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Term

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Account

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A Glossary of Terms & Definitions for general Sigma is available. This page is specific to Tenant Billing.

Commodity

Identifies the type of utility that is being supplied, for example:

Electricity
Gas
Water

Term	Acronym	Description
Accounts Link Download Activity	ALD	A Sigma Browser module that is used to view and download Export Files, Control Files and Summary Reports that have been generated using the Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity (or Accounts Link Generator Activity).
Accounts Link Generator Activity	ALG	A Sigma Browser module that is used to generate Export Files, Control Files and Summary Reports containing details of one or more Supplier Bills that have been validated and loaded against Accounts in Sigma.
Batch Number		A unique alphanumeric identifier that is applied to issued Tenant Bills when they are included in an Export File that has been generated using the Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity (live run). The Tenant Bills are also marked as 'exported'.
Bill Frequency		Defines the frequency with which a Tenant Billing Group is billed and can be set to Weekly, Monthly or Annually.
Bill Message		A message that is generated by the Tariff Engine during a Tenant Bill Run and can be displayed in the Tenant Bill Run Management Activity. It provides information about certain events that have occurred during the Tenant Bill Run and includes a Message Type, the Message text describing the event and a severity Level (Info, Warning or Error).
Bill Period		A period of time for which a Tenant Bill will be liable.
Bill Run Status		Describes the various status values of a Tenant Bill Run: New – A Tenant Bill Run has been triggered Running – A Tenant Bill Batch has been created and is being processed by the Tariff Engine Complete – All Tenant Bills within the Tenant Bill Batch have been created and are available for viewing using the Tenant Approve and Issue Bills Activity Failed – A serious error occurred within the Tariff Engine while trying to process a Tenant Bill Batch
Bill Status		Describes the various status values of a Tenant Bill: Test – A Tenant Bill has been created by a 'Test' Tenant Bill Run Accrual – A Tenant Bill has been created by an 'Accrual' Tenant Bill Run Normal – A Tenant Bill has been createed by a 'Normal' Tenant Bill Run Approved – A Tenant Bill has passed all user checks Issued – A Tenant Bill is ready to be invoiced to the Tenant Cancelled – A Tenant Bill has been cancelled without an associated Contra Bill or Rebill being created Withdrawn - A Tenant Bill has been cancelled and an associated Contra Bill has been created, but no Rebill has been created Withdrawn and Rebilled – A Tenant Bill has been cancelled and an associated Contra Bill and Rebill has been created

Building Unit

An optional Item that represents an area within a Site that can be separately metered, for example:

An Apartment within an Apartment Block
A selection of Shopping Units within a Shopping Centre
A group of solar panels
A Building Unit contains all Meters, Sub Meters, Virtual Meters and Supply Points that are related to it.

Contra Bill		A Tenant Bill that reverses a Tenant Bill that has been 'Withdrawn' or 'Withdrawn and Rebilled'.
Control File		A file (in XLS or PDF format) that is generated at the same time as an Export File using the Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity (or Accounts Link Generator Activity). A Control File provides details of all the Tenant Bills (or Supplier Bills) that are included in the Export File.
Cost Definition		Defines the price that will be charged within a Tariff Entry.
Data

Selector

A panel that is available within certain Sigma Brower Activity screens (e.g. Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity) which allows users to search for and select Items within the Sigma Database.

Data

Quality

The Data Quality of a Channel or Tariff Connector defines the priority of consumption data used in Tenant Billing.
If set to 'Primary' consumption data from the Channelor Tariff Connector is used in Tenant Billing by default.
If set to 'Secondary', 'Tertiary' or 'Sample' consumption data from the Channel or Tariff Connector can be used as an alternative source when recalculating a Tenant Bill

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Energy Intelligence

A business intelligence and analytics module that provides Sigma users with the capability to interact with the data. Users can perform multi-dimensional analysis to provide meaningful "Energy Intelligence" that supports energy management decisions and strategy

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External Invoice ID		A unique alphanumeric identifier that can be applied to Tenant Bills that have been invoiced externally to Sigma. External Invoice IDs are entered using the using the Tenant Approve and Issue Bills Activity.
Export File		A file that is generated using the Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity (or Accounts Link Generator Activity) containing details of one or more issued Tenant Bills (or loaded Supplier Bills). An Export File is compatible with and can be loaded directly into an external Financial System

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HFD Channel

An Item that represents a Time Series Data holder and is used to record and manage Consumption or Meter Readings data.
A High Frequency Data (HFD) Channel can be either Periodic or Non-Periodic:

Non-Periodic – Used where Consumption or Meter Readings data is entered along with the datetime for which the data is applicable

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Periodic – Used where measurement of Consumption or Meter Readings data is performed on a routine recurring periodic basis.
Consumption or Meter Readings data is loaded into an HFD Channel for the purposes of Tenant Billing.

Invoice Date

The date a Tenant Bill was issued using the Tenant Approve and Issue Bills Activity.

Invoice ID

The unique alphanumeric identifier created for a Tenant Bill by the Tariff Engine. This a concatenation of:

The Invoice Prefix (optionally) defined within the Tenant Billing Group
"CRN" for Contra Bills, "INV" for other Tenant Bills
The Tenant Account Number
The Bill Period end date in the format YYMMDD
The Tenant Bill Run ID
"/01".

Invoice Prefix

An (optional) alphanumeric string that can be used as a prefix on Invoice IDs generated by the Tariff Engine

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Item

Entities used within the Sigma product to model a customer's Utility Portfolio, for example Sites, Accounts and Supply Points.

Meter

An Item that represents the equipment that measures and records the flow of a utility through a Supply Point during a period of time

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Organisation

An Item that represents the top-level entity with respect to a customer's Utility Portfolio.
An Organisation may be created for each legal entity that is billed and responsible for the consumption of utilities, or a single Organisation may be created for an entire group. In most cases a single Organisation is used to manage a customer's Utility Portfolio.

Payment Terms		Defines the number of days after a Tenant Bill is issued in which a payment is due.
Pending Action		Information recorded against a Tenant Bill when a User initiates a request relating to a Tenant Bill (using the Tenant Approve and Issue Bill Activity) that requires being actioned by the Tariff Engine. Pending Withdraw Action – User requests to withdraw a Tenant Bill. Pending Withdraw and Rebill Action – User requests to withdraw and rebill a Tenant Bill. Pending Recalculate Action – User requests to recalculate a Tenant Bill using an alternative source of consumption data. The action will be performed by the Tariff Engine the next time the Tenant Account is included in a Tenant Bill Run that has been initiated with the relevant Pending Action option enabled.
Settlement Type		Defines the method of payment and can be set to Direct Debit, Cheque or Other.
Site

An Item that represents a physical location to which a utility is supplied. These will typically be buildings and be referenceable by a postcode. Sites have specific properties and the contact details of someone that is responsible for them.

Site Group

An item that represents a grouping of Sites within an Organisation.

Site

Manager		A Person or Company responsible for constructing a Site and implements a Tenant Billing Solution that can be passed on to the subsequent owner when the Site is sold.
Sub Meter		A system that allows a landlord, property management firm, condominium association, homeowners association, or other multi-tenant property to bill Tenants for individual measured utility usage.
Summary Report		A file (in XLS or PDF format) that is generated using the Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity (or Accounts Link Generator Activity) containing details of any ad-hoc selection of issued Tenant Bills (or loaded Supplier Bills).
Supply Point

An Item that represents the supply of a Commodity to a Site.

Supply Point Contract Container

Contract Provider		Defines a relationship for an effective period of time between a Tenant Provider Contract, a Tenant Account and one or more Meters, Sub Meters, Virtual Meters or Tariff Connectors. During the period of time that a Supply Point Contract Container is effective, the Tenant linked to the Tenant Account will be billed for the Commodity specified in the Supply Point using: The Tariff that is configured under the selected Tenant Provider Contract; The consumption data from the Periodic and Non-periodic Channels linked to the selected Meters, Virtual Meters and Tariff Connectors.
Tariff		An Item that is linked to a single Tenant Provider Contract and defines the set of charges that will be applied to Tenants linked to this Contract for a single Commodity.
Tariff Code		Defines, within a Tariff Entry, how the charge will be presented within the Sigma Bill when viewed in the Tenant Approve and Issue Bills Activity.
Tariff Connector		An Item that can be configured under a Supply Point when charges within a Tariff need to be created based on different sources of data, e.g. Meters, Sub Meters, Virtual Meters, Associated Data, Monitoring Points and Accounts (Supplier Bills). Once configured, a Tariff Connector can be referenced from a Tariff Entry.
Tariff Entry		Defines an individual charge within a Tariff.
Tariff Source		Defines, within a Tariff Entry, the input source of data to be used in the charge calculation.
Tenant		An Item that represents an end-Customer that is billed by the Tenant Provider.
Tenant Account		An Item that represents the granular Supply Point level at which a Tenant is billed by the Tenant Provider. It is expected that a single Supply Point is effective for a Tenant Account on any one specific day. A Tenant Account is also expected to be for a single Commodity. While it may be that a Supply Point is associated to a Tenant Account, and its configuration may change over time resulting in multiple Supply Point Contract Container records, it is not expected that Supply Points for different Commodities are associated to the same Tenant Account. Tenant Bills (per each Commodity) are created by the Tariff Engine and loaded against Tenant Accounts in Sigma.
Tenant Accounts Link Generator Activity	TALG	A Sigma Browser module that is used to generate Export Files, Control Files and Summary Reports containing details of one or more Tenant Bills that have been issued in Sigma.
Tenant Adhoc Charge		An Item that represents a miscellaneous charge (or credit) that is not defined within a Tariff.
Tenant Approve and Issue Bills	TAIB	A Sigma Browser module that is used to view and manage Tenant Bills that have been generated from a Tenant Bill Run.
Tenant Bill		Contains charging information generated by the Tariff Engine for each Supply Point / Bill Period identified within the Tenant Bill Run start and end date. Output is provided in the following forms: EDI Bill Universal Record Sigma Bill
Tenant Bill Batch		Created by the Tariff Engine when a Tenant Bill Run is initiated from the Tenant Bill Run Initiation Activity and used to store the Tenant Bills that are generated.
Tenant Bill Holder		Created by the Tariff Engine when a Tenant Bill is generated and used to store information about the Tenant Bill.
Tenant Bill Run		Created by the Tariff Engine when a Tenant Bill Run is initiated Tenant Bill Run Initiation Activity.
Tenant Bill Run Initiation	TBRI	A Sigma Browser module that is used to manage Tenant Billing Groups, i.e. groupings of Tenant Accounts that are to be billed at the same time, and initiate Tenant Bill Runs.
Tenant Bill Run Management	TBRM	A Sigma Browser module that is used to monitor Tenant Bill Runs that have been initiated using the Tenant Bill Run Initiation Activity.
Tenant Billing Group		A grouping of Tenant Accounts that are to be billed at the same time by the same Tenant Provider.
Tenant Provider		A Tenant Provider represents the Organisation / Site Manager that is billing the Tenants.
Tenant Provider Contract		A Tenant Provider Contract is linked to a specified Tariff for Tenant Billing. A Contract is for a single Commodity type and may cover one or more Supply Points and their Meters

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Time Series Producer

TSP

A TSP is an Item that produces time series data, for example:

A Periodic HFD Channel produces consumption data
An Account produces Supplier Bill data

Tree Selector

A view within the Data Selector that displays the Sigma Items in a tree hierarchy structure

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TSP Data Type		Defines, within a Tariff Connector, the specific parts of the data that will be included when sourcing the data

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Virtual Meter

An Item that represents a shared area within a Site or Building Unit and is a calculation of consumption from other Meters and Sub Meters

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Versions Compared

Old Version 3

New Version 4

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