Signed a new client in Providence — a mid-size manufacturer with about $15,000/month in combined utility spend. Great prospect. Problem: they had a management change last year and apparently nobody was filing utility bills. Their bookkeeper has check stubs showing payments to National Grid and Narragansett Bay Commission but zero actual invoices for the past two years. They don't even know all their account numbers. How do you do an audit when the client literally cannot produce a single bill?
Client lost all their utility bills — how do I even start?
This happens more often than you'd think. Start with the check stubs — they'll have the utility name, payment amounts, and dates. From there you can work backward. Call National Grid's commercial line, explain you have authorization (get your LOA signed first obviously), and they can look up the account by service address. Once you have the account number they can mail or email duplicate invoices. Most utilities will provide 24 months of duplicate bills at no charge. Some charge a small per-bill fee for anything older. I've gotten National Grid in Connecticut to send me 36 months once without any fee.
Also check if the previous management or bookkeeper still has copies somewhere. I had a similar situation in Madison and it turned out the old office manager had been scanning every bill to a shared drive that nobody told the new staff about. Three years of PDFs sitting right there. Another trick — ask the client's accountant or CPA for their utility expense records. Even if they don't have the actual bills, the GL detail will tell you exact payment amounts and dates which helps you verify what the utility sends you is complete.
Update — National Grid was actually very cooperative once I had the LOA. They emailed 24 months of PDF invoices within a week. Account number was right there on the first bill. Narragansett Bay Commission for the water and sewer was slower but eventually came through. Turns out the client has 3 electric meters not 2 like they thought. Already spotted what looks like a rate class issue on one of them — they're on a small commercial rate but their demand is consistently over 100 kW. Should be on general service. This could be significant.
Tony, glad it's working out. That's a textbook example of why the data collection phase often reveals the first findings. The client didn't even know they had a third meter — that alone tells you nobody has been paying attention to these bills. When a client says they don't have their bills, I actually see it as a positive signal. It means nobody has reviewed their utility costs in years, which usually means there's something to find.