Sustainability & Risk/ Energy / Accounting Supervisor

Define Utility Rates

You define utility rates by adding the utility contract information, optionally uploading the contract as a document, and then adding rate charge records to the contract.

You can add sales tax rate types, declining block rate types, and time-of-use rate types. Creating utility rates enables you to track bill lines by the type of rate the bill is based on.

See Defining Declining Block Rate Structures and Defining Time of Use Rate Structures.

Creating contracts enables you to keep a record of the old utility rates as well as current utility rates with a vendor.

Before defining utility rates, you should define vendors and their accounts. See Define Vendors and their accounts.

Step 1: Define Utility Contracts

Utility contracts are defined by the Vendor Account and the Contract Dates. The Contract Date you enter is validated, ensuring that you do not create contracts for the same Vendor Account that have overlapping dates.

To define utility contracts:

  1. Select the Sustainability & Risk/ Energy / Background Data – Accounting / Define Utility Rates task.

    The Define Utility Rates screen appears. The grid shows the utility contracts that have already been defined.

  2. Click Add.

    The Define Utility Contract form appears.

  3. Enter the following information for the contract:

    Vendor Account Code

    Vendor Code

    Date - Contract Start / Date - Contract End

    Description.

  4. Click Save and Next.

    The Upload Document form appears.

  5. To upload the contract, click the Check In New Document arrow.

    The Check In New Document form appears.

  6. Browse for the document, set a Lock Status, and optionally enter a Description.
  7. Click OK.

    The Upload Document form appears.

  8. Click Finish.

    The Enter Utility Rate screen appears so that you can enter the utility rate for this contract.

Step 2: Define the utility rates for the contract

You can define declining block rates. These are rates which charge the first x number of units at one rate, and remaining units are charged at a different rate. You can also define time-of-use rates that apply a different rate to energy use at specified months and times of the day.

To define utility rates for Energy / Consumption, Power / Demand, or Other (for an alternate rate type):

  1. From the Define Utility Rates screen, click View Rates for the contract for which you want to add rates. The Utility Rates portion of the screen shows any rates that have already been defined for the selected contract.
  2. In the Utility Rates section, click Add.

    The Enter Utility Rate form appears.

  3. Select the option button for the Rate Type as follows:
  4. Enter the following:
    • Rate Description
    • Bill Units: Select the type of measurement unit that will be tracked on this utility bill
    • Description (optional)
  5. Click Save and Next.

    The Enter Cost Structure form appears.

  6. Enter the cost per unit for this rate type.
  7. Do one of the following:
    • If this rate types is not a declining block structure, click Save & Next and go to step 8.
    • To enter a declining block structure for this rate:
      1. Select the check box for 'Add Another Cost Unit.'

        The form expands to show the Cost per Unit you entered as the first block in the Value From and To fields.

      2. Enter the following information for the second block:
        • Rate Descriptor (Second Block
        • Cost per Unit (Second Block)
        • Value From and To fields to define the range to which this block applies
      3. If this utility rate has another cost unit, select the 'Add Another Cost Unit, and enter the values for that cost unit. You can enter up to five cost units for a utility rate.
      4. Click Save & Next.

        The Define Time-of-Use form appears.

  8. Do one of the following:
    • If the rate does not have a time-of-day restriction, select No for the option button, and click Finish.
    • If the rate does have a time-of-day restriction, select Yes for the option.
      1. Select the check boxes for the Months and Hours to which the time-of-use restriction applies and click Finish.

To define utility rates for sales tax

To define utility rates for sales tax for a contract:

  1. From the Define Utility Rates screen, click View Rates for the contract for which you want to add a sales tax rate. The Utility Rates portion of the screen shows any rates that have already been defined for the selected contract.
  2. In the Utility Rates section, click Add.

    The Enter Utility Rate form appears.

  3. Select the Sales Tax option button for the Rate Type.

    The Rate Descriptor is filled in as Sales Tax.

  4. Optionally, add more information about the sales tax in the Description field.
  5. Click Save & Next.

    The Enter Cost Structure form appears.

  6. Enter the Tax Rate (%), and click Finish.

Defining a new contract by copying the old contract

If you need to define a new contract for a vendor that is very similar to the old contract, use the Copy Contract feature.

To copy a contract:

Note: Ensure that the contract you want to copy has an end date, so the system can verify that there are no overlapping contracts.

To create a new contract by copying an old one:

  1. From the Define Utility Rates screen, click View Contract in the row for the contract you want to copy.

    The Define Contract form appears.

  2. Click Copy.

    The Define Utility Contract form appears.

  3. Select new dates for the contract, and click Save.

    A new contract is created and the old contract rates are copied to the new contract.

Editing and deleting rate structures

If you edit a block structure: