Simple question that I've heard different answers to: when you start an audit, do you look at the client's bills first or read the tariff first?
Do you audit the bill or the tariff first?
Tariff first, always. If you look at the bill first, you're trying to work backward from what's being charged to figure out if it's right. If you read the tariff first, you know what the correct charges SHOULD be, and then the bill is just a comparison exercise. The tariff tells you the rules. The bill tells you what happened. Compare the two and the errors jump out.
Terry nailed it. Tariff first. I made this point in the Reading Tariffs topic too — the tariff is your audit tool, the bill is the evidence. Know the rules before you examine the data. This applies to every type of error: you need to know the rate eligibility criteria before you can evaluate the rate, you need to know the demand ratchet formula before you can check the demand charges, you need to know the power factor threshold before you can assess the penalty.
I was a bill-first person for my first year. Switched to tariff-first after reading Randy's process thread. Night and day difference in how fast I spot errors now.
Tariff first it is. Going to read the Duke tariff cover to cover this weekend before I look at my new client's bills on Monday.