Multi-meter Accounts - Workflow Nightmare?

Just got handed a manufacturing client with 14 separate meters across their facility. Mix of different rate schedules, some demand, some energy-only. Bills are all over the place in terms of format and timing.

Anyone have experience with large multi-meter audits? Feeling overwhelmed trying to organize all this data. Where do you even start?

Tyrone, I feel your pain. Had a similar situation with a university campus - 22 meters, multiple buildings, different service classes.

My approach:
1. Create a master spreadsheet mapping each meter to location/function
2. Sort bills chronologically by meter number
3. Tackle one meter at a time, highest usage first
4. Look for patterns that might apply across multiple meters

Don't try to do it all at once or you'll go crazy.

Omar's got the right idea. Also check if any meters should be aggregated for billing purposes. Sometimes utilities screw up and bill separately when they should be combined, or vice versa.

I found a case where MLGW was billing 3 meters on separate rate schedules when they qualified for aggregated billing at a lower rate. Saved the client $4,800/year just on that one issue.

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful. Omar, I like the approach of starting with highest usage meters. Dan, great point about aggregation - I hadn't even thought of that.

Dale, can you share more about the dashboard approach? Are you just doing manual calculations or using some kind of software?

Tyrone, I built mine in Excel using pivot tables and charts. Nothing fancy but it gives you a visual overview of usage patterns and costs that makes anomalies jump out.

Also recommend color-coding your spreadsheets by rate schedule - helps keep track of which meters are on which tariffs when you're jumping around between accounts.

Multi-meter audits are definitely more complex but often have bigger savings potential. The utility billing departments get confused too and mistakes multiply across meters.

One trick I use - create a summary dashboard showing total usage, demand, and costs across all meters by month. Helps spot anomalies that might get lost in the individual meter data.