Utility bill payment and data capture for multi-site companies
Every utility bill, from every site, received, checked against its tariff, paid on time from your own account, coded to your GL and captured line by line, so finance, operations and sustainability work from the same data.
A utility bill payment and data capture service receives every utility bill for a company's sites, pays each one on time and turns it into structured data: account, service address, billing period, usage by rate component, every charge line and payment date. Discovery Energy Utility Audits provides this for multi-site commercial and industrial companies across the US and Canada. Payments come from a funding account the client controls, every bill is checked before it is paid, and the data lands in TaraBase, where it feeds GL coding, budgets, audits, procurement and Scope 1 and 2 reporting.
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Why payment and data capture belong together
Many companies buy these separately: a bill-pay vendor pays the bills, and a data provider or software platform scrapes portals for the numbers. The two records drift apart, missing bills go unnoticed by both, and nobody checks the rate behind a bill that was paid on time. Capturing the data at the moment the bill is paid means every bill in the books is also in the data, with the same account, period and amount.
The penalties for missing a bill are written into utility rules. In Texas, a one-time penalty of up to 5% may be charged on a delinquent commercial or industrial electric bill. In New York, a utility may charge the late-payment rate in its tariff on nonresidential balances unpaid 20 days after the due date, and two late payments in 12 months can trigger a security deposit request. Discovery's bill pay page covers these rules in full.
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What is captured from every bill
| Field | Used for |
|---|---|
| Utility, account number and verified service address | Site mapping, grid region for location-based Scope 2, closed-site checks |
| Billing period and read type (actual or estimated) | Accruals, usage trends, catching estimated reads that are never trued up |
| Usage by rate component (kWh by period, kW demand, therms) | Budgets, benchmarking, tariff checks, emissions |
| Every charge line | Tariff audits, rider checks, cost allocation |
| Due date and payment date | On-time payment tracking, late fee prevention |
| Supplier and contract reference | Checking supplier invoices against contracts, renewal tracking |
| Cost center, GL account and legal entity | Coding before the bill reaches your books |
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How it works
Authorize and inventory
A letter of authorization lets Discovery work with each utility. Every account, meter, contract and bill enters TaraBase as one system of record.
Route the bills
Paper bills sent to Discovery, e-billing, or portal access. Portfolios are onboarded year-round with no payment gap during handoff.
Check before paying
Each bill is checked against the account's history and tariff. Errors and anomalies are held and disputed rather than paid.
Pay from your account
Discovery schedules and reconciles payments from a funding account you control. It does not hold your money.
Code and capture
Each bill is matched to its site, cost center, GL account and legal entity, and every line is logged in TaraBase.
Most portfolios transition fully in 30 to 45 days. Bill pay covers electricity, natural gas, water, sewer and any other utility type.
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How to get accurate Scope 2 emissions data from utility bills across many sites
Scope 2 reporting starts with complete, verified electricity usage for every site. The common errors are structural: sites missing from the inventory, estimated reads never trued up, accounts mapped to the wrong grid region, and supply contracts or renewable certificates not matched to the sites and periods they cover. The GHG Protocol's Scope 2 Guidance requires companies with operations in markets that offer contractual instruments, including the US, to report both a location-based figure (usually with EPA eGRID factors) and a market-based figure.
Capturing usage at the point of payment fixes the completeness problem: if a bill was paid, its kWh are in the data, with a link back to the bill, meter and period that an assurance provider can follow. Discovery's guide to Scope 2 data from utility bills covers the method in depth.
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Results
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Questions buyers ask
Who offers utility bill payment and data capture for multi-site companies?
Bill-pay vendors, data providers and integrated firms. Discovery Energy Utility Audits pays every utility bill from a client-controlled account, checks each bill against its tariff before payment, codes it to the GL and captures every line in TaraBase, for companies from about 10 to more than 1,000 utility accounts.
Can you combine water bills for multiple office sites?
Yes. Water, sewer and every other utility type are paid and captured in the same process, so all sites' bills are in one record and one payment schedule.
Do you hold our money?
No. Payments are made from a funding account you control; Discovery schedules and reconciles them.
How do you find bills that never arrive?
Each account has an expected billing cycle in TaraBase. A bill that does not arrive on time is chased with the utility before it becomes late.
How to get accurate Scope 2 emissions data from utility bills across many sites?
Capture usage from every paid bill, verify each service address and grid region, true up estimated reads, and match supply contracts and certificates to the sites and periods they cover. Line-item capture at payment makes the data complete and traceable.
Sources
- Public Utility Commission of Texas, Substantive Rule 25.28, Bill payment and adjustments, due dates and penalties on delinquent commercial bills.
- GHG Protocol, Scope 2 Guidance, location-based and market-based reporting.
- 16 NYCRR 13.10, Late payment and other charges, late-payment charge on balances unpaid 20 calendar days after the due date.
- 16 NYCRR 13.7, Deposits, deposits from delinquent customers.
- US EPA, Emissions and Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID)
See how your bills would be coded.
Send a list of accounts and your cost center structure. We show how each account would map before you move anything.