Rates and Tariffs

This covers everything under Rates and Tariffs on the left side of Utilops. What you charge for water, sewer and gas. Your fees. Your taxes. Discounts for seniors or low income homes. Which customers are billed together, and on what day. Billing and Payments uses these numbers to make every bill.

Most of this is set up once and changed once a year, when the board votes on new rates. Take the lessons in order the first time. After that, come back to the one you need. Inside Utilops, the Show me how button at the top of every page replays the walkthrough for that page.

Start with the quick start pages

Rates have no quick start page of their own. These two use your rates and show where they land on a bill.

• 6. Explain a bill
• 10. Run the billing cycle and send the bills

Then the lessons

1. Make a new rate structure
2. Change a rate and the day it starts
3. Add or change a fee
4. Add a tax or assessment
5. Set up a discount program and enroll a customer
6. Set up a billing cycle and put customers on it
7. Check what a bill would be
8. Set the gas cost adjustment
9. See who changed a rate and when
10. Undo a mistake

Then check what you learned. Eight questions, about five minutes.

Each page has a blue Show me button. It opens your Utilops and points at each thing to click. You do the step for real, then press Next. One button walks one path. If a page has two, it has two buttons.

If something looks different

A rate change never changes a bill that is already made. A bill keeps the rate that was in force the day it was made. New rates apply to the next billing run. If an old bill is wrong, fix the bill under Billing and Payments, not the rate.

Gas Cost Adjustment is for gas utilities only. If your utility sells only water, you will not see it on the left.

Some pages are hidden until an administrator turns them on. Usage Tiers, Seasonal Rates, Rate History, Rate Modeling and the pages below them are for utilities that need them. If you do not see one, ask your administrator.

Customer types live under Settings. Which customers count as Residential or Commercial is set there. Rates and fees here pick from that list.