Product Spotlight: Utility Invoice Data Acquisition

Overview: 

Important Invoice Acquisition Features Available to Users: 

• Auto Capture Data directly from Utility Website(s)
• Optical Character Recognition of Utility Bills
• Ingested data from existing utility bill pay providers (i.e., Engie Impact, Capturis, Cass, AvidXchange, Conservice, etc.)
• Manual Upload of Utility Bill & Interval Data
• Aggregate Data Tracking
• Auto-sync Utility Data from ENERGYSTAR

WatchWire can automatically acquire utility invoices from supported utilities and energy supply companies (ESCOs) ensuring that you no longer need to manually extract and track this data in Excel spreadsheets. For cases in which manual entry is necessary, the ease of use of our invoice management system, optical data recognition features, and wide array of analytics ensure that WatchWire is well worth the investment when it comes to proper management and consolidation of utility invoices. We capture every line item from an invoice, categorizing them into their respective categories – consumption, demand, flat charges, (i.e., customer service charge, meter charge, etc.), taxes, and miscellaneous (i.e., late fee, deposit, etc.). All invoice images are captured and accessible and invoice images can be downloaded individually or in bulk via WW’s reporting section. Another benefit of our data acquisition process is our auditing, where data flows through our proprietary ingestion engine before the data is populated into the platform, improving data quality and preventing corruption. To learn more about our data validation process and auditing that takes place during invoice acquisition, click here. 

Ultimately our invoice data acquisition process yields the benefit of (1) Efficient data consolidation into a single source of truth for all your utility data and (2) Automated data capture to reduce the manual time and labor involved in data sourcing as well as the errors associated with manual entry and analysis. This gives you more time to focus on your sustainability action plan for reporting and energy efficiency projects. 

How it works 

Module: Invoice Management and Onboarding Processes

With automated data ingestion from utility websites, as well as the ability to investigate missing bills via reporting, WatchWire provides a full suite of utility bill management functions to streamline, enhance, and validate your utility Accounting/Finance processing.

Acquiring the Data:

There are many different methods for acquiring utility data. First, your utility company/energy supplier issues you a bill or invoice. This includes your utility costs for the month as well as the amount of each utility you used. You can choose to receive paper or electronic bills/invoices or have your data sent to a third-party platform like WatchWire which consolidates your invoices in one convenient location. WatchWire offers interval data monitoring and automated utility data integration so that you can get the latest performance data from your facilities.

• Automated Utility Bill Capture: WatchWire automatically acquires utility invoices from utilities, capturing each and every line item and categorizing them into their respective component buckets – consumption, demand, flat charges, taxes, and miscellaneous fees. The automated utility bill capture service is available for supported utilities. The service supports more than 6,000 utilities globally. The prerequisites are the following: 1. Validate Utilities are Supported 2. Utility Accounts enrolled in ebill where required 3. Provide WatchWire with Login Credentials to Utility Accounts.
• Automated Historical Data: The automated historical utility bill capture service is available for supported utilities. The service supports more than 6,000 utilities globally. The prerequisites are the following: 1. Validate Utilities are Supported 2. Utility Accounts enrolled in ebill where required 3. Provide WatchWire with Login Credentials to Utility Accounts.
• WatchWire Utility Invoice Optical Character (OCR) Recognition of PDF Bills: WatchWire Utility Invoice OCR PDF Capture is available for utility accounts not supported through WatchWire Automated Bill Capture. Individual High-Quality PDF images need to be provided for both current and historical bills. Invoice PDFs should be separated by billing period, not consolidated within a single file. Additional fees may apply for international invoices

Importance

Utility data is the numeric value of the amount of water, energy, and electricity your building or facility uses. It tells you how much of each commodity you are using, including spend, usage, and emissions. With rigorous building performance standards, and climate-related disclosure requirements on the horizon such as California’s SB 253, the SEC disclosure bill, and European standards such as CSRD, companies will need to have a way to measure where their company is at in terms of emissions and energy use. Utility data is absolutely crucial as the baseline for successful emissions data and energy efficiency. Not only can utility data give you a picture of how your company is currently operating, but it can also help you measure and verify the impact of your sustainability management program once it is up and running.

Energy monitoring can be tricky, especially if you have multiple facilities or buildings operating in different cities, states, or regions. And with each facility having separate utility bills, sorting through them and auditing for errors is time consuming and tedious. With automated invoice data acquisition systems like WatchWire you can eliminate the need to manually scrape your utility invoices to pull the important data into one collective location and check it for errors. Energy monitoring software should have the capability to connect to your utility vendor’s billing portal and programmatically extract the data from each invoice on a line-item basis. This allows for easy identification of any errors in billing. New reporting standards require sustainability and emissions data (which originate from energy data and utility invoices) to hold up to financial audit-level scrutiny. WatchWire understands the need to develop a strong baseline of accurate and complete data that can readily be analyzed and sent to auditors or consultants for reasonable assurance verification with confidence. 

Additionally, acquiring interval utility data all in one place for analysis can help you discover any inefficiencies in your building right away by displaying spikes in data. Interval monitoring can give you immediate feedback on whether your sustainability efficiency projects are working. Generated by interval meters and/or smart meters, interval data allows you to look at what is going on in your building right now. 

About WatchWire

WatchWire by Tango is a market-leading sustainability and energy data management platform that uses cloud-based software to collect, automize, and analyze utility, energy, and sustainability data metrics. WatchWire streamlines, automates, and standardizes your sustainability reporting process by integrating directly and/or providing reporting exports to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, LEED Arc, GRESB, CDP, SASB, GRI, and more. The platform provides customizable dashboards, which allow asset managers, sustainability managers, engineers, and more to monitor individual key performance indicators (KPIs) and create custom views for specific use cases. WatchWire provides:

• Automatic collection of energy, utility, sustainability, and emissions data through real-time metering. The data is then fully audited and organized in one place
• GHG emissions tracking
• Goal tracking (e.g., Net Zero, SBTi, waste diversion)
• Carbon offset view of power purchases from the grid vs. on-site renewables generated vs. off-site RECs.
• Opportunities to implement projects (track EEMs) and monitor distributed energy resource production (e.g. on-site solar)

To discover more about WatchWire and its capabilities, you can visit our website, blog, or resource library, request a demo, or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter to keep up-to-date on the latest energy and sustainability insights, news, and resources.