Handling utility bills is a time-consuming process for property owners, tenants, and property managers. It requires billing tenants, collecting payments, tracking missing payments, and sending money out to utilities companies. To reduce costs, streamline processes, and protect your owners, it’s important to manage your utility expenses with the right strategies in place.

What Is Utility Management?
Utility management involves a company’s effort to better control utility invoicing by streamlining and analyzing the invoices that are received each month for electricity, gas, oil, water, phone, internet, waste removal, and other related services. The goal is to catch errors and overcharges that occur in the processing of a company’s bills, as well as to review costs to identify areas where savings can be made.

Managing utility costs can be complicated, especially for large organizations with multiple locations or facilities receiving hundreds of invoices each month. These types of businesses need a level of expertise beyond that of the average Accounts Payable team to navigate complex tariffs and fees shown on utility invoices. Without the proper training, it’s easy for these errors to slip through the cracks and end up being paid out of your business’s pocket.

Smart utilities management uses a combination of technologies that monitor and analyze energy usage. This can include smart meters that communicate with appliances and devices, identifying areas of over-usage. It can also include advanced lighting and building controls that adjust automatically to minimize consumption when the facility is not in use. Finally, this approach can include data analytics that provide a detailed picture of energy and water consumption across a portfolio of properties. utility management