Summary

The New Billing process is used to calculate charges on UB customer accounts in a selected billing cycle and generate the billing statements.  The bills will be calculated based on the Billing tab of the UB Setup window (UB> Utilities> Setup> Billing tab), the service rates attached to the customer accounts in the batch and the bill types attached to the meters on those accounts.

Service rates are attached to customer accounts and determine the rate structure, winter average, taxes, bill type and prorating options of a billing. The service rate will calculate charges on the consumption on meters with the same bill type and the charges will be billed to the service attached to the service rate.

Bill types are used to link the consumption on a meter to a service rate on an account. When a billing is generated the consumption on a meter will be billed using the service rates attached to the UB customer account with the same bill type. Bill types are attached to service rates (UB> Maintenance> Service Rates> General tab> Bill Type field) and device types (UB> Maintenance> Device Type> General tab> Bill Type field).

When bills are generated, bill types determine what service rate will be used to bill the consumption on a meter. When a bill is generated on a customer account, the consumption on a meter will be billed using the service rate with the same bill type as the meter. If there are multiple service rates on the customer account with the same bill type, all of the service rates will apply.

When billing the consumption on a meter, there are no units of measure (gallons, cubic feet, etc.) attached to the service rates. The service rate will be applied to the consumption as it was read on the meter. For example, if there were 100 units of consumption read on the meter during the billing period, then the service rate will be applied to the 100 units regardless of the type of unit was read (gallon, cubic feet, etc.). If there are meters of multiple unit types in the same billing batch, or the consumption should be converted to another unit type as the billing is being calculated, you can convert the consumption read on the devices to another unit type using the consumption conversion table (UB> Maintenance> Consumption Conversion).

When new bills are generated (UB> New Billing> Generate), there is a Convert Consumption To drop-down menu that allows you to convert the consumption read on the meters to a different unit type. The consumption will be converted to the unit type using the conversion formula set up in the conversion table (UB> Maintenance> Consumption Conversion), and the service rate will be applied to the modified consumption on the meter. For example, if the consumption was read in cubic feet and is changed to gallons, the consumption read on the meter (100) will be multiplied by the conversion amount (7.48000) and then the service rate will be applied to the modified consumption amount (748). The Billing Register will display both the consumption read on the meter and the modified consumption.

The consumption read on a meter will be in the unit type attached to the device type it is associated with. When a device type is created, a unit of measure is specified on the device type (UB> Maintenance> Water, Gas, Electric Device Type> Meter tab> Unit Type drop-down menu). All devices attached to that device type will inherit that unit type.

The billing transaction created by the New Billing palette will display on the customer account as soon as the Generate step is complete. You can view the billing using the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> History tab). Click the Expand button on the History tab to view the detail line items on the transaction. Each service rate on the billing will display as a separate line item.

The statements that will print out during the New Billing process are set up in UB> Utilities> Setup> Statement Settings. If there is bank account information attached to the UB customer account (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH Info sub-tab) a “Do Not Pay – Automatic Debit” message will display on the statement.

Step by Step

1     Create a New Billings batch.

• Open the New Billing Batches window (UB> New Billing). The Batches window will display all the open New Billing batches.
• Click the Create New Batch button to create a new batch. This will open the Create Batch window.
  • If there are open batches in the New Billing process, you can create a new batch without affecting the open batches.
• The Batch Month and Batch Year fields default to the current date and are used for reference only. The batch month and batch year do not affect the transaction or journal entry date of the transactions in the batch.
  • The transaction date of the billing is set up in the Generate step and the fiscal period the transactions are posted to is determined by the Journal Entry Date entered when creating the GL Distribution Report in UB> New Billing> GL Distribution.
• Click Create to create the new New Billing batch.

2     Open the Batch Overview page. 

• The Batch Overview page provides a general overview of the selected batch.
• The left navigation menu displays all the steps in the New Billing process.
• In the main section you'll see information about batch steps that are currently processing, next available batch steps, and the last completed batch step.
  • Batch steps that are currently processing will display a blue indicator bar to alert you that the step has not yet completed.
  • Once the preceding batch step is complete, the next available batch steps will be enabled and you can select the next step you would like to run.
    • While some batch steps are optional, any batch step that includes the Required tag must be completed before the batch is allowed to proceed through to the Commit step.
• The Batch Outputs section on the right will display any reports or exports that have already been generated in the New Billing process.

3     Generate bills.

• Select Generate from the New Billing menu. This will open the Generate/New Billing window.
• Select the services you would like to include in the billing in the Services field.
  • Click SELECT ALL or DESELECT ALL to select or deselect all the displayed services.
  • The services selected in the Services field determine which service rates will be included on the billing, not necessarily what meter consumption will be included.
    • The consumption of a meter is attached to a bill type and all service rates of the same bill type included in the billing and attached to the customer account will be included on the bill.
    • If the consumption has a bill type that does not match any of the service rates included in the billing, than the consumption will not be billed.
    • You can view the bill type of a meter from General tab of the Device Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Device), and you can view the bill type of a service rate from the General tab of the Service Rate Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Service Rate).
    • For detailed information on how the consumption of a meter is attached to a service and service rate see the.
• Select the billing cycle you would like to generate charges on in the Billing Cycle drop-down menu. The Billing Cycle field will not be enabled if charges have already been generated in the selected batch.
  • Billing cycles are created and maintained in UB> Maintenance> Cycle Code. You can view the billing cycle attached to a customer account in UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Billing Cycle field.
  • Meters are read by meter route, but are billed by billing cycle, so the customer billing cycle is not the same as the meter route.
  • If the Billing Cycle field is not enabled and you would like to generate charges on a difference batch, you will have to create a new batch.
• The Service Group field is used to filter the accounts included in the batch by service group.
  • The Service Group field will only display for those agencies that have created service groups. Service groups are created and maintained on the Service Group Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Service Group).
  • By default, no Service Group will be selected and the batch can be processed as usual. If a Service Group is selected, only those services included in the specified Service Group will be selected in the Services field.
  • If this is the first time a New Billing batch is generated for the specified Service Group and Billing Cycle, the Period Begin Date can be set below.
  • If the specified Service Group and Billing Cycle has been billed previously, the Period Begin Date will be set to one day after the most recent Period End Date.
• The Period Begin Date field is disabled and will populate based on the last time the selected billing cycle was billed.
  • The period end date of the previous billing on the cycle will display in the Period End Date field in UB> Maintenance> Cycle Code.
  • After the current New Billing batch is committed, the date entered in the Period End Date field will be saved on the billing cycle.
• Enter a Period End Date.
  • The Period End Date will default to the current date. It is not the number of days in the billing cycle added to the Period Begin Date.
• Enter a Transaction Date. The transaction date is the date that will be assigned to all of the bills generated in the batch. The Transaction Date field will default to the current date.
  • You can view the transaction date of a transaction on a customer account in UB> Maintenance> Account> History tab> Transaction Date column.
• The Billing Period and Billing Year will default to the current calendar month and year.
  • The selection in the Meter Reads to Bill drop-down menu in UB> Utilities> Setup> Billing tab determines how the Billing Period field will function.
    • If Unbilled is selected in the Meter Reads to Bill drop-down menu, all unbilled readings on the customer accounts in the batch will pull onto the billing statements regardless of the read period on the meter readings.
    • If Period is selected, only unbilled readings with a reading date that is in the same period as the billing period will be charged on the billing statements.
• Select the status of the accounts you would like to include in the batch in the Account Status field.
  • If a customer account status has been changed to Vacation (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab), the account will be prorated based on the dates in the Vacation Begin and Vacation End date fields.
  • You can view the status of an account in UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Account Status field.
  • There is no Final status toggle because they will automatically be included in the New Billing batch. If you bill customer accounts with a Final status in their normal billing cycles rather than process them separately in the Final Billing palette (UB> Final Billing), the Final status accounts will be automatically included in the billing batch.
• Click the Submit button to generate the bills. You can view the progress of the Generate step on the Job Viewer window.
  • Click the Schedule icon next to the Submit button in order to schedule the generate step to generate at a later date and time.
    • Enter a Date and Time to generate the report and click SUBMIT.

4     View the errors generated on the New Billing.

• Select Exceptions on the New Billing menu to view the exceptions and errors on the bills generated in the batch. This will open the Exceptions/New Billing window.
• The Exceptions step is not required to commit a New Billing batch.
• The Exceptions window will display all of the exception messages generated in the batch.
  • If a customer account in the billing cycle has an open service request, the service request will display as an exception in the window. Group the exceptions in the window by sorting the exceptions by the Category column if you would like to view all of the open service requests on the customer accounts in the batch. This exception does not keep the customer account from being included in the New Billing batch (customer accounts can be billed when they have open service requests), it is only informational.
  • The “No consumption found for meter: Route No 39, Sequence Number…” message will display if there is no consumption on the meter attached to a customer account in the billing cycle.
• If there is consumption on the meter but has not been included in the billing, the billing may be set up to bill only meter readings of a specific reading period.
  • The “Unable to find any billable meter history for meter:…” statement will display if a meter has been removed from a customer account in the billing cycle.
  • The “Removing previous pending bill for this account” message will display if you re-run the generate step. For example, if you run the Generate step and then re-run the Generate step to regenerate the billing, this message will display on the Exceptions window.
  • The “This account status ( ) does not match one of the statuses chosen for billing…” message is generated if a customer account in the selected billing cycle has an account status not selected during the Generate step (UB> New Billing> Generate> Account Status field).

5     Preview the billing.

• Select Preview from the New Billing menu to preview the generated bills. This will open the Preview/New Billing window.
• The Preview step is not required to commit a New Billing batch.
• The Preview/New Billing window will display the total billing broken down by service for each customer in the batch, and the service and billing total of the entire batch.
  • Use the search fields to filter the displayed bills in the data grid below.
  • The data grid is limited to 15,000 records.
  • If your organization uses the billing comparison functionality, any bill line items that exceed the specified comparison variance will display in red. Billing comparison functionality is set up on the Billing tab of the UB Setup window (UB> Utilities> Setup).

6     Print the register.

• The billing register displays a summary of the billings in the batch.
• Select Register from the New Billing menu to print the Register Report for the batch. This will open the Register/New Billing window.
• Filter the billings that display on the report by the current billing amount.
  • Enter a value in the Minimum Amount and Maximum Amount fields to create a range of billings that will display on the report.
  • The Minimum Amount and Maximum Amount fields will filter the billings that display on the report by current billing amount.
  • By default, the Minimum Amount and Maximum Amount fields will be small and large enough to include all billings.
• Select which consumption you would like to include on the report in the Consumption drop-down menu.
  • Select Actual if you would like the consumption that displays on the report to match the consumption that displays on the Devices tab of the customer accounts in the batch. The consumption multiplier and divisors set up on the device type attached to the meter on the account will not be included in the consumption calculation.
    • A consumption multiplier or divisor is attached to a device type using the device type maintenance window (for example, UB> Maintenance> Water Device Type> Water tab> Consumption Multiplier and Consumption Divisor fields).
  • Select Billable Only if there are meters in the billing batch that have a consumption multiplier or divisor attached to them. This will display the modified consumption amount on the report.
    • The consumption that will display on the Billing Register will not match the consumption that displays on the Devices tab of the customer account. The consumption that displays on the Meters tab does not calculate based on the consumption multipliers.
      • You can view the meter readings on a customer account in UB> Maintenance> Account> Meters tab> Meter History section.
    • Consumption multipliers and devisors are attached to Water Device types in UB> Maintenance> Water Device Types> Water tab.
  • The selection in the Consumption drop-down menu does not affect how the consumption will display on the report when a special multiplier is being applied to the consumption on a meter. The Billing Register will always display the read consumption if the consumption is multiplied by a special multiplier (UB> Utilities> Setup> Billing tab> Multiply consumption by a special multiplier toggle is checked, UB> Maintenance> Service Rate> General tab> Use special multiplier toggle is checked, and a multiplier is entered in UB> Maintenance> Account> Service Rates tab> Open a service rate> Special Multiplier field).
• Select the sort order of the report in the Sort Order field.
  • The Reference number on a customer account in pulled from UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab.
• Select the information you would like to include on the report in the Report Type drop-down menu.
  • The Detail report will display a separate line for each rate code on the customer account with activity during the current billing. The detail version of the report includes the UB account number, Reference number, customer name, account status, service, code, consumption, balance forward, current billing and  account balance. The report will also total by customer account number and report total.
  • The Summary report will display eight services per row and include the balance and consumption lines just below the rate code lines. The report includes the UB account number, reference number, customer name, lot address, service codes of each service, current bill by service and consumption by service. The report will also display the balance forward, total bill, account status, and account balance of each UB account on the report. A report summary will print at the end of the report displaying the services billed, consumption, and current billing accounts of the billing batch.
    • If there are no services set up for services 9 thru 16, or 17 thru 20 then those lines will no display on the report. Services are set up in UB> Maintenance> Service.
• Check the Display History with Zero Amounts toggle to include all services that are attached to the customer accounts even if there is no activity for those services.
• Check the Include Manual Bills toggle to include committed manual billings on the report. This toggle will only be enabled if you are generating the Billing Register in Summary format (you selected Summary in the Report Type drop-down menu).
  • The manual billing will display on the report with the service used to create the manual billing. For example, if you created a manual billing for the WATER service, the manual billing will be totaled with the current billing in the WATER service column.
  • If you do not check this toggle, manual billings will not be included on the billing register.
  • Manual billings are created using the Input Billing window (UB> Adjustments and Fees> Input> Create icon> Select Billing).
• Check the Compress Services toggle to suppress the summary report lines for the services 9 thru 20 if the services on those lines do not have rate codes, balances or consumption.
  • The Compress Services toggle will only be enabled if you select Summary from the Report Type drop-down menu.
• Check the Display count of services by class toggle to include the total number of services by class on the report. This will also update the report to display the current number of accounts being billed.
• Once the required report settings have been specified, click the Print button   to print your report.
• Click the options arrow on the right side of the Print button to see other print options.
  • Select Send PDF to Job Viewer to print the report in the default Springbrook format.
  • Select Send Excel to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Select Send Excel (Formatted) to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
• Click the Schedule icon next to the Print button in order to schedule the report to generate at a later date and time.
  • Enter a Date and Time to generate the report and click SUBMIT.
• The report will display the customer accounts and services included in the billing. A separate service rate line item will display on the customer account for minimum or flat amounts associated with a service rate.
  • The Consumption column that displays on the Billing Register is the consumption calculated on the meter. If you selected a consumption conversion during the Generate step (Convert Consumption To field), the conversion formula will be used to calculate the billing on the consumption, but the Billing Register will still display consumption as read on the meter rather than the converted value.
• If no consumption displays on the billing register, but there are unbilled meter readings on the account follow the link below for possible solutions.

7     Print the Trial Balance Report.

• Select Trial Balance from the New Billing menu. This will open the Trial Balance/New Billing report.
• The Trial Balance Report will display each employee in the batch and the balance on those accounts. If you generate the report in detail format, the report will also display a list of services attached to the customer accounts and the balance information on each of those services (beginning balance, adjustments, payments, other billings, current billings and balance forward). This is similar to the information that displays in the Account Balance section on the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Overview tab> Account Balance section).
• Select how you would like the report to sort in the Sort Order drop-down menu. The selection in this field determines the order in which the customer accounts will display on the report.
  • The Reference Number selection refers to the reference number attached to the UB customer account.
    • The reference number is attached to UB customer accounts in UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Reference Number field.
• Select what information you would like to include on the report in the Report Type drop-down menu.
  • The detail version will display the service description, consumption amount, beginning balance, adjustments during the period, payments during the period, other billings, current billings and balance of each service attached to the UB customer accounts in the batch.
  • The summary version of the report will not include the service information on the report. The report will display a single line for each UB customer account included in the batch.
• Check the toggle box Show zero balance accounts with no activity if you want the report to include these types of accounts in the report.
• Once the required report settings have been specified, click the Print button   to print your report.
• Click the options arrow on the right side of the Print button to see other print options.
  • Select Send PDF to Job Viewer to print the report in the default Springbrook format.
  • Select Send Excel to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Select Send Excel (Formatted) to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
• Click the Schedule icon next to the Print button in order to schedule the report to generate at a later date and time.
  • Enter a Date and Time to generate the report and click SUBMIT.
• The Other Billings column will include billable service request codes that have been closed and committed and processed in UB> Adjustments and Fees> Bill Service Requests.
• The Status column will display the status of the account if the account does not have an Active status.

8     Select the statement options and customer accounts included on the statements.

• The Statement Settings step on the New Billing menu is used to select how the statements will be generated and the customer accounts included on the statements. Customer accounts included in the New Billing batch during the Generate step will have a billing transaction created, but customers selected in the Statement Settings step will receive a billing statement. The selections in the Statement Settings window will also affect the customer accounts included in the Export Addresses step.
• Open the Statement Settings window (UB> New Billing> Statement Settings).
• Enter the due date of the billings on the statements in the Due Date field.
  • The value in this field will default to the current date plus 15 days.
• The optional Additional Date field is used to add an additional, user-configured date field to the statement.
  • This field will only be enabled if the Additional Date Label field is set up on the Statement Setup window (UB> Utilities> Statement Setup> Billing Options tab) and only displays on standard, full-page billing statements.
  • This date will display on the full-page billing statement next to the Additional Date Label set up on the Statement Setup window.
• Enter the transaction date of the billings in the Transaction Date field. The Transaction Date field will default to the transaction date entered during the Generate step (UB> New Billing> Generate> Transaction Date field).
• The Minimum and Maximum fields are used to filter the statements generated during the Statements step by the account balance forward plus the current billing amount. For example, if a UB customer account has a balance forward of $1.25 and a current bill of $2.75, a statement will print for the customer account if the value in the Minimum field is equal to or less than $4.
  • These fields can be used to remove statements with small or excessively large dollar amounts.
  • You can view the balance forward on a customer account using the Overview tab on the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Overview tab> Balance Forward column).
• Select the billing statement you would like to generate in the Statement drop-down menu.
  • Statements are created and maintained using the Statement Setup Maintenance window (UB> Utilities> Statement Setup).
• The Bill To drop-down menu is used to specify the format for the optional Bill To Report.
• Check the First Level Minimum Cons Reported with Flat toggle if you want the Flat and Consumption records for the detailed statement in the New Billing Export to reflect the distribution of Minimum Consumption to the Flat and the reduction of the Consumption by the Minimum Consumption amount.
• Select the status of the customer accounts you would like to include on the statements in the Account Status field.
• The Message 1 and Message 2 fields are used to add a message to the statements that has been created using Statement Message Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Statement Message). Click the Message 1 or Message 2 field labels to select a message statement from a list.
• Click the Submit button   when complete to save the statement settings.

9     Complete the Export Addresses and Import Addresses steps.

• The Export Addresses and Import Addresses steps allow you to certify the customer addresses in the New Billing batch and generate the relevant bulk mailing documents and tray tags.
• Addresses are certified using the Springbrook Software Postal Link software. The Export Addresses step is used to generate an email containing the addresses to be certified and the dimensions of the mailing.
  • The Drop Date field is used by those users who would like to specify a mailing date that will populate the Mailer's Mailing Date field on the postage statement. If no date is specified, the field will default to the current date.
  • The Include drop-down menu is used to select the statements you would like to include in the mailer export.
    • Select All Statements if you would like to include all statements in the Final Billing batch.
    • Select Hold Status Only if you would like to include only those statements for customer accounts that have a hold status. This will include temporary and permanent hold status accounts on the mailer export.
    • Select No Hold Status Only if you would like to include only those statements for customer accounts that DO NOT have a hold status.
    • UB customer accounts are assigned a hold status using the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Hold Status drop-down menu).
  • The exported addresses will be processed by a Springbrook Software server that will certify the addresses against a large, regularly updated database.
  • After the addresses have been certified, the certified addresses will be sent back to the email address included on the Export Addresses step. Also included in the email with be all the relevant documents and tray tags for the bulk mailing as well as the calculated postage amount.
• Import Addresses step is used to import the addresses that have been certified into the New Billing batch.
  • After the exported addresses have been processed and the return email has been received at the email addresses entered on the Export Addresses step, you can import the certified addresses into the New Billing batch.

10     Print the billing statements.

• The Statements step is used to generate the billing statements based on the statement settings selected on the Statement Settings step (UB> New Billing> Statement Settings). The statements will be generated in a PDF report. Once the PDF file is complete, you can print the statements onto your billing statement stock.
• Select Statements from the New Billing menu. This will open the Statements window.
• The Account Number field is used to print a single statement. Click the Account Number field label to select a customer account from a list or enter a UB customer account number.
  • If the Combined Statements toggle is checked on the selected account, a single summary statement for all related accounts displaying aggregated billing data will be generated.
• Select the Mail Type in the drop-down menu.
  • Select Certified Bills if you want the postal bar codes to display on the bills. Only select this option if you have used the Address Certification feature. If you have not run the Export Addresses and Import Addresses step and you select this option, no statements will display on the report.
  • Select Non-Certified Bills if you do not want postal bar codes to display on the bills.
• Select the order you would like the bills to print in the Sort drop-down menu.
  • Select Auto Presort if you would like to sort the billing by the sort order generated by the address certification process so that they can be put into trays. Only select this option if you used the Address Certification feature to verify the addresses on the statements in the batch.
  • Select Reference Number to sort the billing by UB customer account reference number.
    • The reference number is attached to UB customer accounts in UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Reference Number field.
    • The Reference Number will only be displayed on the generated statements if the Reference Number toggle is checked on the UB Statement Setup window.
• The Include drop-down menu is used to select the statements you would like to include in the printing.
  • Select All Statements if you would like to print all statements that have been included in the New Billing batch.
  • Select Hold Status Only if you would like to generate statements only for customer accounts that have a hold status. This will include temporary and permanent hold status accounts on the report.
  • UB customer accounts are assigned a hold status using the Account Master Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> Account sub-tab> General section> Hold Status drop-down menu).
• Once the required report settings have been specified, click the Print button to print your report.
• Click the options arrow on the right side of the Print button to see other print options.
  • Select Send PDF to Job Viewer to print the report in the default Springbrook format.
  • Select Send Excel to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Select Send Excel (Formatted) to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
• Click the Schedule icon next to the Print button in order to schedule the report to generate at a later date and time.
  • Enter a Date and Time to generate the report and click SUBMIT.
  • Clicking the Print icon will only create the PDF report. Once the report is complete, print the report out to generate the statements.
• If there is bank account information attached to the UB customer account (UB> Maintenance> Account> Account tab> ACH Info sub-tab) a “Do Not Pay – Automatic Debit” message will display on the statement.
  • After the New Billing batch has been committed, a Direct Debits batch can be processed to remove the billed amount from the customer bank (CH> Direct Debits).

11     Export Statements.

• The Export step is an optional step used to create an export file of the New Billing statements. This option is generally used by Springbrook customers that outsource the printing and sorting of their billings.
• Select Export from the New Billing menu. This will open the Export window.
• Enter an account number in the Account Number field if you would like to export the statement of a single customer. Click the Account Number field label to select a customer account from a list. This will open the Account Master Search window.
• The Mail Type field is used to select the mail type of the statements that should be exported.
  • Select Certified Bills to export the bills that have been certified using the Export Addresses and Import Addresses steps on the New Billing palette.
    • If the statements have not been certified, no statements will be included in the export.
  • Select Non-Certified to export statements that have not been certified using the Export Addresses and Import Addresses steps. If you skipped the Export Addresses and Import Addresses step on the New Billing palette, you should select this option.
• The Sort drop-down menu is used to select how the statements on the export file will be sorted.
  • Select Auto Presort to sort the statements on the export file by the sort order created by the address certification feature.
• The Layout drop-down menu is used to select the format of the export file generated by the Export process. Click the Export Settings button   at the top of the window to display the format of the export file.
• The Include drop-down menu is used to select the New Billing statements you would like to include in the export.
• The Inline Quotes drop-down menu is used to specify how, or if, the export file will display quotation marks in included field values. This setting can help agencies prepare the exported statements for third-party printing services.
  • The (Default) setting will not change anything and leave single double-quote characters in place.
  • Select Match to add another closing double-quote character to match any single double-quote character in the file.
  • Select Remove to remove the single double-quote characters from the file.
• Click the Submit button when complete to create the export file.
• Once the export has finished processing, you can download the file from the notification link or the Jobs Viewer.

12     Print the General Ledger Distribution Report.

• If the Utility Billing module is set up to interface with the General Ledger module the GL Distribution step will display on the palette. The GL Distribution Report will display the journal entry generated to record the billing.
• Select GL Distribution from the New Billing menu. This will open the UB GL Distribution/New Billing window.
• Enter a Journal Entry Date. The journal entry date will determine which fiscal period and fiscal year the journal entries in the batch will be posted to. Verify the journal entry date is correct.
• The Fiscal Period and Fiscal Year fields will populate based on the date entered in the Journal Entry field.
  • These fields will not be enabled. The only way to modify the values in these fields is to modify the journal entry date.
• Select a detail and sort option for the report in the Report Type drop-down menu.
  • The detail version of the report displays the line item detail of each general ledger account. The report will display the fund, general ledger account number, customer number, service number, service code, general ledger account description, debit amount and credit amount. The report will also group and total general ledger accounts by fund. It can be sorted by GL Account or by Transactions Type.
  • The summary version of the report will not display the line item detail of the general ledger accounts. The report will display the fund, general ledger account number, GL account description, debit amount and credit amount. The summary report will also total by general ledger account number, and fund. It can be sorted by GL Account or by Transactions Type.
  • Once a Report Type is selected for a GL Distribution report, that report type will be automatically set as the default for all UB GL Distribution reports.
• Once the required report settings have been specified, click the Print button   to print your report.
• Click the options arrow on the right side of the Print button to see other print options.
  • Select Send PDF to Job Viewer to print the report in the default Springbrook format.
  • Select Send Excel to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Select Send Excel (Formatted) to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
• Click the Schedule icon next to the Print button in order to schedule the report to generate at a later date and time.
  • Enter a Date and Time to generate the report and click SUBMIT.
• You will receive an error message if the selected fiscal period has been locked using the Lockout Periods feature (GL> Utilities> Lockout Periods).
• Review the GL Distribution Report before committing the New Billing batch. Once a batch has been committed it cannot be uncommitted.
• If you would like to recreate the GL Distribution Report after the batch has been committed, you can generate a Transaction by Date Report (UB> Reports> Transaction by Date) for the committed New Billing batch. Select the committed batch (UB> Reports> Transaction by Date> Batch Number field), include all cycles and make sure the date filter includes all of the transactions in the batch.

13     Print a Summary by Rate Report.

• The Summary by Rate Code Report displays the billings grouped and totaled by the rate codes on the billing. The report will display the service totals and the report totals.
• Select Summary by Rate from the New Billing menu. This will open the Summary by Rate Code/New Billing window.
• Select the information you would like to display on the report in the Report Type drop-down menu.
  • Select Detail if you would like the report to display a separate minimum/flat amount billing and consumption amount billing. The detail version of the report will display the service rates, number of accounts on each service rate, minimum/flat amount billing, total consumption billing, actual consumption, and billable consumption. This report will also display tiered consumption data, including tier level number, tier billing amount, and total tier consumption.
  • Select Summary if you would like the report to display all billings in a single column titled Total Billing. The minimum/flat amount billing and the billable consumption amount will be grouped together in the Total Billing column.
• Check the Use tier level label when available toggle to include tier level labels for each tier when generating the Detail version of the report.
• Once the required report settings have been specified, click the Print button   to print your report.
• Click the options arrow on the right side of the Print button to see other print options.
  • Select Send PDF to Job Viewer to print the report in the default Springbrook format.
  • Select Send Excel to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet as unformatted data.
  • Select Send Excel (Formatted) to Job Viewer to export the report data to an Excel spreadsheet that includes much of the Springbrook formatting found on the printed version of the report.
• Click the Schedule icon next to the Print button in order to schedule the report to generate at a later date and time.
  • Enter a Date and Time to generate the report and click SUBMIT.

14     Commit the billing batch.

• Select Commit from the New Billing menu. This will open the Commit/New Billing window.
• Click the Commit button to commit the batch.