CMS - Utility Schedules

Created by Mienette van Heerden, Modified on Thu, 13 Jun, 2024 at 2:14 PM by Glennise Pretorius

Instead of preparing utility schedules in Excel, create a schedule on WeconnectU for each municipality and then assign this schedule to the different communities.

Only upload the readings and the system will calculate the utility amounts. This will include things like basic- and per KL charges.

If the municipality announces any increases in the tariffs for water/electricity, these changes would happen once off on a global level and will pull through to all of the communities that are assigned to this specific schedule.

1. Adding a New Schedule

Navigation: Global Overview > Settings > Utilities Schedule

1.1 Adding a Water Schedule

Fill in the "Municipality Name" and until when this schedule is valid.

Important if the schedule expires, the system will not calculate the water/electricity amounts. In this case, the schedule will need to be updated by duplicating the schedule and filling in the new "Valid Until" date.

Add any Additional Charges to a schedule. These charges can be one of the following. These charges will automatically be added when readings are uploaded or added.

Add in the bands as provided by the municipality and choose if there is a Sewerage portion to the municipal rates.

1.2 Adding an Electricity Schedule

Fill in the "Municipality Name" and until when this schedule is valid.

Add any Additional Charges to a schedule. These charges can be one of the following. These charges will automatically be added when readings are uploaded or added.

Add in the bands as provided by the municipality

2. Assigning a Schedule to a Community

Navigation: On the same screen

After adding the new schedules, assign these schedules to the different communities. This can be done by either clicking on one of the following icons:

3. Uploading a Meter List

Navigation: Community Level > Finances > Water/Electricity Meters

Click on Upload Meter

"Meters Template". This will download an Excel spreadsheet that would need to be populated.

The Excel spreadsheet will have the following fields:

Unit Number: The unit number will already be populated
Customer Code: The unit number will already be populated
Meter Number: Fill in the Meter Number

If the meter numbers are unknown or wish not to use the meter numbers, simply just fill in the Unit Numbers here. If one unit has more than one meter linked to it, you will just repeat the Unit Number and Customer Code and fill in a unique meter number

Save this file and upload the batch file. Once the meters are uploaded they can be edited by clicking on the pencil icon.

Meter Number: Either registered meter number or unit number
Description: This description will reflect on the Levy Invoice
Unit: To which Unit this meter is linked to
Bypass Schedule: The schedule assigned at point 2 will be the default schedule for the community and all meters, if there is a secondary meter for the same unit and there is a different schedule, select the schedule which will bypass the default schedule.

4. Upload New Meter Readings

Once the relevant meters are loaded, bring in the relevant readings. There are two methods a manual capture or a bulk upload.

4.1 Manually adding new Utility Readings

Navigation: Community Level > Finances > Water/Electricity Meters > Click on "New Reading".

Fill in the closing reading date as well as the open and closing readings. The usage and water/electricity amounts will automatically be calculated as these fields are filled in with the opening and closing readings.

4.2 Excel Utility Reading Upload

Navigation: Community Level > Finances > Water/Electricity Meters > Click on "Upload Reading".

Insert the Opening and Closing readings in Column D and Column E, the WeconnectU system will automatically calculate the usage and Rand amount.

Before uploading the Excel sheet, fill in the "Date From" and the "Date To" for the date range of the utilities billed.

5. Billing of Utilities

If there is more than one charge being invoiced for water or electricity or if there is more than one meter these charges will all be grouped on the billing screen, however on the invoice, it will split out all of the amounts as individual line items.

Example: Basic Charges and individual meters will be displayed as individual line items on the customer’s invoice.