short setup asks four things and then takes you to the meter table.

Setting Up

Utilities: tick Electricity, Water or both.
Rates: for each one, the rate per kWh or kL, the supply charge (per day or per bill, or 0 for none) and how GST applies. Bill readings taken from defaults to today; set it to the day after your last bill from your old system, and earlier readings are kept as history.
Areas: tick every area whose sites have their own meters.
Invoices: Days to pay, Other payment methods besides the online payment link, a Phone for account enquiries and complaints, and Energy ombudsman details (name, phone and website). Whatever you fill in is printed at the bottom of every utility invoice, and you can reword it later under Settings.

The last step shows Utility billing terms: your organisation is the seller of the utilities it bills and is responsible for its rates, its invoices and the rules that apply to it. Tick the box and click Finish setup. Setup is completed by the account owner, and who accepted and when is kept on record.

Turning It On For An Area

Open Campsite Areas from the campground menu and click the area.
Choose the Utilities tab in the area's settings.
Switch Sites in this area are metered from Not Metered to Metered.
Click Update Utility Settings.

Powered Site and Caravan (powered) areas start metered; every other area starts off. Every tenant on a metered site gets a Utilities section on their lease page, and the site appears in the table on the Utilities page. Set an area back to Not Metered and its sites leave the table; readings and charges are kept.

Utilities is in your side navigation and in search with Cmd/Ctrl + K. To take the link out of the side navigation, untick Utilities under Settings > Navigation; the page stays available from search. Before utilities are set up, Hide Utilities from menu at the top right of the Utilities page does the same in one click.

Setting Your Rate

Open Utilities. The bar above the table shows the rate for the utility on screen. Click Set rate the first time, or Change rate after that. To bill the other utility as well, click + Bill another utility and pick it; once it has a rate it gets its own button above the table, and the table shows one utility at a time.

Rate per unit in dollars, up to four decimal places, for example 0.3275 per kWh.
Supply charge, or 0 if you pass on usage only. Choose per day for a daily charge like an energy retailer's, or per bill for a fixed amount like a water service charge. A per-bill charge is shared by days when a site changes tenant mid-bill.
GST on these charges: Standard GST records 1/11 of each charge as GST. GST-free records none and stamps the invoice as a GST-free sale, so it is reported at G1 and G3 on your BAS and posts to Xero as GST Free Income. You choose one each time you save a tariff. The long-stay accommodation concession is applied to rent only, never to a utility invoice.
Applies to readings taken from: a bill closed by a reading taken on or after this date is charged at this rate. It defaults to today. For example, a rate that applies from 1 July is used for a bill read on 28 September, and a bill read on 28 June keeps the earlier rate.
Click Save rate.

Rates are entered GST-inclusive, the same as rent. Saving adds a new rate rather than changing the old one, and invoices already issued keep the rate they were billed at. Earlier rates are listed at the bottom of the same window.

Readings taken before your first tariff's date are kept as history and open the first bill. For example, with a first rate that applies from 1 July, a reading on 30 June and another on 30 September produce one bill for 1 July to 30 September. If the page tells you sites were last read before the rate starts, click Change rate and save the rate again with an earlier date to bill those readings.

To stop billing a utility, click Change rate, then Stop charging, and choose the date. It is billed up to the last reading taken before that date and comes off the page. Set a new rate to start charging again.

Billing Settings

Click Settings at the top of the Utilities page.

Days to pay after an invoice is issued: 28 by default. For example, 28 makes an invoice issued on 1 October fall due on 29 October.
Footer on utility invoices (optional): text printed at the bottom of every utility invoice in place of your usual invoice notes. Use it for how tenants can pay and who to call about their account, for example "Payment options: pay online with the link above, or direct deposit to BSB 000-000 Acct 00000000. Account enquiries and complaints: 02 5550 1234." Leave it blank and utility invoices carry your usual invoice notes.

Site Meters

Open a site under Campsite Areas and choose its Utilities tab. For each utility you charge for:

This site has a … meter: switch it off for a site with no meter for that utility. The site shows No meter in that column on the Utilities page and no reading is entered or billed for it. Every site starts with every meter on.
Meter number (optional): the identifier printed on the meter. It is printed on the tenant's bill beside the site, and shows on the Utilities grid, the reading sheet and the lease page.
A site with no meter number shows No meter number in red on the Utilities page and the lease page. Click Add beside it on the Utilities page to type the number in without leaving the table, or Change beside an existing number. When you add a single site to a metered area with Quick Add Site, you can enter its meter number there too.

Click Update Utility Settings.

Entering Readings

Open Utilities. The table has one row per metered site: the site, its tenant, the Last reading with its date, a box for the New reading, and the Bill. Pick an area to walk one part of the park. A retired site stays on the list while a tenant is still on it or a bill is waiting on it. Click Print reading sheet to take a PDF on the walk: every site with its tenant, meter numbers and last readings, and a blank column for the new figure.

Set Read on to the date you walked the meters. It defaults to today.
Type each meter's figure into its New reading box, exactly as it appears on the dial. The usage since the last reading shows under the box as you type, so a mistyped digit stands out before it is saved. Leave the meters you did not read blank.
Check any figure flagged in orange under the box: usage more than three times that meter's usual daily rate, usage on a vacant site, or no usage for over a month with a tenant on the site. A flagged reading is still saved. If the dial really says so, type why in the note box that appears, for example "new air conditioner"; the note is kept with the reading.
If a meter was swapped or rolled over, type the new meter's figure, click Meter was replaced? under the box, enter the old meter's final reading if you have it, and click Mark as replaced. Both are recorded on the same day: the old meter's last units are billed, and the new meter starts a fresh sequence.
Click Save readings. Each bill appears in the Bill column of its row, worked out from the meter's last billed reading to the new one.

Each utility keeps its own sequence: a reading must be at least that meter's previous reading unless the meter was replaced. One reading stands per meter per day; saving a second for the same day replaces the first, and the page says so under the box before you save. If one figure in a walk is refused, the rest are still saved and only that box is left for you to fix. Readings can also be added one at a time from the tenant's lease page, or posted by a smart-meter system through the REST API. Export every reading as a CSV, under History, downloads every reading with its site, date and source.

A reading an issued invoice was built from is locked. It shows as Invoiced on the lease page and stays as it is until the invoice is voided.

Billing

A bill runs from the day after the meter's last billed reading to the day of the new reading, and supply is charged for those days, exactly as a retailer's bill does: a meter read on 30 June and again on 28 September produces a bill for 1 July to 28 September (90 days). Read the meters every quarter, every month or on any date that suits; each bill covers the time since the last one, and every unit on the meter is billed once. A meter's first reading opens its first bill.

When a tenant leaves, read the meter before anyone else has the site and enter the reading with Read on set to the date you read it. Their final bill is ready to issue at once, and the same reading opens the next tenant's bill. An empty site uses nothing, so a reading taken a week after they left still bills them; the bill's row tells you how many empty days it takes in, and the supply charge is for the days they held the site. Nothing is estimated: a tenant is billed the usage between two readings only when nobody else was on the site between them. For example, with readings on 30 June and 30 September, one tenant who left on 15 August and another who arrived on 16 August, the usage between those readings is billed to nobody, because neither tenant's part of it was measured. The same applies where a casual booking had the site between the readings. That usage is marked NOT BILLED in red on the bill's row with the date a reading was needed, the tenant's invoice says which usage it leaves out, and each tenant still pays the supply charge for their own days. If you did read the meter that day, enter the reading with Read on set to its date and the usage is billed. Until a final reading is entered, the lease page and the site's row on the Utilities page show Final reading needed with the tenant's last day, for as long as it is owed, and a reading dated after someone else took the site shows a red warning before you save it, because it will not bill the tenant who left. Where two leases on a site overlap, each day goes to the lease that started most recently, so no day is billed twice.

Each bill sits in the Bill column of its meter's row with its total, its dates, the usage at the rate and the supply charge. Add a credit takes an amount off the bill as its own line with the name you give it, for example "Concession rebate" for 25.00, and the total and its GST change to match; it stays on the bill if a later reading recalculates it. To charge a fee, create a separate invoice on the lease. Preview opens the bill's PDF in a new tab exactly as it will look, marked as a preview, without creating an invoice or contacting the tenant. Issue creates and sends the invoice after you confirm. A bill that a credit has taken to $0.00 has no Issue button; skip it or change the credit. Issue all, above the table beside the count and total of bills ready, does every bill after you confirm. A bill you leave there grows with the next reading, so one bill covers everything since the last invoice. Skip sets aside a bill you will not send, and the next bill for that meter starts from its closing reading.

History, at the top of the page, lists every utility invoice with its payment status, 25 to a page, the totals invoiced and still unpaid, and the skipped bills, each with Restore.

Correcting a Charge

A bill that has not been issued is recalculated whenever its readings or the rate change. To fix a mistyped reading, enter the right figure for the same date and save; it replaces the first and the bill updates before anything is sent. Once an invoice has been issued, its readings are locked. To correct it, void the invoice from the lease page: the readings unlock and the bill returns to its row on the Utilities page, where it follows the corrected readings. The voided invoice stays on the lease as the record of what was first billed.

The Utilities Statement

On a tenant's lease page, Download statement in the Utilities section prints a PDF of every reading on the site's meters with the usage between each pair, and every charge raised against the lease with its status, the total billed and what is still unpaid. Give it to a tenant who queries a bill or is leaving.

The Invoice

A utility invoice has its own layout, one per utility per bill. Under your details and the tenant's, each charge is a labelled line with its quantity, rate and amount: usage, the daily supply or service charge, and any credit you added, followed by GST and the total. Below that, Supply Details shows the site, the meter number, the billing period and its days, the previous and current readings with their dates, and the average use and cost per day. The Click Here To Pay Online link and your utility invoice footer are at the bottom. It falls due after the number of days in your settings and is emailed to the tenant, who pays it from the invoice. Direct Debit collects rent only.

Who Can Use It

Utilities has its own permission. Utilities (View) opens the page, the reading sheet and lease statements. Utilities (Enter readings) also records and removes readings, on the grid and on lease pages, and is the one to give a groundskeeper who does the meter walk. Utilities (Manage) also sets rates and settings, and issues, skips and restores bills. Turning metering on for an area and setting up a site's meters need Campsites & Areas (Manage), like their other settings. API tokens use the Utilities (Read) and Utilities (Write) scopes. See Staff, Groups & Permissions.