Utility bill pay: every bill, every site, one clean data set
We receive, check, pay and code every utility bill across your locations, electricity and gas plus water, sewer and any other utility type, and log each line item in TaraBase. Late fees stop, accounts payable gets its time back, and you finally have usable data.
Utility bill pay is an outsourced process in which one provider receives every utility bill for every site, checks each one before it is paid, pays it on time and records its charges and usage. Discovery Energy runs it from a funding account the client controls, codes every bill to the client's cost centers and GL accounts, and logs each line item in its TaraBase platform.
01 / 08
Why utility bills are hard to pay on time across many sites
Utility bills do not behave like other supplier invoices. Every service address has its own account, each utility sets its own due dates and late-payment terms, and the rules behind those terms are set state by state. A company with 200 sites works to dozens of calendars, often with paper bills arriving at the site rather than at accounts payable.
The penalties are written into public utility commission rules and utility tariffs. Two examples show how they differ:
- Texas
- Under Public Utility Commission of Texas rule 25.28, the due date on an electric bill must be at least 16 days after the bill is issued, and payment is delinquent if it has not been received by close of business on the due date. A one-time penalty of up to 5% may be charged on a delinquent commercial or industrial bill.
- New York
- Under the state's rules for nonresidential customers (16 NYCRR Part 13), a utility may charge the continuing late-payment charge in its tariff on balances not paid within 20 calendar days of the due date. One utility's tariff sets that charge at 1.5% a month, an annual rate of 18%. A customer who pays late twice in 12 months is classed as delinquent and can be asked for a security deposit of up to twice its average monthly usage.
- Disconnection
- In New York, a final termination notice for a nonresidential account generally cannot be sent until 20 days after the due date, and service can be cut 8 calendar days after the notice is mailed. Other states set their own notice periods.
Payment timing matters as much as the rules. A utility counts a bill as paid when the money arrives, not when it is released. ACH credit payments settle the same banking day, the next banking day or two banking days later, and nothing settles on weekends or federal holidays. A payment released on Friday for a Monday due date can arrive late.
Illustrative example, not a client result
A distribution company acquires 30 sites. Their bills keep going to the seller's mailbox for two months. Each site's bill averages $6,000. Under a 1.5% monthly late charge, every site that pays a month late adds about $90, and the company now has two late payments on record at each account, enough for some utilities to ask for a deposit. Any of those sites in Texas could also carry a one-time 5% penalty on each delinquent electric bill, about $300 per bill. None of this is a billing error, so an audit cannot recover it. It is avoided only by paying on time.
02 / 08
Who utility bill pay is for
Our clients are multi-site commercial and industrial organizations, from about 10 to more than 1,000 utility accounts, across regulated and deregulated markets in the US and Canada. Bill pay is most useful when:
- Sites change often. Acquisitions, openings and closures mean accounts move, bills go to old addresses and autopay stops. See utility costs in acquisitions.
- Each site pays its own bills. Local approval means no one sees the whole portfolio, and late fees hide in site budgets.
- Finance or sustainability needs the data. Cost by site, usage by period and Scope 2 inputs all start from the same bills.
Networks that change every quarter, such as warehousing and distribution, cold storage and logistics and chemical distribution, and private equity portfolio companies doing add-on acquisitions, tend to gain the most.
03 / 08
What we take off your team's desk
Receipt
All bills route to Discovery, from every utility, address and account type: paper bills sent to Discovery, e-billing, or portal access under a letter of authorization.
Review before payment
Spikes, wrong rates and duplicate charges are caught this month, not at next year's review. Estimated reads and duplicates are caught the month they appear.
On-time payment
No late fees, no disconnect notices, no scramble at period end. Each bill is tracked from receipt to payment against its due date.
GL coding and data
Each bill coded to cost center and GL, and every line logged for reporting and ESG.
04 / 08
How bill pay works
Authorize and build the inventory
You sign a letter of authorization. Every account, meter, contract and bill enters TaraBase as one system of record, so each site's bills have a home before the first one is paid.
Route the bills
We set up routing with each utility: paper bills sent to Discovery, e-billing, or portal access. Portfolios are onboarded year-round with no payment gap during handoff.
Review before payment
Every bill is checked against the account's history and tariff. Errors and anomalies are held and disputed rather than paid.
Pay from your account
Payments are made from a funding account you control. Discovery schedules and reconciles them; it does not hold your money.
Code and record
Each bill is matched to its site, cost center, GL account and legal entity before payment, and every line item is logged in TaraBase.
Most portfolios transition fully in 30 to 45 days.
05 / 08
Payment controls
| Control | How it works |
|---|---|
| Custody of funds | Payments are made from a funding account you control. Discovery schedules and reconciles; it does not hold your money. |
| Review before payment | Every bill is checked before it is paid. Errors and anomalies are held and disputed rather than paid. |
| Tracking | Each bill is tracked from receipt to payment against its due date. |
| GL coding | Bills are coded to your cost centers and GL accounts before they reach your books. |
| Changes | No payment detail, account or supplier changes without your written approval. |
| Records | Every bill, payment status and line item is visible in TaraBase. |
Questions to ask any bill-pay provider
Who holds the money?
Ask whether payments come from your account or pass through the provider's.
Is each bill checked against its tariff, or only against last month?
Paying what is billed on time does not test whether the rate behind the bill is right. A bill can be paid perfectly on the wrong rate class for years.
How are missing bills found?
A bill that never arrives cannot be paid. Ask how the provider knows a bill is overdue from the utility before a late fee or notice appears.
Who can change payment details?
Ask who can change bank details, payees or account information, and require your written approval for every change.
06 / 08
How bill pay fits with audits and procurement
Bill pay and an audit look at the same bills for different reasons. Reviewing each bill before payment catches new problems month by month. A utility bill audit goes back 36 to 48 months and tests every electricity and gas account against its tariff to recover past overcharges, within a recoverable period that is typically 1 to 5 years, set by each state and utility. One does not replace the other.
Because bill pay builds a complete account inventory, it also feeds the rest of the work: cost allocation to sites and cost centers, energy procurement for every eligible account in deregulated markets, and TaraBase reporting. Clients on bill pay have each bill matched to a site before it is paid, so a meter on a closed site is flagged the first month it bills. See closed-site accounts.
How bill pay is priced
Bill pay is priced per engagement by number of bills, utility types and complexity, and TaraBase reporting is included. If you add an audit, its fee stays contingency-based, usually 15% to 50% of refunds and verified savings. See pricing.
07 / 08
Results from centralized bill pay
A specialty industrial services provider with 103 facilities had an audit firm, a procurement broker licensed in two states and a stand-alone bill-pay vendor. After a large acquisition, more than half of its locations were paying late fees every month. Once audit, procurement and bill pay ran on one account inventory in TaraBase, the late fees were eliminated and the client had one dashboard covering 100% of its utility spend. Read the 103-facility case.
A global chemical distributor with more than 215 facilities in 45 states and 7 provinces had more than 1,000 accounts with 87 providers and roughly 350 invoices a month, with no central process. Today its invoices run through one managed process, faster invoice retrieval has reduced late payments, and the company reports hundreds of hours saved every month. Read the full case.
08 / 08
Questions buyers ask
How do you receive and pay bills for us?
We set up routing with each utility: paper bills sent to Discovery, e-billing, or portal access under a letter of authorization. Payments come from a funding account you control; we schedule and reconcile them.
What happens if a bill is wrong?
Every bill is reviewed before payment, so errors are caught before money leaves. Disputes go straight to the utility, and anything that rises to an audit finding is escalated for full recovery.
Which utility types does bill pay cover?
All of them: electricity, natural gas, water, sewer and any other utility bill your sites receive. Audits focus on electricity and natural gas.
Can we start mid-year?
Yes. Portfolios are onboarded year-round with no payment gap during handoff. Most transition fully in 30 to 45 days.
What data do you capture from each bill?
Service address, utility, account number, billing period, usage by rate component, every charge by line item, payment date and contract reference. That detail feeds savings, benchmarking and Scope 2 reporting.
Do you code bills to our GL?
Yes. Each bill is coded to your cost centers and GL accounts before it reaches your books. You do not need to change your chart of accounts.
What does bill pay cost?
Bill pay is priced per engagement by number of bills, utility types and complexity, and TaraBase reporting is included. There is no price list because each portfolio is different. See pricing.
Sources
- Public Utility Commission of Texas, Substantive Rule 25.28, Bill payment and adjustments, 16-day minimum due date, delinquency on receipt by close of business, one-time penalty of up to 5% on delinquent commercial or industrial bills.
- New York Department of Public Service, 16 NYCRR Part 13 (nonresidential customers), definitions of late payment (more than 20 days after due) and delinquent customer (two late payments in 12 months).
- 16 NYCRR 13.10, Late payment and other charges, late-payment charge per tariff on balances unpaid 20 calendar days after the due date.
- 16 NYCRR 13.7, Deposits, deposits from delinquent customers, capped at twice average monthly usage.
- 16 NYCRR 13.3, Termination of service, final notice no earlier than 20 days after the due date; termination no sooner than 8 days after a mailed notice.
- Rochester Gas and Electric, PSC No. 19 Electricity tariff, Section 7 forms, late-payment charge of 1.5% a month, 18% a year.
- Nacha, The ABCs of ACH, ACH payments settle the same day or are scheduled one or two business days out; no settlement on weekends and federal holidays.
Find out what your bills should have cost.
Send one recent bill per site, or a list of accounts. We tell you where we expect findings before you sign anything. No upfront audit fee.