Other Factors to Consider


Some factors to take into account when selecting a utility bill tracking package have nothing to do with the software itself, but rather with your own organization or the software provider.


Staff Capability and Availability


How sophisticated is your staff? How much time can they devote to utility bill tracking? Having the best utility bill accounting tool in the world is not helpful if your staff does not have the knowledge or time to get the most out of it. Be realistic about your staff and who will actually be using the software. Software training by itself may not be enough. Understanding how to run the software, but not having a good grounding in energy could lead to underutilization of the package.

 

In addition, it is very important to consider beforehand who will be doing what functions with the software. For example, clerical workers could input data and produce reports. Analysis and other heavy lifting might best be done by energy professionals. Do not expect your clerical staff to do more than they are capable of, or your bill tracking experience could end in failure.

 

Support and Ongoing Costs


Be sure to consider the availability and quality of technical support, and the associated costs. You might want to contact technical support with questions before purchasing the software, so as to get an idea of the quality of the support you will be getting. Most of the software packages come with the first year of support for free, and an additional annual fee thereafter.

 

Software Selection Questionnaire


If you answer these questions before you investigate different software packages, you are more likely to end with the software that is best suited to your organization.   Don’t be swayed by sales people and bells and whistles.  Get the right software for your organization.

 

General

  • How many meters will you be tracking?
  • What is your budget?

 

Analysis

  • Do you need to identify the most inefficient facilities?
  • Do you need to measure energy savings from your energy conservation projects or from performance contracts?
  • Do you want to compare year to year bills or use weather normalization?
  • Do you need to identify changes in utility usage patterns and spot outlier bills?
  • Do you need to understand the relationship between production at your factory (or occupancy at your hotel, etc.) and utility usage?
  • Do you want to have the ability to modify your year to year comparisons for changes in usage patterns such as new equipment or building additions?

 

Accounting

  • Do you need to streamline your utility bill payment system?
  • Do you need to allocate costs from master meters to submeters and subsidiary accounts?
  • Do you need to create budgets and track your utility costs against the budgeted costs?
  • Do you need it to interface with your accounting system?
  • Do you want to enter in every charge associated with your bill?

Data Manipulation

  • How are you going to get data into the system?  Importing monthly data files or hand entering?

Rates

  • Do you want to verify that your utility bills are correct?
  • Do you need to evaluate different rate structures on your utility data to find the best rate?
  • Do you want to apply the current rate to before and after comparisons of utility costs?

 

Reports

  • What type of reports do you want the software to generate? 
  • What are you going to do with reports when you get them?  Print them? Email them?  Modify them on your computer?  Save them?
  • Do you have special reporting needs? Will the software allow customized reports? How easy and expensive are customized reports?  Can you do it yourself?
  • Do you want to report on Emissions? (CO2, CO, NOx, etc.)

 

Staff

  • How sophisticated is your staff?
  • How much time can they devote to utility bill tracking?
  • How much time and resources do you have to train staff on software?

 

Services

  • Are you going to want to create your own bill tracking database, or are you going to have it done?
  • How is technical support?
  • Will you want your vendor to be available to partner with you?   If so, how?  Helping with software questions?  Helping you understand what your bills are telling you?

 

Also, be aware that most likely none of the packages available will have all of the features you want, or all of the features you want at a price your organization is willing to pay. In this case, you are going to have to prioritize the features in the questionnaire, and from there pick the software that handles the most important tasks your organization requires.