CMS - How To: Update Utility Schedule

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

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. Updating a Schedule

Navigation: Global Overview > Settings > Utilities Schedule

On this page, the list of schedules will be displayed on the right-hand side of the screen.

Select the utility schedule that needs to be updated. On the right-hand side, click on the word "duplicate".

On the pop-up screen, the name will not change. Only the "Valid Until" date and tariff amounts should the municipality increase the tariffs. Once complete, click on the Save button.

It is best practice not to create new schedules, as utility schedules cannot be removed from the Utilities display screen. It will become very tricky to manage and differentiate between the valid and expired utility schedules. This is also great for record purposes to be able to view the expired schedules of the municipality by simply clicking on the previous year (in black under the municipality name).

Please note 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.

For example, the above-mentioned schedule expiry date is Nov 2023 which means that the billing run created in November for 1 December will not be calculated as it has expired. It is only when the above steps are followed and the valid until the date is updated will the tariff amounts be calculated.

The last step is to ensure that the correct updated schedule is set in the relevant community. The list of communities is displayed on the left side of the page.

2. Assigning a Schedule to a Community

Navigation: On the same screen

After updating the schedules, assign these schedules to the different communities. This can be done by either clicking on the municipal name.

Something to note is that if multiple schedules have been created in the same municipality all of the schedules will reflect on the drop-down list and this again will become tricky to manage the longer the list becomes.