In simple terms, it’s the streamlining of utility expense management. Utility bill processing, payment, and management have become one of the most time-consuming areas for the accounts payable department of medium and large enterprises. Every site will typically have four utility accounts. As you increase the number of locations, the resources and vendors required will increase, thus increasing the time and cost needed to manage them.

So what can be done to streamline processing, improve validation, and simplify payments?

Outsourcing is a widely recognized, effective way to manage many non-core tasks. It is widespread to have third parties managing buildings, facilities, energy performance, sustainability data collection, and so on. Most organizations now contract almost all these services to third parties.

Accounts Payable often finds itself outside of the typical outsourcing radar as managing a companies finances is very much a core activity.  However, when it comes to utility accounts, organizations have found the cost of managing so many vendors, and processing payment of so many utility bills within such short timelines needs a different approach.

Making the business case for outsourcing

A recent survey of 1000 companies by an independent accounting firm, found that 75% of companies had a cost of between $7.75 and $12.44 to process an invoice. However, this does not account for the cost of late fees, disconnections, or funding charges.  Vervantis, as a comparison, reduces this cost by up to 60% with a process that sees late fees and disconnections eliminated.  The best part is instead of managing hundreds of vendors, you now only have to pay once!

What an Outsourced Utility Bill Management Service Does.

Vervantis provides accounts payable or facilities teams a single solution to utility account management and bill processing by delivering its services within DataHub360™, which is a robust software architecture developed in-house by utility experts.

The tracking, reporting, and management of accounts through DataHub360™ delivers such efficiencies. Organizations can appoint a single resource for thousands of accounts, as the task is now merely one of management.

What’s Included in a Standard Service?

  • Automating the direct collection of invoices from all utilities – (electric, gas, waste, water, sewer, telecom, etc.)
    Scanning and keying 100% of the data from the invoice (typically within 48hours)
  • Process bills on a “first due first through” process, which means no more late fees (we even have a late fee guarantee on our service)
  • We chase missing invoices to get them in and processed before standard due dates – we track until received – 100% – nothing drops through our process.
  • We validate all invoices for payment, and when invoices drop out of that process and generate an exception, we resolve them too.
  • Occupancy changes (account open/close) directly managed with the utilities (no more waiting on hold)
  • We produce the funding files and customize them to drop into your AP systems seamlessly.
  • Automate the payment of utility companies with 90% of transactions being secure ACH or RPPS
  • We track Utility deposits.
  • Utility Budgeting
  • Our software tracks and reports everything with over 80 reports available right out of the box with a full suite of custom reporting to meet any requirement
  • PDF invoices are displayed on-screen with multiple metrics dash-boarded for ease

How Are Invoices Funded?

You can choose to let us manage the funding (you cut one check instead of hundreds), or we can produce the files that provide validation of all the invoices for you to pay. We typically produce three funding files a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), but you can schedule whatever works for you. All files are customized to integrate precisely into your accounting systems.

What about Security?

Data security has never been so important. It seems a month can’t go by without reading about a significant data breach. Vervantis is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and CCPA compliant, our utility bill processing is SOC 1 Type II compliant, this is a huge comfort for our clients and a clear attestation that we take the security of client data very seriously.

Will Utility Bill Processing Work for Me?

The quickest way to find out is by contacting one of our team who will make sure you are a good fit for a utility bill management solution and if you are, provide a demonstration of the utility bill management software DataHub360™ and a custom quotation.

How long Does It Take To Set Up?

Our processes are incredibly well defined, which makes setup incredibly quick and easy. It usually takes just 60 days for us to get everything bedded down. Our data team manage the upload or keying of historical invoices or transfer from existing platforms.

To see what a difference Vervantis utility bill administration could make to your Facilities, Accounts, or Real Estate Teams  – connect with us here.