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Overview

The Tenant Billing system uses a number of different components to support the billing of Tenants. In Sigma, these components are known as “Items”. These items ultimately link a Tenant with the appropriate stream of data for recharging with the appropriate Tariff which defines how the charges should be calculated. The hierarchy and relationship between these items is shown in the diagram below:

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• Core Sigma Items are shown in yellow (these are items that are fundamental to the use of Sigma, whether it is for M&T purposes, or Tenant Billing purposes only)
• Tenant Billing items are shown in purple.
• Relationships shown with a black line are visible in the Data Selector pane of the Sigma Browser screens.
• Relationships shown with a red line are not visible but are intrinsically related through the other items that are associated with each other.

Tenant Billing Detail

A simplified view of this diagram in terms of the core Tenant Billing items that need to be configured in order to calculate tenant bills is shown below:

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The system supports advanced charging mechanisms and different streams of data other than the metered consumption data can be used by the tenant billing engine when calculating the charges. Such examples include information from incoming fiscal supplier bills, or other data associated with a tenant supply such as capacity, floor area, occupancy. To achieve this, items known as Tariff Connectors are used. These are associated with the Supply Point so that the tenant billing engine can source the information as per the configuration in the Tariff Entry, which may point to a data source through the data type that has been configured in the Tariff Connector.

The Sigma Item Hierarchy

A visual representation of where on each of these items sits or can sit within Sigma is provided below:

Tenant  Provider

Located under the Organisation

Contract

Located under the Tenant Provider

Tariff

Located under the Contract

Cost Definition

Generally located under the Organisation (but can be at ROOT, Site, Meter, Account etc)

Site Group

Located under the Organisation

Site

Located under the Site Group

Account

Located under the Site.  The Account number is prefixed with the Commodity

Meter

Located under the Site.  The Meter number is prefixed with the Commodity

Sub Meter

Located under the Site.  The Sub Meter number is prefixed with the Commodity

Periodic Channel 

Located under the Meter or Sub Meter

Non-Periodic Channel

Located under the Meter or Sub Meter

Virtual Meter

Located under the Site

Tenant

Located under the Organisation

Tenant Account

Located under the Tenant

Supply Point

Located under the Site

Tariff Connector

Located under the Supply Point

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