Business energy bills are rarely straightforward. With so many numbers and charges staring you in the face, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of information when you have one in front of you.
This is why so many firms don’t give their energy bills the scrutiny they need, and as a result, risk paying over the odds for their gas and electricity.
This is where we come in - the commercial energy consultants we work with understand the inner workings of energy contacts so you don’t have to. They will review your bill, make sure everything is 100% correct and pinpoint areas where money can be saved.
What is business energy bill validation?
Energy bill validation is a service provided by professional energy consultants, which involves a review of your past, current and future energy bills to ensure you are being charged correctly and explore whether there is the potential to save money.
It’s an ongoing process that includes regular checks of your invoices against contract terms, ensuring meter readings are accurate, and reviewing capacity and network charges.
If discrepancies are uncovered, your energy adviser will work directly with your energy providers to recoup the costs and resolve any billing issues going forward.
What the process involves
To validate your firm’s energy bills, the advisers we work with will run your bills through state-of-the-art software that will check every aspect of them, including:
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MPANs/voltages
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Published rates and charges (DuoS, DUoS losses and water)
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Unit rates and charges
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Transportation charges (gas)
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Triad charges Flexible charging
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Meter reading accuracy using half-hourly data (HHD)
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Frequency of actual/estimated meter readings
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Billing dates
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Billing status of all sites
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Missing invoices investigation
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Taxation
You will then be emailed a detailed report that flags up any errors and discrepancies, and will be given access to an Energy Manager Portal which gives you full visibility of your energy consumption and targets across all of your sites in real time.
Bill validation is provided on a monthly, ongoing basis to match your billing cycles, but the advisers we work with offer a one-month trial so you can see for yourself how much it can help you save.
The benefits of bill validation
Bill validation is a necessity for businesses because research from Inenco suggests that one in every five energy bills contains errors. On average, validation services recover overcharges of 3-5%, which means, for most businesses, that it more than pays for itself.
The impact of an incorrect energy bill can be huge. Although an overcharge on a single bill might seem insignificant, they often remain on your billing cycle, and can add up in the long run. It’s not uncommon for our advisers to uncover thousands - or even tens of thousands - of pounds’ worth of overcharges to recoup when delving into a clients’ historical bills.
While energy suppliers are responsible for issuing accurate bills, their systems are not perfect, and with so much data running through them and regulatory changes cropping up, errors can occur, and usually go unnoticed unless the customer complains.
Businesses should keep on top of their invoices, crosscheck them against energy contracts and ensure meter readings are up to date, but this can be time consuming and sometimes complicated, which is why it’s a good idea to have an expert take care of it all for you.
How to get your energy bills validated
The first step is to make an enquiry below so we can match you with a business energy consultant who specialises in firms like yours. During a free, no-obligation consultation, they will run through the benefits of bill validation with you and explain how it works.
You will then be invited to take part in a month-long free trial of our advisers’ energy bill validation services, so you can see for yourself how much you stand to save.
On top of this, the advisers we work with will throw in a free energy health check for your business, during which they will explore where else money can be saved. This might include switching suppliers, energy efficiency improvements and other solutions.
Take control of your energy bill
Why billing errors can occur
Business energy billing is more complicated than residential as there are extra factors involved, such as wholesale costs, network charges, levies, and capacity-based fees. So, to put it simply, this means that there is a lot more that can go wrong.
The most common causes of billing errors are:
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Inaccurate usage estimates: In the absence of actual meter readings, suppliers often default to estimated billing, which can deviate significantly from your true consumption.
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Contractual rate discrepancies: Billing systems frequently fail to update correctly, resulting in agreed-upon contract prices not being applied to your invoices.
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Network & Capacity Overcharges: Costs can escalate quickly due to administrative errors in kVA capacity levels or the misapplication of TCR (Target Charging Review) bands.
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Transition & Data Migration Errors: The "Change of Tenancy" or supplier switching process is a high-risk period where data often fails to transfer accurately between parties, leading to legacy billing issues.
Which businesses are most at risk?
The businesses most at risk of errors in their energy billing cycles are those with multiple sites and firms with particularly high usage. On top of this, errors can occur if you have just switched energy providers, or only submit one meter reading per year.
Why choose Money Helpdesk for your bill validation?
At Money Helpdesk, we will match you with an energy adviser who fits your needs and requirements, someone who specialises in helping companies just like yours.
The advisers we work with provide bill validation services every day and the software they use for this is state-of-the-art and empowers businesses like yours.
Here are just some of the reasons businesses choose us for bill validation:
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Our advisers offer a free, month-long trail of their validation service
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The Energy Manager Portal gives you a full overview of your usage and charges
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We are 5-star-rated on leading review websites
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You can also take advantage of a free business energy health check
Ready to take advantage of a free, no-obligation chat with a commercial energy adviser who specialises in bill and invoice validation services? Get started here.
FAQs
While energy suppliers aim for accuracy, their systems aren’t perfect. Research from Inenco suggests that one in every five business energy bills contains errors, which can lead to your firm paying significantly more than it should. Validation ensures you only pay for the energy you actually use at the rates you actually agreed to.