What is billing?
Also called invoicing, billing is the process of requesting payment from a customer, by generating an invoice to recover the money resulted from the service or sale.
Before getting into the details of steps of bill generation, User has to decide on below points:
- Bill Plan: You need to generate a single bill or need to generate different bills for different groups. For example, you can decide if CAM, Electricity charges to be included in the same bill or there should be separate bills for Electricity & separate bills for CAM.
- Tariffs: What are the different tariffs/ rates that will be applicable like – Grid Charge, DG Charge, Maintenance Charge, Delayed Payment Charges, etc.
- Bill Cycle: What is the period of a bill. For example – start date, end date for a bill. Any cycle can also contain – Due Date, Payment consideration details, etc. so that users have better control and change as per the needs.
iSocietyManager has the flexibility to add and configure as many bill plans as you want. So if any user wants to generate CAM and Electricity Bills separately he can configure 2 bill plans say CAM, & Electricity in iSocietyManager. Similarly, charges also can also be configured as per your needs.
Billing need varies from client to client. Below data is generally required so the bills can be generated. You can ignore the details which are not applicable against you, like DG Load, Grid Load is required only if you are doing electricity Billing.
- Site Details: Site for which you want to start operations. The details include below:
- Site / Project Name
- Primary Email – Site Email
- Admin – Contact Details ( Mobile No., Email ) To be used to create Admin of the Site
- Logo Image of the Site [ Optional]
- Unit Details: The unit is against which bills are being generated. You can provide details in any excel of your format, While importing you can map your fields with the System fields. Below are fields that should be part of the data depending on your billing requirement. Refer Site-Data Format under templates below.
- Unit No
- Owner Name
- Size in square feet
- Grid Demand Load [Optional]
- DG Demand Load [Optional]
- Maintenance Start Date/Bill Start Date
- Bill Plan Details: The details for all applicable Bill Plans
- Bill Plan Name
- Opening Balance for each plan against each Unit.
- Tariff Details for each Tariff including
- Tariff Name
- Rate
- Calculation Base – Area, Fixed, etc.
- Delayed Payment Charge for the Bill Plan – Refer https://blog.isocietymanager.com/what-is-best-practice-for-late-payment-charge-in-billing/
- Bill Format: The bill formats of your choice. For examples refer:
iSocietyManager gives you the flexibility to use the format as per your needs. There are different bill formats and you can select as per your need. Few examples are below for your reference.
Common Area Maintenance ( CAM) Bill Formats
- Multi-Section – Separate sections for Charges, GST & Amount payable. Download PDF CAM-bill-format-separate-sections
- Single Section: All charges, taxes, amount, etc. in a single table Download PDF CAM-bill-format-single-section
- CAM Single Row: All particulars in a single row. Download PDF CAM-bill-format-single-row
Electricity Bill Formats
- Multi-Section: Download PDF electricity-bill-format-multi-section
- Multi-tables: Download PDF electricity-bill-format-multi-tables
General Bill Formats
These invoices have all the charges, so it increases simplification for customers where they will get a single bill for all charges. Management can enable the Item Wise Adjustment feature to track each charge outstanding separately. Different bill format examples are:
- Multiple Meters Format: Download PDF general-bill-format-multiple-meters-corporate
- Multiple Charges and Advance, Social Club Charge: Download PDF general-multiple-charges-advance-bill-format
- Simple Format: Download PDF general-simple-bill-format-rwa
- Mall Maintenance Format: CAM Mall Bill Format
Adhoc or Miscellaneous Bill Formats
- Gratuity Bill: Download PDF adhoc-bill-gratuity
Gas Bill Formats
- Simple: Download PDF gas-bill-format
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- Meter Reading: Previous and current meter Reading (specified only Grid and DG or multiple meters like AHU etc.) . This is required if you want to
- Different Import Formats Templates Examples are as below:
- Opening-Balance
- Reading
- Tariff
- Site Format : This is an example one.
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If you want to create more than one type of bills then only you need to configure bill plan. Below are the steps to add a new bill plan:
- Go to Menu -> Bill -> Bill Plan Configurations
- Enter the details for the plan and save to add/configure the bill plan.
- To start using new Bill Plan, you need to map the same with the respective Role. Only mapped roles will be able to view that bill plan
In iSocietyManager, you can allow a billing plan to be used only by a user or role. This especially becomes important in projects where different accountants or persons are responsible for maintenance, electricity, or ad-hoc bills.
To map a role with a bill plan, follow below steps:
- Go to Role-Groups-> Assign Bill Plan Permission
- Select the Bill Plan and then check the Roles which you want to give that bill plan permission
- Login as admin or refresh if you are already logged in. Now you should be able to see the new bill plan in your options.
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iSocietyManager gives user the flexibility to map a unit as and when required with a bill plan. The unit is billed for that bill plan only when that Unit is mapped to that bill plan. There are situations where Units are mapped to Electricity Bill only when the unit is occupied by some tenant.
With few clicks billing admin can map/ unmap unit from a Bill Plan.
- Go to Bill-> Billing Configuration
- Click on User Mapping and then select a particular Bill Plan then Units to be mapped.
After login with a role having Bill Generation and Tariff permission, You can add a tariff or charge as per requirements.
- Go to Bill-> Tariff
- You can add tariff details as per your requirement
(a) Charge Name: Name of the charges e.g. Cheque Bounce, Maintenance, Sinking Fund etc.
(b) Unit Column: Types of the charges for calculations.
(c) Charge Frequency: Per cycle, Onetime, Annual
(d) Applicability: Charges raise for “ALL” or Individual.
(e) Factor: Calculations of charges on per “Cycle” or Days.
(f) Calculations Order: For Item wise adjustment
(g) Tax: Taxable charges for GST calculations.
(h) All/Cluster/Unit Category/Slab: Charges defined on the basis of a slab for units consumes, Unit Category, Cluster level.
The unit column is the key that defines the type of charge like Area, Fixed, etc.
Below are different types you can select
- Fixed: Charges which are of a fixed value and will not vary based on some parameter say – Security Charges, etc.
- Area: This charge is calculated on the basis of the area of the Unit that is available on Unit Details. Example – Maintenance Charge
- Grid: This charge is calculated on the basis of Grid units consumed in by Units.
- Grid Load: Calculated on the basis of the Grid Sanctioned Load given to the unit.
- DG: This charge is calculated on the basis of DG units consumed.
- DG Load: Calculated on the basis of Sanctioned DG Load given to the unit.
- Interest: Percentage of the Amount. Example – 18% pa Delayed Payment charge, Also custom interest as per needs
- ChequeBounce: Charges defined for any dishonor of cheque.
- Delayed Due: Charges defined for when any payment is done after the due date. It can be fixed delayed payment charges or a percentage of the amount.
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If there are more than one bill plans, sometimes there is need to add payment condition on the bill plan based on the other bill plan. For example, suppose you want that residents should recharge electricity meter only when, they have no outstanding dues in Maintenance.
The steps to configure payment conditions for a bill plan are:
- Go to Bill-> Billing Configuration
- Click on Configurations
You can add below conditions for the Bill plan:
- Minimum Amount
- Maximum Amount
- Decimal Places
- Fixed Amount
- Minimum Credit
- Check the previous due amount of — another bill plan
- Remarks
- Disable Edit Amount
- Block payment before due date
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After login with a role having Bill Generation and Tariff permission, You can add a tariff or charge as per requirements.
- Go to Bill-> Tariff
- You can add tariff details as per your requirement
(a) Charge Name: Name of the charges e.g. Cheque Bounce, Maintenance, Sinking Fund etc.
(b) Unit Column: Types of the charges for calculations.
(c) Charge Frequency: Per cycle, Onetime, Annual
(d) Applicability: Charges raise for “ALL” or Individual.
(e) Factor: Calculations of charges on per “Cycle” or Days.
(f) Calculations Order: For Item wise adjustment
(g) Tax: Taxable charges for GST calculations.
(h) All/Cluster/Unit Category/Slab: Charges defined on the basis of a slab for units consumes, Unit Category, Cluster level.
The unit column is the key that defines the type of charge like Area, Fixed, etc.
Below are different types you can select
- Fixed: Charges which are of a fixed value and will not vary based on some parameter say – Security Charges, etc.
- Area: This charge is calculated on the basis of the area of the Unit that is available on Unit Details. Example – Maintenance Charge
- Grid: This charge is calculated on the basis of Grid units consumed in by Units.
- Grid Load: Calculated on the basis of the Grid Sanctioned Load given to the unit.
- DG: This charge is calculated on the basis of DG units consumed.
- DG Load: Calculated on the basis of Sanctioned DG Load given to the unit.
- Interest: Percentage of the Amount. Example – 18% pa Delayed Payment charge, Also custom interest as per needs
- ChequeBounce: Charges defined for any dishonor of cheque.
- Delayed Due: Charges defined for when any payment is done after the due date. It can be fixed delayed payment charges or a percentage of the amount.
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iSocietyManager gives you the flexibility to use the format as per your needs. There are different bill formats and you can select as per your need. Few examples are below for your reference.
Common Area Maintenance ( CAM) Bill Formats
- Multi-Section – Separate sections for Charges, GST & Amount payable. Download PDF CAM-bill-format-separate-sections
- Single Section: All charges, taxes, amount, etc. in a single table Download PDF CAM-bill-format-single-section
- CAM Single Row: All particulars in a single row. Download PDF CAM-bill-format-single-row
Electricity Bill Formats
- Multi-Section: Download PDF electricity-bill-format-multi-section
- Multi-tables: Download PDF electricity-bill-format-multi-tables
General Bill Formats
These invoices have all the charges, so it increases simplification for customers where they will get a single bill for all charges. Management can enable the Item Wise Adjustment feature to track each charge outstanding separately. Different bill format examples are:
- Multiple Meters Format: Download PDF general-bill-format-multiple-meters-corporate
- Multiple Charges and Advance, Social Club Charge: Download PDF general-multiple-charges-advance-bill-format
- Simple Format: Download PDF general-simple-bill-format-rwa
- Mall Maintenance Format: CAM Mall Bill Format
Adhoc or Miscellaneous Bill Formats
- Gratuity Bill: Download PDF adhoc-bill-gratuity
Gas Bill Formats
- Simple: Download PDF gas-bill-format
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You can add reading against the unit:
- Add for single Unit from UI (Meter-> Add Reading)
- Import in bulk for multiple units in one go through excel.
System allow adding/upload current/final reading >=(Greater than or equal) from initial/previous reading.
Adding reading in iSocietyManager is an easy task by following the given steps mentioned below:-
- Menu -> Meter -> Import Reading then click on Download Template to import Meter Reading
(a) Unit No: Unit no should match with the existing unit number in the System.
(b) Reading Date: Date of Reading on which reading is taken.
(c) Billing Month: Bill Month for which is generated.
(d) Grid Reading Current: Reading of Grid or main power supply
(e) DG Reading Current: Reading of DG or Generator/ Backup.
Note * In Case there is no Grid/DG reading then let it be “0” (Zero)
| Unit No | Reading Date | Billing Month | Grid Reading Curr | Dg Reading Curr | Remarks |
| A10001 | 31-03-2020 | 202003 | 100 | 0 |
* In Case of First Bill Generation we need to import initial and final reading. This will ensure that consumption is calculated correctly. E.g. if we want to generate a bill for the month of March 2019 then initial reading i.e 29 Feb or 1st March 2019 and final reading i.e 31st March 2019 need to be imported.
After preparing the excel then import/upload the excel file.
If your meters are online and integrated with System then, reading will be automatically taken from Meter through API.
Click on Meter Menu > Reading > then click on Add Reading Menu present right top corner.
Now Search the unit no for which you want to add reading. then fill the desired details.
We can see added/uploaded reading Cluster wise, between date or individually, Menu -> Meter -> Search Reading Refer below image for reference.
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