Summary

The Cirrus Assistance Program is used to apply energy assistance program credits to eligible utility billing accounts. Once the relevant Fee Codes, Adjustment Codes, and Services have been set up, UB accounts that are included in the Assistance Program can be billed with other accounts in a standard New Billing batch.

Step by Step

1     Create an Assistance Program fee code.

• This first step in setting up the Assistance Program is to create a fee code that will be used to apply the Assistance Program credits to utility billing accounts.
• Open the Fee Code Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Fee Code) and create a new fee code.
• The fee code can be set up as you would set up any fee code, but the Assistance Program toggle must be checked and the service associated with the Assistance Program must be selected in the Service to Charge field.
  • It may also be helpful to include some indication of the fee's Assistance Program usage in the Description field.

2     Add the fee code to an adjustment type.

• After creating the Assistance Program fee code, it must be added to an Adjustment Type.
• Open the Adjustment Type Maintenance window (UB> Maintenance> Adjustment Type).
• The fee code can be added to a new or an existing Adjustment Type, but the Process field on the Adjustment Type must be set to Adjustments and Fees in order to use the fee in the Contra Revenue Adjustment process.

3     Add the credit to the account.

• Use the Contra Revenue Adjustment process to add the Assistance Program credits to the eligible accounts.
• Open the Adjustments and Fees process (UB> Adjustments and Fees) and create a new batch.
• On the Input step, create a new Contra Revenue Adjustment.
• Select the relevant Account Number and the Adjustment Type the Assistance Account Fee Code is attached to.
• Edit the Amount column in the data grid to match the amount of the Assistance Program credit.
• Process the Adjustments and Fees batch through the commit step.

4     Exempt the service on the account from redistribution.

• In order to prevent the Assistance Program credit from being redistributed, the service associated with the Assistance Program must be exempted from redistribution at the account level.
• Open the relevant UB account (UB> Maintenance> Account).
• On the Service Rates tab, check the Exempt From Redistribute toggle for the service associated with the Assistance Program and save the changes to the account.

5     Confirm the credit on the account.

• While the UB account is still open, you can also confirm the Assistance Program credit was applied.
• On the Account Balance Summary sub-tab of the History tab, the service associated with the Assistance Program should display a negative value adjustment in the Balance Forward, Adjustments, and End Balance columns.

6     Process the New Billing batch.

• Generate, process, and commit a New Billing batch (UB> New Billing).
• When an account set up on the Assistance Program is included in a New Billing batch, an adjustment is created to utilize the credit on the fee code.
  • If the amount of the Assistance Program credit is greater than or equal to the Charges amount, the Charges amount will be deducted from the Credit Available amount, resulting in no Amount Due for the billing. Any remaining Credit Available amount will carry over to the next billing.
  • If the amount of the Assistance Program credit is less than the Charges amount, the Credit Available amount will be deducted from the Charges amount, resulting in a lower Amount Due for the billing.
• The Billing Statement for an Assistance Program account will display all the charges generated in the New Billing batch, the credit amount applied to the service associated with the Assistance Program, and any charges that remain after the credit is applied as the total amount due.
• After the Assistance Program is set up and a New Billing batch is committed, the Account History sub-tab of the History tab will display a credit adjustment for the service that was excluded from redistribution.