Working on an engagement agreement for a retail chain with 47 locations across Louisiana and Mississippi. Mix of Entergy New Orleans, Entergy Louisiana, and Entergy Mississippi accounts. Question is how to structure the LOA - do you treat each location as a separate engagement or bundle everything under one agreement? Also wondering about payment terms when recoveries might come in at different times from different locations.
LOA language for multi-site accounts - need advice
Juan, I've done several multi-site deals here in California with PG&E territory. I always do one master agreement that covers all locations but includes a schedule listing each site with account numbers. Makes invoicing cleaner and gives you more leverage if they try to cherry-pick which locations to proceed with. For payment, I typically invoice as recoveries are realized rather than waiting for everything to complete.
Pete's approach makes sense. I handled a similar situation with Evergy accounts across Kansas - had about 30 locations. One thing I learned is to be very specific about which party is responsible for coordinating with each utility. Some clients want to handle all utility contact themselves, others want you to manage everything. Get that sorted upfront or you'll have headaches later when trying to collect documentation.
Rachel brings up a great point about utility coordination. In Texas with multiple TDUs, that coordination piece is critical. I always include language that requires the client to provide written authorization letters for each account upfront. Also specify that any delays in obtaining utility cooperation that extend the timeline don't reduce our contingency percentage. Learned that one the hard way.
Marcus is absolutely right about the authorization letters. With Duke Energy here in North Carolina, they've gotten really strict about third-party access to account information. I now require original signed letters for each account before I even start the analysis. Also include language about what happens if some accounts are excluded mid-process - you don't want to lose your fee on accounts you've already analyzed.
All good advice here. One additional consideration for Juan - with Entergy accounts, you might run into different recovery timelines depending on which operating company. Some are faster than others with processing refund requests. I'd recommend building in language about payment timing that accounts for those utility-specific differences. Maybe net 30 from when each individual utility issues the refund rather than trying to sync everything up.