Bill Messages are errors that occur during the creating of the bill.

Bill Messages can be viewed from the Tenant Bill Run Management Activity and the Tenant Approve and Issue Bills Activity.

Some are for information, some will require actioning.

Message Severity

There are four levels of severity:

Off - no message will be created

• Turn off if you do not want to see messages such as Cancelled Bill

Info  -  a Tenant Bill will be created

• Examples:  
  • Bill cancelled
  • Channel data gap was found for Channel 

Warning  -  a Tenant Bill will be created

• Examples:
  • No channels found under supply point meters
  • Serious error occurred during validation of bill 

Error  - a Tenant Bill will NOT be created

• Examples:

  • No meters found under supply point

  • No tariffs could be found for account

Information on the types of Bill Messages and descriptions is available here.

Opening the Tenant Bill Run Management Activity

• Click on Tenant Bill Run Management Activity to view the Bill Messages

• Click on the Bill Run line to see the messages in the Bill Messages Section
• Highlight the line to see the messages

Bill Messages Section

The table will show:

• Tenant Account Number
• Tenant Name
• Supply Point
• Level - Info, Warning or Error (for more information on the setting the level, click here)
• Message Type - see here for more details on the types
• Message - see here for more details on the descriptions

Right Click Option

• Right click on a Message to Edit / View the Tenant Account 

The Tenant Account Editor popup appears

Reviewing the Messages  

Warning Bill Messages will cause a bill not be to created, so will need to be dealt with from the Tenant Bill Run Initiation  Activity.  Others can be dealt with from the Tenant Bill Initiation Activity or the Tenant Approve and Issue Bills Activity (see below for more details)

Info Message Example

         T

Note: This is an Info Message and it is not mandatory to fill any gaps.  However, if you want to charge your Tenant for a full period, you may want to fill any gaps.

Gap filling is done via the Events Activity.

• Click on Activities at the top of the screen
• Click Events

The Events Activity shows

Data Selector

• Click on the Site

Filter

• Level - choose Warning 
• Selection type - choose Selected Items

• Overview Period - choose the period

• Click 

The Warning Events for the Site you have selected, and time period will appear:

There maybe more than one exception.

• Right click on the gap you want to fill
• Click Edit Missing Data

The Exception - Edit Missing Data Activity opens

To view the gap in more detail, click on the data and scroll across the area

The graph will zoom in

• Click   to return to the original graph

Filling the Gap

There are 6 options

Four weekly average

Looks at the period of data over the previous four weeks and gives you an average provide to fill the gap

Note:  if the gap is more than four weeks, this method will only fill the first four weeks.  It would be advisable to import the actual data into Sigma, rather than filling the gap

Interpolation

A very basic gap filling tool.  It looks at the last half hour period before the gap and the first half hour period straight after the gap and fills it with an average of those two figures

Three Month Average

Looks at the period of data over the previous three months and gives you an average provide to fill the gap 

Note:  if the gap is more than three months, this method will only fill the first four weeks.  It would be advisable to import the actual data into Sigma, rather than filling the gap

Six Month Average

Looks at the period of data over the previous six months and gives you an average provide to fill the gap 

Note:  if the gap is more than six months, this method will only fill the first four weeks.  It would be advisable to import the actual data into Sigma, rather than filling the gap

Existing Data Set

Choose from the dropdown of  existing Periodic Channels associated with the Site

Manual Entry

Allows you to add a figure for the consumption period 

Once you have chosen your method of gap filling:

Click 

The screen will refresh to show the gap has been filled

Close the Exception - Edit Missing Data Activity and return to the Events Activity to see any more gaps that need to be filled

The Events Activity will refresh and the Event will be removed from the screen automatically

Warning Message Example

If this error occurs, the bill would still be created, but the system would be unable to validate it

Error Message Example

An example would be Error BM0006 - No meters found under supply point:

An Error messages prevent a bill from being created so this will need to be addressed.  In this instance, Sigma cannot find a meter under the Supply Point.

Finding the Supply Point

To deal with this error you will need to view the Supply Point.

It is advisable to enter the Supply Point number as part of the Tenant Account Number so that it is visible when reading the error message.

Click here for more details on how to create a Tenant Account

• Right click on the Bill Message
• Click Edit/View

• Copy the Supply Point number from the Account Number 

• Open up the Estate Management Activity.
• Search for the Supply Point

• Click on the Supply Point tab
• Highlight the Supply Point
• Click Manage Contracts For Supply

The Supply Point Editor popup appears.

Note:  There are no meters showing the in the meter section - therefore the Bill Message appeared

Adding the Meter

• Drag and drop the relevant Meter from the Available Meters section to the Selected Meters section

• Click OK to save

The meter now shows in the Meters section of the Supply Point Editor popup:

• Click OK to save

Note:  If no meters are in the Available Meters section, you will need to add a Meter and a Channel.  Click here for more details on how to add these.

Re-Running the Tenant Bills Run

Once you have corrected any errors, ie added a meter, filled a gap etc, you will need to Re-run the Billing Run.

Click here for more information on how to ReRun