For most people, utility bills aren’t a luxury they can afford. In fact, they’re one of the most significant monthly expenses on their budgets. In a typical household, electric, water, waste and gas bills all add up to more than $300 per month.
Keeping up with those payments isn’t easy, and it can be a challenge to get ahead of the curve when there are late fees and disconnection notices to deal with. Many utilities offer their customers options for paying their bills, such as online, by phone or in person. Some also offer the option of direct payment, where a customer can authorize the utility to deduct their utility bill from their bank account each month.
Other billing and service options include levelized or balanced billing, where energy charges are higher in some seasons and lower in others, to even out the seasonal fluctuations. Your utility may also offer a payment agreement, but you must be able to make all payments due on your existing account balance to qualify for any terms offered by the company.
To process payments for different types of utility providers, you must create a product that relates to each type of vendor to whom payments are made. Each product must have a unique utility provider ID, a description of the accounts or GL to which accounting entries are posted for each payment transaction, and a set of exchange rates used for cross currency conversion on the payments. utility payment system