Why should you check your business energy bills?

Business energy bills are complex, there’s no doubt about that. With a widening range of non-commodity costs now taking up a majority share of the invoice, it can be both confusing and time consuming to effectively recognise whether your business is being billed correctly.  

Although the increase in available energy data gives you better insight and understanding, such a wealth of data can also be so daunting to tackle that energy managers don’t know where to start. A business with many sites in its portfolio will have hundreds of half-hourly meter reads automatically submitted each day, creating huge volumes of data to process. Large organisations with smart or AMR meters installed across their portfolio might think these will prevent billing errors, however, this is not the case and your business could still be at risk of being overcharged. 

There are several explanations for incorrect charges and billing errors, from right across the supply chain. Inaccuracies can occur from taking incorrect meter readings, applying third party charges, confusion on change of tenancies and on supply contracts being set up inaccurately.

A systematic, efficient process reinforced with advanced error checking and reporting software is required to ensure validation is completed to the highest standard to make sure billing errors are correctly identified, investigated and corrected.

In the UK’s move towards net-zero, using a reputable business energy consultant to conduct your bill validation will allow them to identify consumption reduction opportunities, while reviewing the benefits of any energy optimisation measures you’ve already implemented. A great way to promote energy efficiency to your stakeholders, set yourself ahead of your competition, boost your CSR credentials and save money.

Without invoice validation, there is often no way of knowing whether a bill is correct or ensuring accurate charges for the future.

Recover historical overcharges

As important as it is to ensure your current invoices are accurate, if your previous bills have not been effectively audited it is likely that retrospective errors are still waiting to be recovered. Businesses can recover incorrect charges for up to the past six years and the entire process can be managed end-to-end to make it simple and stress-free. Using a consultancy to review your historical billing data means errors can be identified and recovered on your behalf, with the potential to receive a significant refund that had previously been paid incorrectly.

Professional Cost Management Group (PCMG), part of Inspired Energy plc, has identified more than £17.4m in refunds and savings for clients since the start of 2019, by looking deeper into their energy, water and telecoms expenditure. In addition, refunds and savings amounting to £42,933,546 have been recovered for the public sector alone.

To find out what savings and refunds your organisation might be eligible for, call us today on 01772 689 250.