If you own or manage more units of housing - apartments, condominiums, student housing, housing, prefab housing or military - are probably involved in the liquidation responsible in any way. Utility costs for these types of properties can be substantial, looking for the most effective ways for owners to manage these costs.
The master-Utility Meter Predicament
It 's very common, that being commercial and residential multi-tenantMaster-measured. "Master-measured properties will only utility bill that the energy consumption rate has several tenants. The problem with the master-meter property is that there is no way to bill residents for their actual individual use.
This situation led to the owner of a variety of methods for sharing the electricity bill to use an agent to the tenant share in the total costs to recover utility. In reality, the transfer of an apartment complex housing owner-paid utilitiesprograms, residents pay one of the fastest ways to net operating income (NOI) to drive.
resident settlement charge is obtained in two ways: internally, by the owners and property management companies or externally by a third party service provider third-party settlement charge.
While it may be advantageous for the administrative costs of regulation will be "in-house billing companies are largely invested in software tools and technologies for billing, making it an efficient process to rationalize well supported. UtilitySettlement is certainly a task that can be easily outsourced, owners and managers save time and effort.
Utility Billing Service Options
The basic set of services, including expenditure by provider billing:
bill calculation resident, printing and delivery Utility payment Electronic bill presentment and payment Property management / accounting software integration Late payments and collections management.
billing company alsooffer other services such as converged billing, free of cost recovery, utility and Expense Management.
As apartment buildings have a wide range of requirements and the billing company offering a diverse range of services is often the case that a specific billing provider best suited to manage your portfolio. It 'so important to clearly outline your needs in order to serve as a guide during the evaluation.
Common challenges in Utility Billing
Understand the most common problems afflicting the sector of the settlement services will be charged in the selection of a supplier will be satisfied. A list of problems that cause frustration and unnecessary work on the ownership and management includes:
Inaccurate and late-resident accounts The customer service said that the residents and management Manual data entry.
The fastest way to stimulate and encourage the residents of large volumes of calls to the leasing office is to send the invoicesto the wrong people, these accounts incorrectly calculated or deliver late. inaccurate bills undermine confidence in the process of billing people and lead to disturbances of voice - sometimes for the public benefit of the Commission. And late bills create hardship for the residents, as a result of pay in the shortest time frame. settlement charge works best when there is a constant, reliable, professionally done.
Poor customer service, such as open and unanswered phone calls andE-mail or inexperienced call center agents who provide false information, will certainly generate critical tenant. Fast, friendly service and sensible is the key to a successful program of Resident settlement charge.
settlement charge produces a significant amount of data that must be integrated into property management and / or billing systems. If the only way to get employees to manually enter this data, the method for many years, labor and proneError. This is an important area to address the selection of a provider of billing.
Ask a potential seller the following questions will help you a comprehensive assessment and select a company that manage solution that best meets your needs.
Billing Services
What types of billing has to manage the company: rubs submetered, flat fee, etc.? What are the billing services are offered: convergent billing, electronic billing, free of cost recovery, payment processing, etc.? [What services do you offerrequire?] What kind of electronic payment options are available, such as electronic monitoring, credit card, ACH, AutoPay, etc.? What are the costs associated with online payments? [E 'for enterprise online transaction processing to a service fee of 3-4% for transactions with credit cards and debit cards distributed for free.] While the end result of the vendor is an accurate energy bills? [Providers should ensure the data analysis and process control that accounting data is accurate.] How and whenelectric bills are estimated? [Some states have strict rules about when and if the bill can be estimated.] If the bills for residents who will come too late or incorrectly sent, what the action is the owner / operator? Describe the performance guarantees. [Many companies offer payment refund regulations, or fines if they are the cause of a false invoice or late.] If your company has a good warranty program set up, what their track record for the last 1-2Years?
Customer Service
How does the company provide customer service for residents and the administration? [If your company has a customer support hotline to ask for the phone number to call and see what kind of response you get.] What is the typical response time for residents or employees, receive an answer to a question? [Expect response times in the range of 1-2 hours.] As consultants are trained customer? The company controls the performance measures in relation to itsCustomer service? What is the company's track record in recent years? What is the process of escalation to the most difficult problem? [Depending on the nature of the problem, you want to verify that employees are available at the management level, if necessary.]
Account & Billing Data Integration
How move-in/move-out exchanged data? [The process of transferring data must be highly automated and require very little manual input of data.] What is convergentPayroll data is transferred? [Rent, cable, internet, waste and other charges may be added to electricity bills to encourage timely payment.] As the sequence for synchronizing billing information and payment by the property management or accounting?
Legal and Regulatory
The company understand the regulatory and legal issues related to your state, county, and city? [In essence, you must certify that this bill for services by the method of choice in yourArea.] Since the company operates with the support of legal compliance? Can the company, please check your rental agreement? What type of contract is used for billing? If the collection agency is not working properly, what are the possibilities for the termination of the contract?
Reporting functions
What made the information reporting to top management? [Review management reports of the sample to ensure that the information you need is included and is easy to understand.] Reporting can be accessedonline? [You can save people a lot of time if the seller offers a management portal or other Web-based interface to view and print management reports.] It can be customized reports for your portfolio? What fees are associated with changes?
Heat Meter Services
What the installation and repair Submetering are offered? [If your property is submetered, working with a billing company that provides installation and repair can be Submeteringadvantageous because these systems require regular maintenance.] Since the repairs are planned and managed? What analysis is based on usage data are conducted to detect loss of meter maintenance potential problems or issues?
Other
As a master meter accounts managed? How are the final utility (move-out) accounts for the residents?
Summary
Putting the development of a clear set of these problems and their needs for potential customers in your help settlement service feeThe evaluation and ensure that the company that you can choose to meet your expectations. settlement charge should be a very transparent process requires minimal effort on the part of your team. It should also maximize the amount of money you can legally collect a cost recovery of utility. The best settlement companies charge, flexible and dedicated to providing exceptional service to all involved.
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