This section shows how to create and manage Bill Validation.

Introduction

Validators can be setup to determine the rules that should be applied when a new bill is loaded into the system to check for any potential errors or issues with that bill. The validators will run automatically and the outcome of the validation that has been performed will be visible.

The validation that is performed is entirely configurable and this is managed in the Validator Setup Activity and are used to validate manually entered and electronically loaded (EDI or CSV) Bills. There are various ways to set these up, and this Guide will help you decide what is best for your portfolio.

Opening the Validator Setup Activity

• Click on Validator Setup Activity

Viewing existing Validators

Any existing Validators will show in the top right of the screen

Understanding the Validator

Each validator will show:

• Name – defined by the user
• Severity – Info, Warning or Severe
• Type – Generic Bill (all bills no matter the entry method), Bill Entry (just for manual bills) or Tenant bill (used for Tenant Billing validation only - this is a separate module of the system)
• Definition – the definition of the validator (this is system defined and represents the validator that has been setup)

Understanding the Variables

Each validator may have variables to control how it looks for potential problems.  this may be threshold boundaries to control how sensitive the check should be.

• Right click on a Validator > Setup Validator

In this specific example, it shows the "GB - totalConsumptionTol.xml" validator which is checking the consumption on the bill being validated is within a tolerance of the previous bill that exists for the same Account.

The Validator is configured with the following:

• Name – defined by the user
• Type - Generic Bill or Bill Entry (just for manual bills)
• Definition – the definition of the validator
• Description – a description of the validator
• Level - Info, Warning or Severe

Variables

Bill will pass validation if the Query is less than (£)

• The bill will fail the validation if the cost of the difference is more than the given figure (£150)
• Tolerance value (%)
• The bill will fail validation if the tolerance is more than or less than the given figure (15%)

Each Validator will have different variables and more information can be found here for the different validators available.

Any issues setting up a Validator should go to our Support Team support@teamenergy.com

Viewing Validator Relationships

Items associated with the Validator

Each Validator is set up uniquely and can be attached to an Account, Site, Site Group or the whole Organisation.

You can view what Items (Site, Account etc) have been associated with a a particular Validator. 

Where the Validator is assigned in the hierarchy of the energy estate will determine for which Accounts the Validator will run for. For example, if the Validators is assigned to the Site, it will run for all Accounts that exist beneath that Site or selecting Site Group, it will run for all Accounts that exist beneath that Site Group (which might be across multiple Sites).  Alternatively, assigning the Validator to an Account means it will only run for bills entered against that particular Account.

• Click on a Validator and the Items for tab will display a list of the Items that the validator will run on

Validators associated with an item

You can view what Validators run for a particular Item.

This is useful to see what validators will actually run for a specific Billing Account, no matter where the validator has been assigned in the estate hierarchy.

It will show all the validators, and at what level they have been setup, along with the navigation path to those items.

Adding a new Validator

Each Validator is set up uniquely and can be attached to an Account, Site, Site Group or the whole Organisation.

• Click on
  • Definition: Choose the Definition first
  • Name - Type the Name you want to see
  • Type – Choose the Type
  • Description - will be pre-filled based on the definition selected
  • Level – Choose Info, Warning or Severe depending on how important you deem any issues found by the validator would be.
  • Variables – Configure any variables applicable to the Validator as per your needs

• Click OK

Adding Items to the Validator

Once you have enabled the configured the Validator, you will need to add the Items you want to associate with it.

• Click on the Validator
• Drag and Drop the Item(s) from the Data Selector into the Items section at the bottom of the screen

Amending a Validator

• Right click on the Validator
  • Click Setup Validator
• Amend the details
• Click OK

Deleting a Validator

If you no longer need a Validator, it can be deleted.

• Right click on the Validator
  • Click Remove Validator
  • Click Yes

This will remove the Validator from the list but will not affect any previous validation..