Billing

Energy Costs Continue to Rise. Here's How to Take Back Control

Electricity prices are climbing, but your building doesn’t have to absorb every penny. Learn how meter checks, leak detection, monitoring, and incentives can rein in waste and recover costs.

Socket vs. Multi-Channel Meters: How to Choose a New Electric Meter

Should you replace that bad socket meter for a new version or upgrade to multichannel? Both types of electric meters have their pros and their drawbacks. Multichannel meters scale better and track more types of data. But single-channel has its place in the broad universe of electric meters.

The CAM-to-IRR Connection: A Practical Playbook for Finding ​​​​​​​(& Funding) More Value

CAM is more than “just OpEx.” It's also one of the fastest levers for improving NOI, IRR, and even leasing optics, if you know how to reveal and recover hidden utility costs. The best part is that lowering CAM uses tools many properties already have, so it's unlikely you have to start from scratch.

Why VRF Billing Is Different and How to Stop VRF Billing Complaints

VRF allocation is complex and easy to misunderstand, which makes it a constant source of tension with tenants. The result is consistent tenant pushback when the VRF bills arrive. Here are three solutions to end this monthly drama that you can implement right away.

Why Water Submetering Is Complicated

Water submetering sounds simple, but it often isn’t. Water meters are often confusing to read as well as hard to get to. Then there's the confusion over units between the utility provider, the meter, and the encoder. It all boils down to lower cost recovery than you're entitled to.

6 Critical Questions to Ask When Choosing a Utility Billing Partner

Big utility billing companies buy up smaller ones and then treat customers like an afterthought: slow service, no response, surprise fees, and zero accountability. Use these six questions to vet providers who'll actually protect your revenue instead of tanking it with sloppy work.

Why Private Equity Rollups Are Killing Utility Billing Service Quality

Why should you care that private equity and VC are buying up small utility billing companies? Because they prioritize profits over service, leaving complex property owners with poor support, hidden costs, and inflexible contracts.

What to Do About Utility Backbilling: A Guide for Multi-Family Property Managers

When utility providers bill for past consumption to "catch up" with estimated readings or meter errors, the amounts can be staggering. But there are checks on what the utilities are allowed to do, writes guest author and energy attorney, John McManus.

Utility Billing for Complex Properties: Why Manual Methods Fall Short

Discover why manual utility billing for complex properties is slow, risky, and outdated—and how the right system can cut billing time from 30 days to just one.

The Hidden Costs of Relying on CAM Recovery

"Whatever the meters don't pick up, we'll get back in the CAM." We discuss the problems with this popular theory and how it increases, rather than recovers, utility costs.

How kW and kWh Affect the Cost of Commercial Electricity

Both kW and kWh impact your monthly commercial electric bill, but they're not interchangeable. Here’s a breakdown of what these terms mean and how they affect your electricity charges.

What Property Managers Need to Know About CTs & Tenant Billing

Are your utility bills off but your meters fine? Learn how current transformers could silently be messing up your billing amounts.

BTU Billing Demystified

Charging for chilled water is a dilemma worthy of Goldilocks – are you charging too much? Too little? How do you bill BTUs just right?

The Mini Guide to Submetering ROI

Does submetering make financial sense? How do you decide? Let's demystify the key factors in cost-effective submetering and getting the highest ROI on this low-cost investment.

Not Just for Tenant Billing: How Submetering Solves Common Operational Obstacles

Success in real estate is simple: Buy low and sell high. The tricky part is how you achieve that. We've put together pragmatic solutions to help ensure your property is operating as efficiently as possible.

How to Estimate Billing With Nulls, Zeroes, Gaps, and Other Problems in Your Meter Data

Data gaps got you lost in billing wilderness? Navigate the tricky terrain of nulls, zeroes, repeats, and missing meter data and estimate tenant invoices confidently.

The Top 5 (Non-weather) Reasons for Fluctuating Utility Costs

Trying to decode your fluctuating utility costs? Check out our guide to the top five non-weather reasons your bills might be throwing you curveballs.

Unit Conversions: How to Compare Your Meter Data to Your Utility Provider's

Submeters don’t always measure utilities in the same units you’re billed in. This article walks you through how to convert your meter data so you can identify billing or usage issues quickly.

Converting From kWh to BTU: A Comprehensive Guide

To evaluate the efficiency of your operations, you need to be able to compare your electric, water, natural gas, and other utilities. Here’s how to convert your utilities into BTUs for apples-to-apples comparison.

The Benefits of Electrical Submetering for Mixed-Use Condominiums

This commercial and residential building only fully submetered the residential and not the commercial units, forcing residents to pay more than their fair share in common area costs. Thanks to good submetering, this condo board fulfilled their duty of care and fairly allocated utilities to ALL tenants.

Why Utility Rates Change With the Seasons

Utility rates, particularly for electricity, change depending on the seasons. Learn why and when to expect to see changes on your utility bills.