Run the monthly billing review

This is the recurring job: check the month's transactions, release the ones that are right, and turn them into invoices.

Before you start, know which billing groups you are responsible for. The review is done one group at a time, because different groups settle differently and a mixed list cannot be worked through consistently.

1. Open the month's work

Go to Billing → Billings and select the Open tab. This lists every billing period with a transaction that has not yet been released.

Set two filters before you look at anything.

Billing group — pick yours from Public Filters in the left panel.

Billing month — use Adjust Current Filter, choose Billing Month, and set it to Current Month. Without it the tab shows every unreleased transaction ever raised, including old ones parked on hold, and the list is not a month's work.

Both filters persist as you move between the billing screens, which is convenient during a run and confusing afterwards — a contract's own Billings tab will look empty if you left a billing group filter set from a different group. Clear them with the × on the filter chip.

2. Deal with the transactions that cannot be released

Work the exceptions before the bulk, or the bulk release will leave them behind without telling you why.

Sort or scan for transactions whose readings are incomplete. The Type column also matters here: reversal, termination and advance rows are not ordinary months and usually want looking at individually.

For each one:

• Readings missing. Enter them or request them — see Enter or request meter readings. If they will not arrive in time, decide whether to let BMS bill its fallback (estimate, minimum or zero, depending on the contract) or to hold the transaction for a month.
• A query on the account. Open the transaction and use Hold Transaction. Held transactions are skipped by bulk release, so this is how you take something out of the run without cancelling it.
• A figure that is wrong. Adjust the line, or use Add New Line for a charge that is not on the contract. Both are only possible while the transaction is Open.

3. Check before you commit

Two reports on the Billings screen are worth running before release.

Reports → Unread Transaction Meters lists everything in the filtered set that still has no reading. If this is not empty, decide what happens to each line before going further — releasing now means BMS bills its fallback rather than what the device counted.

Reports → Transaction Details gives the figures for the group. Compare the total against last month's. A group that has moved by more than you would expect usually means a contract terminated, a large site changed, or a batch of readings did not arrive.

These two checks are worth the few minutes. After release, correcting a month costs a reversal and a rebill on every affected contract.

4. Release

With the exceptions dealt with, select the transactions to release and use Release Transactions.

Release is reversible. A released transaction can be returned to Open with Unrelease at any point before an invoice is generated from it. See Billing period, transaction and invoice statuses for what each status permits.

5. Generate the invoices

Move to the Released tab and generate invoices in bulk from there.

Invoices are created as drafts. They then move through approval and processing before being sent — approve, process and send are separate steps, and each can be done in bulk from the Invoices screen. Consolidation codes on the contracts decide which transactions are combined onto one invoice.

6. Confirm nothing was left behind

Return to the Open tab with your billing group still selected. What remains should be only the transactions you deliberately held, and you should be able to name the reason for each.

Anything else is a transaction that could not be released — usually one whose billing period is in a state that will not complete. Open it and check the period's status before the next run.