Sigma allows you to have multiple Billing Groups. A Billing Group is a group of Tenant Accounts that you want to bill at the same time and which share a common set of attributes that should be applied to the bills that are generated for Tenant Accounts that form part of that Billing Group.

A Tenant Account can only Account must be in one a Billing Group and needs to be in one to allow billingto allow billing and can only be assigned to one Billing Group at a time.

Accessing Tenant Bill Run Initiation Activity

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The Tenant Bill Run Initiation Activity will be empty the first time you access the Activity opens as shown below:
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The screen is divided into the following areas:

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Field

Description

Name

Enter the Name of the Tenant Billing Group

Tenant Provider

Select the required Tenant Provider from the dropdown list

Bill Frequency

Select the required Bill Frequency from the dropdown list. The options available are:

Monthly - a bill is generated for each calendar month of the year
Quarterly - a bill is generated for each calendar quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec)
Annually - a bill is generated for each calendar year
Six-monthly - a bill is generated for a 6-month period (note the months that are contained within the 6 month intervals is configurable using the "Start month" field below)
Custom - a bill is generated for a user defined period of time which is specified at the point of triggering each billing run

The default is set to Monthly.

Start Month

Info
Note, this is only enabled where the Six-monthly bill frequency option is selected.

This allows the start month of the 6 onthly billing periods to be selected to define what periods shoudl be covered with regards to the production of the bill. The options available are:

January (Jan-Jun / Jul-Dec)
February (Feb-Jul / Aug-Jan)
March (Mar-Aug / Sep-Feb)
April (Apr-Sep / Oct-Mar)
May (May-Oct / Nov-Apr)
June (Jun-Nov / Dec-May)
July (Jul-Dec / Jan-Jun)
August (Aug-Jan / Feb-Jul)
September (Sep-Feb / Mar-Aug)
October (Oct-Mar / Apr-Sep)
November (Nov-Apr / May-Oct)
December (Dec-May / Jun-Nov)

Invoice Prefix

(optional) Enter an Invoice Prefix to be applied to Invoice Numbers generated for Tenant Bills

Time Zone

Select the required Time Zone from the dropdown list. (default is GMT)

Note: It is important that this matches your Channels so that you do not create an additional meter reading when creating a bill

Excerpt

Process Pending Actions:

Field

Description

Withdraw Actions

Tick the Withdraw Actions checkbox if by default pending Withdraw Actions should be processed during a Tenant Bill Run.

Where any existing bills for a Tenant Account that is assigned to the billing group has a status of 'Withdraw', the system will withdraw the bills and create contra bills that effectively completely reverse the existing bills.

This default setting can be overridden when initiating a Tenant Bill Run.

Withdraw and Rebill Actions

Tick the Withdraw and Rebill Actions checkbox if by default pending Withdraw and Rebill Actions should be processed during a Tenant Bill Run.

Where any existing bills for a Tenant Account that is assigned to the billing group has a status of 'Withdraw & Rebill', the system will withdraw the bills and create contra bills that effectively completely reverse the existing bills. It will then calculate new bills based on the latest data for the periods with a status of 'Normal'.

This default setting can be overridden when initiating a Tenant Bill Run

Pending Recalculate Actions

Tick the Recalculate Actions checkbox if by default pending Recalculate Actions should be processed during a Tenant Bill Run.

Where any existing bills for a Tenant Account that is assigned to the billing group has a status of 'Recalculate', the system will re-calculate the billing periods based on the latest data available.

This default setting can be overridden when initiating a Tenant Bill Run

Bill Run Parameters:

Field	Description
Derive Non Periodic Consumption	Default setting of the Derive Non Periodic Consumption checkbox when initiating a Bill Run for the Tenant Billing Group . Where this option is selected, the system will attempt to derive the consumption for non-periodic channels where there is not a start and end read that aligns with the start and end of the period being billed.
Save Billing Non Periodic Reads	Default setting of the Save Billing Non Periodic Meter Reads checkbox when initiating a Bill Run for the Tenant Billing Group Where this option is selected, where there are not start and end meter readings that do not align with the start and end of the billing period, then the system will store the reads it estimates for the purpose of billing against the applicable non-periodic channel. It will be stored with a status of "System Estimated".
Auto-generate PDFs	Default setting of the Auto-generate PDFs checkbox when initiating a Bill Run for the Tenant Billing Group based on the template that has been setup. Where this option is selected, the system will produce a PDF version of the tenant bill that can be downloaded and distributed to the Tenant. Please note, where this option is not selected, a PDF bill will not be created and cannot be retrospectively created for any tenant bills that have been produced.
Auto-Generate Consumption CSVs	Default setting of the Auto-generate Consumption CSVs checkbox when initiating a Bill Run for the Tenant Billing Group. The Consumption CSV is to provide details of the consumption information that has been used to calculate the bill. An example CSV output for a bill based on half hourly periodic metering data can be seen here. Please note, where this option is not selected, a PDF bill will not be created and cannot be retrospectively created for any tenant bills that have been produced.

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Click OK.

The Tenant Billing Group is saved, the Setup Tenant Billing Group pop-up closes and the Tenant Billing Groups section is updated to display the Tenant Billing Group details.

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Note: the Assigned Tenant Accounts section at the bottom of the screen will show how many Tenants are already assigned to the Group.

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