- Portion: Grouping of contracts that bill together.
- Parameter Record: Record containing control data that is used to create budget billing schedules when schedule records are generated.
- Meter reading unit: Installations grouped together according to region, consisting of built-in devices and their registers. Installations are grouped this way for purposes of meter reading and device management. The meter reading unit forms the basis for the meter reader's worklist.
- The schedule master records stored in the portion or in the meter reading unit are used to generate the schedule records for billing or meter reading.
In a portion, you group together contracts of all business partners in a part of your service territory (for example, the city district "south") for which the same billing conditions are to apply (for example, annual billing for residential customers on June 30 each year).
Billing on a daily basis/billing that is dependent on a key date is determined in the individual rate steps. Special procedures, such as those during a move-in/out, can be defined in Customizing under Period Controlling.
- Control of the meter reading is linked to the technical master data by means of the installation. All devices (registers) installed in an installation are allocated to this meter reading unit automatically.
- In the postal regional structure, you can store meter reading units as default values at the city and street levels; these meter reading units are then proposed as the default value when you create an installation.
- A portion normally has several meter reading units, which are structured on a regional basis and/or from the point of view of scheduling.
- The meter reading units of a portion do not have to be near one another. Their grouping can also depend on other factors, such as billing conditions.
- Example:
- Portions A and B represent different city districts consisting almost entirely of households (that is, residential customers). The meter reading units of these portions are structured in such a way that they correspond to the daily work quota of the meter reader.
- Since other meter reading cycles and billing conditions apply to nonresidential customers, major customers (industrial and business groups) within the area concerned are allocated to a separate portion (C).This portion consists of three meter reading units that are not in close proximity to each other. They are "islands" inside portions A and B.
- The utility company bills residential customers by turns: portion A is billed on 6/15; portion B is billed on 7/15.
- Nonresidential customers are billed monthly, that is, portion C is billed on 6/15, 7/15, and so on.
- Even if you do not wish to charge budget billings, a parameter record is required for technical reasons; you must specify the parameter record in the corresponding portion. In this dummy parameter record, you specify that no budget billings are charged (budget billing cycle = 0).
- Budget billing interval
If you calculate the billing period length (budget billing plan period) in days then the budget billing interval specifies how many days after the start of the period the first budget billing plan item is calculated. The system gradually determines other budget billing plan items using this interval.
- The control data for creating budget billing schedules are maintained in the parameter record. The parameter record is specified in the portion.
- The period length of a portion, specified in months or days, determines the number of times billing takes place for a contract and the budget billing period. The end of the billing period defines the position of the billing period in the year and the base date for the portion. You must always specify a parameter record. The budget billing schedule is generated from the data in the parameter record and the end of the billing period.
- The basic meter reading dates for a year are defined in the meter reading unit. This allows you to predefine basic dates for a variety of meter reading reasons, such as periodic meter reading, service territory transfer with billing, interim meter reading without billing, and control reading. The basic data on periodic meter readings (end of meter reading period, number of periodic meter readings) are copied directly from the portion.
- Mobile data entry:
In the MDE number field in the meter reading unit, you can enter the number of the PC to which the meter reading data is to be downloaded in the case of mobile data entry. If you use this field, that is, if you carry out meter readings using an MDE device, then only devices that are read by MDE can be allocated to the meter reading unit concerned.
- You can easily check schedule master records and parameter records in the system. This function can be used for several portions or meter reading units at the same time.
- The budget billing period corresponds to the billing period. If the end of the billing period (in accordance with the schedule record) has been defined as December 31 then the new billing period, and therefore the new budget billing period, begins on January 1.
- When you maintain the portion you enter all permissible combinations of budget billing cycle and number of budget billings. However, all these combinations must be contained in the parameter record.
- A permissible combination refers to any pair of numbers for the budget billing cycle and number of budget billings where the product is smaller than or equal to the billing period (= period length and period category).
- Period length: 12 months; start of period: 01.08.
- Budget billing cycle: 01/number of budget billings: 11 => First budget billing: 30.08
- 2. Budget billing: 09.30 etc.
- 11. Budget billing 30.06
- Budget billing cycle: 01/number of budget billings: 12 =>First budget billing: 30.08, etc.
- 12. Budget billing 30.07
- Budget billing amounts can also be requested in cases where billing is carried out monthly.