Another big piece [about submetering] is on our accounting side, because we have our own internal accounting. These bills need to go out every month to tenants, and utilivisor has made that a streamlined process. It gets loaded into accounting, and they take the data and send it out as our invoice, which has really reduced our internal need to manage that data.

We [used to] punch in numbers and expect it to generate a bill-back number at the end of the spreadsheet, but everything in between was a little bit beyond our technical experience and knowledge. The calculations were so complicated and all tied to each other throughout the spreadsheet, that it was very difficult to... if there was an error or if a tenant number at the end of the spreadsheet didn't make sense – the prior numbers – it wasn't easy for us to back into how we got to that error. 

They're coming in soon to make sure that the meters are metering what they're supposed to do and they're accurate. And we share that with the tenant. And that gives them their confidence that their invoices will be correct.

You can go low and just hire a meter reader to come in and read the meters. But you need a program - one with software and people that can look at the data before they send it to you. You need someone to let you know if things are out of line - that a space should be using more or less of a utility. utiliVisor gives us monthly information that we can use to capture utility costs, before it becomes a common area or a lost cause rate to the owner. Properties need to be profitable. That’s my goal as a manager. I have to protect my owners’ assets. And money is the number one asset. Anytime I can, I prevent them from losing money or paying money by allocating costs to where they belong.

It's a lot less burdensome, I'd say. You can just pick up the phone and somebody has quick answers for you and helps do the deep dive, which supports the team locally and really helps with the workload.