Utilities: Uploading Bills and Reviewing What FMX Creates

Summary

This article shows administrators how to add utility bills by uploading them, and how to review the buildings, accounts, and meters FMX creates from those files. 
 

Audience And Prerequisites

💡 Note: You need a user type with Full access to Utilities, and the Bulk import utility bills permission enabled. Both are set on the user type, under Utilities Access. They are separate settings, so having Utilities access on its own is not enough to upload bills.

Who this is for

• Administrators setting up Utilities
• Anyone responsible for entering utility bills

What you need before you start

• A user type with Full access to Utilities, and the Bulk import utility bills permission enabled
  
   
• Your bills as files. Supported formats: pdf, csv, xls, jpg, png
• The square footage of any building you want energy or water intensity reporting for

You do not need to set up providers, accounts, meters, or buildings first. FMX creates them from your bills.

Overview

Uploading bills is the fastest way to get started. FMX reads each file, creates the providers, accounts, and meters it finds, proposes buildings from the service addresses, and enters the bill data. You then review what it created.

There are two ways to add a bill and they behave differently:

• Bulk upload files reads your file and creates whatever records it needs. Use this to get started and for regular entry.
• Enter single bill is a manual form that requires the provider, account, and meter to already exist. Use it for bills you have no file for, and for entering history from records rather than documents. Bills you type in go straight to Entered, so there is no bill review step for them.

Start with Bulk upload files.

FMX proposes values from your bill. How much it captures depends on that provider's bill format, so check what it produced.

There are two things to check and they are separate. Reviewing the records FMX created, meaning buildings, providers, and accounts, only happens when there is something new. Reviewing the bills themselves happens every time.

Reviewing does not unlock anything. Your bills are processed and their data appears in the Bills grid as soon as processing finishes. Reviewing is how you confirm the data is right, how buildings actually get created, and where you tell FMX how to read this provider's bills in future.

Uploading bills

1. Go to Utilities. You land on the Providers tab.
2. Select Actions, then Bulk upload files. On the Bills tab the same control reads Enter bill(s).
3. Drag your files into the upload area, or select click to browse.
4. Select Submit.

FMX confirms your bills are queued and you will receive an email when processing finishes. It usually takes a few minutes.

If a file could not be processed, the email says so instead. It names the file and gives a reason, and asks you to check that the file is a valid utility bill and try again, or enter the bill by hand. A rejected file creates nothing in FMX, so if an upload appears to have produced nothing, check that email first.

One reason a bill is rejected outright is a bill cycle in the future. The cycle comes from the bill's end date, and it cannot be later than the current month.

Reviewing what FMX created

When processing finishes, a banner tells you what is waiting for review. It appears on both the Providers and the Bills tab. An orange dot also appears on any record that needs attention, and the completion email contains a review link to the same place.

If your bill came from a provider, account, and meter that all already exist, FMX creates nothing new and there is no record review to do. This is the normal case once you are set up. You will instead see a banner saying how many bills are pending review, with a Review bills button. Skip to Reviewing bill data below.

The two banners are for different jobs. One counts the buildings, providers, and accounts FMX created and takes you into Start review. The other counts bills waiting to be checked and takes you to the Bills tab. The orange dot marks records needing review, not bills.

Neither banner names the provider it belongs to, and it stays until the record is reviewed. So a single record left over from an earlier upload will keep the banner on screen while you work on something unrelated. Select Start review to see which record it is.

Select Start review. The review opens on a page titled Review imported data.

The review covers whatever FMX created from your files, so the number of steps varies. A bill from a provider you already have needs fewer steps than a bill from a provider that is new to FMX. Work through whatever FMX shows you.

Each step shows a list of records. Select a record to open it, make any changes, then use Save or Save & Next. When you have finished a step, select Save & Continue to move on. The last step ends with Save & Finish.

On the accounts step you can select several records with the checkboxes and mark them reviewed using the Review action in the toolbar. FMX lists the records you selected and asks you to confirm, then accepts them exactly as they are, in the same way Save & Continue does. The buildings step does not offer this.

You can leave the review at any point using Exit and return later. Your progress is kept and finished steps stay reviewed. When you come back, the numbered steps at the top show only what is left, renumbered from 1, so the count will be lower than it was.

Buildings

This step is headed Review your buildings. FMX matches the service address on each bill against the buildings you already have and proposes a new one where it finds no match.

1. Check each row. Buildings marked New could not be linked to a building you already have, so FMX is proposing to create one.
2. Select a building to open the Review new building panel.
3. Change the Name if needed. FMX names new buildings after the street address on the bill.
4. Scroll down and enter the building's Area, in the unit shown beside the field. It sits near the bottom of the panel, below Phone. FMX flags this itself, with a note that the building is missing Area.
5. Select Save, or Save & Next for the next building.
6. Select Save & Continue.

The panel also has Tax rate, Address, a map picker, Phone, and Additional comments. None of them are required.

Two other options are available from the row menu, and from inside the panel:

• Map address to different building links the bill address to a building you already have instead of creating a new one. Use it where the address belongs to a site already in FMX, to avoid a near-duplicate. In the dialog, choose the existing site from the Building list. Both this option and Ignore address stay available on a row after you have marked it reviewed.
• Ignore address tells FMX not to create a building for that address, in this upload and in every future upload. Bills arriving from that service address will not prompt you again, and their meters will have no building. FMX asks you to confirm before applying it. Use it only for addresses you never want tracked as buildings, such as a central billing office. There is no setting that lists ignored addresses, so treat this as a decision you cannot reverse yourself. Contact FMX support if you need one undone.

New buildings are created when you save them, not when the bill is processed. Saving one building creates it straight away, even if you leave the review before finishing the step. Once a building exists, FMX links the meters from that bill to it. It usually sets the bill's Allocations too, but not always, so check the allocations on the bill before you submit it.

Providers

This step appears when FMX created a provider that did not exist before. Providers hold the settings that control what gets recorded from every bill on that account, so it is worth opening rather than clicking past.

1. Select the provider to open the Review provider panel.
2. Check the Name. FMX takes it from the bill, so it arrives however the bill prints it.
3. Check the Utility types and Billing frequency. FMX works Billing frequency out from your first bill and uses it to detect missing bills. It is currently read-only, so if it is wrong for this provider, contact FMX support.
4. Split by sub-account groups this provider's meters under sub-accounts rather than directly under the account. Leave it off unless the provider bills that way.
5. Check the data tracking settings, which appear in a section per utility type, such as Water data tracking or Electric data tracking. What FMX switches on here varies by utility type, so read what it chose rather than assuming. Track consumption is on, and Track demand arrives on for electric and off for water. Intensity tracking, such as Track water use intensity (WUI), is off. Switch on anything you want recorded, because a value on your bill will not be recorded if its setting is off.
6. Check the Consumption unit. FMX takes it from the bill.
7. Select Save.

Data fields

This step shows how FMX mapped the data on your bill to its own fields, one provider at a time. Select a provider to open its data field mapping, which opens as a full page rather than a panel. Use the breadcrumb to get back.

Fields are grouped into General bill info and a section for each utility type. Each row shows the FMX data field, the Example data FMX pulled from your bill, and the Intelligent suggestion for that field.

1. Compare the Example data against your actual bill, field by field.
2. Where a value is wrong or missing, select the pencil at the end of that row to write an Intelligent suggestion, an instruction describing where that value sits on this provider's bills. Up to 500 characters.
3. Use Custom field, at the top right, to record something from your bill that FMX does not already have a field for.
4. Select Save.

When you save, FMX applies your instructions to the bills it already holds for that provider and reprocesses them, so the bill you are reviewing can pick up a value it missed. A banner on the step tells you this before you save. Reprocessing takes a few minutes, and while it runs that provider's card may briefly show a red Missing bills badge and an Avg Daily Cost of $0.00. It clears itself.

Fields marked Calculation are worked out by FMX rather than read from your bill. They have no pencil, so they cannot take an instruction, and their Example data is empty here even though nothing is wrong. Billing days, Daily cost, Total consumption charge and Total demand charge are calculated.

The fields shown depend on the utility type. A water provider has Consumption total, Consumption charge, Subtotal and Meter consumption. An electric provider adds Demand total, Demand charge and Meter demand, and picks up Total demand charge in the general section.

A dash in the Intelligent suggestion column means no instruction has been written for that field yet. On a provider that is new to FMX, every row shows a dash.

Accounts

1. Select an account to open the Review account panel.
2. Check the Account # and Account nickname. FMX takes the nickname from the customer name on the bill, so several accounts on the same provider can arrive with the same nickname.
3. Check the Bill tracking start. FMX sets this to the cycle of the first bill it processed. Change it if you plan to add older bills.
4. Check the meters listed under each utility type. Each meter has a Meter #, an optional Meter name, a Building, and an optional Location. FMX sets the Building once the building itself has been saved on the buildings step, so if a Building is empty here, go Back and finish that step rather than filling it in. Use Add meter if a meter on the bill is missing. If this provider splits bills by sub-account, the meters sit under each sub-account rather than under the account.
5. Select Save, then Save & Finish.

When you finish, FMX confirms that all providers and accounts have been reviewed and offers three next steps: Review bills, View Reporting, and Upload bills. Select Done to leave the review.

Your bills still need checking. Reviewing the records FMX created is not the same as reviewing the bills themselves, which is the next section.

Reviewing bill data

1. Go to the Bills tab, or select Review bills on the banner. The view is filtered to bills with a status of Missing data or Pending review.
2. Select a bill to open it.
3. Select the clipboard icon labelled Review, at the top right. The bill's fields are read-only until you do, and the Allocations section cannot be changed.
4. Compare each field against the original. Bill upload, at the top of the bill, holds the file the bill was created from.
5. Scroll through every section and complete any empty field marked with an asterisk. The Allocations section at the foot of the bill sets which building each meter's consumption counts toward. Allocations can only be changed while the bill is in Review, so check it before you submit.
6. Select Submit.

Confirming it worked

• Records you have reviewed show a status of Reviewed.
• The review ends with a confirmation that all providers and accounts have been reviewed.
• New buildings appear in the Buildings module.
• On the bill, the Allocations section names the building each meter is allocated to.
• A bill you have submitted shows a status of Entered and leaves the default Bills view, which shows only Missing data and Pending review. Its fields become read-only, and the header action changes from Review to Edit. Use Edit to change anything afterward.

Finishing the review does not submit your bills. They stay in Missing data or Pending review until you check each one and select Submit, which is the next section.

Related settings

• Utilities Settings, on the General tab of Admin Settings. Three sections: Area unit label, square feet or square meters, which sets the unit shown wherever Area appears. Email Forwarding Settings, the approved sender addresses permitted to email bills in. Utility Type Setup, the predefined utility types plus any you add. Predefined types cannot be edited or deleted, and a type you have added can only be deleted if no provider uses it.
• Intelligent Suggestions, written during the data fields step of the review, or later on each provider under Edit. Instructions telling FMX where each value sits on that provider's bills, up to 500 characters per field.

The two places look different. During the review you see a grid with your bill's example data beside each field. On the provider's Edit page the same instructions appear in a section headed Intelligent Suggestions settings, below the data tracking sections, as a plain text box per field with no example data. You have to scroll past the data tracking sections to reach it.

• Custom fields are on the provider's ... menu under Edit custom fields, available at any time and not only during a review. Three tabs: Custom Fields, Bill Entry Preview, and Inactive Fields. Your custom fields appear in an Additional fields section on the bill, and can be switched on as a column in the Bills grid under Settings.

Adding one takes two saves. Fill in the Name, the Bill section, and the Type, then select Add custom field. A success message appears at that point, but the field is not on your form yet. Select Save fields as well, or the field is set aside in the Inactive Fields tab and nothing will happen on your bills.

A custom field can be filled from your bill automatically. Its Intelligent Suggestions instructions box sits on the field itself, alongside Name and Type, rather than on the data fields grid.

Troubleshooting

I have no providers or accounts to choose from when entering a bill

• Cause: Enter single bill records a bill against a provider, account, and meter that already exist. It does not create them. If you have not uploaded any bills yet, there is nothing to select.
• Fix: use Bulk upload files instead, even for a single bill. FMX creates the provider, account, and meters from the file. Once those exist, use Enter single bill for bills you have no file for.

FMX left fields empty on my bill

• Cause: FMX reads each bill on its own, and how much it captures depends on that provider's bill format. Some values will not be found on some bills.
• Fix: complete the empty fields by hand. If a field is often empty for this provider, add an Intelligent suggestion for it, either on the data fields step of the review or by opening the provider and selecting Edit. Bills you upload afterward will use it.

FMX captured a field on one bill but left it empty on the next

• Cause: FMX reads each bill separately. Two bills from the same provider can differ in layout and wording, and what FMX captures can differ with them.
• Fix: complete the empty fields by hand, and add an Intelligent suggestion for any field this keeps happening to.

I added instructions but an existing bill did not change

• Cause: where you added the instruction decides this. The data fields step in a review is the only place that applies your instructions to bills already in FMX. Instructions added afterward on the provider's Edit page only affect bills processed from then on.
• Fix: correct that bill by hand. Your instruction is still working, it just starts with the next bill, so upload a new bill from the provider if you want to confirm it.
• To avoid this next time, write instructions on the data fields step while the review is still open. FMX reprocesses the bills you already have when you save there.

A charge on my bill is not in any of FMX's fields

• Cause: FMX has a fixed set of charge fields. A line on your bill that does not match one of them is not recorded on its own, although it is still included in the Total bill amount. A service or availability charge is the usual example.
• Fix: point the closest field at it with an Intelligent suggestion, for example telling Other charge to read a named line from the charges section. Or add a Custom field for it. Either way your total was already correct. What changes is whether the amount is itemised.

A bill stays in Missing data even though it looks complete

• Cause: a required field is empty. It is usually further down the bill than you expect, under a utility type section or under Meter consumption & demand, so it is easy to miss from the top of the page. This also happens when the value genuinely is not printed on the bill, for example a statement that carries charges but no meter reading.
• Fix: open the bill and scroll through every section. Complete any empty field marked with an asterisk. In the Bills grid, a field FMX could not find shows a dash rather than a zero, which is a quick way to spot which one is missing.

How to tell a missing value from a zero

• In the Bills grid, a dash means FMX did not find that value on the bill. $0.00 means it found a zero, or that the field was completed as zero.
• So a row with a dash needs attention, and a row with $0.00 does not.

My bill cycle is a month later than I expected

• Cause: the bill cycle comes from the bill's end date. A bill running mid-month to mid-month falls into the month it ends in.
• Fix: this is how cycles are assigned and it is not set per bill. Changing the Bill tracking start on the account will not move it. To report on the period the bill actually covers, use the billing start and end dates rather than the cycle.

The review is asking for a meter number for a utility this bill does not cover

• Cause: the provider is set up for more than one utility type, and the accounts step asks for a meter number for every type on the provider, including a type that is not on the bill in front of you. The Meter # is required and the meter group cannot be removed, so the account will not save.
• Fix: enter 0 in that Meter # and save. FMX does not create a meter from the 0, so nothing is added to your meter list or your consumption figures.
• Afterward: each time you edit that account, the same empty meter number will be waiting and will need a 0 again before the account will save. We know about this one.
• This affects any provider that bills more than one utility type where not every bill carries every type, such as a water and sewer authority that bills sewer quarterly and water monthly.

The provider I need is not in the list when I enter a bill

• Cause: the Bill cycle list only offers months from the account's Bill tracking start up to the current month, and only ones that do not already have a bill. If none of a provider's accounts has a month left, the provider is left out of the Utility provider list entirely.
• Fix: open the account and check its Bill tracking start. If you are entering an older bill, move the tracking start back to the month you need, and the provider and those months become available again.
• If you are entering a bill for a month that already has one, you do not need this form. Open the existing bill and correct it instead.

A meter has no building

• Cause: the buildings step has not been finished, so the building the meter should link to does not exist yet. Or the bill's service address was set to Ignore address at some point, which applies to every later upload from that address as well as the one it was set on.
• Fix: if the buildings step is outstanding, finish it. FMX then links the meters, and usually sets the bill allocations too.
• Check the bill either way. Open it, select the clipboard icon labelled Review, and look at the Allocations section at the foot. If a meter's Building is empty there, set it. Until you do, that meter's consumption is not counted toward any building in reporting, and setting the Building on the account does not fix it.
• Then fix the bills. Setting the Building on the meter does not attach existing bills to that building. Open each affected bill, select the clipboard icon labelled Review, and set the Building in the Allocations section at the foot of the bill. Until you do, that bill's consumption is not counted toward any building in reporting.
   

I have two buildings for the same address

• Cause: FMX proposes a new building when it cannot match the service address on a bill to a building you already have. Accepting the proposal creates a second building alongside the original.
• Fix: prevent it during the buildings step. Where a proposed building is a site you already have in FMX, use Map address to different building from the row menu rather than saving the new one. That option stays on the row after you have moved past the step.

What the badge on a provider card means

The badge tracks whether the bills FMX expects have been entered. It is based on the provider's Billing frequency and the account's Bill tracking start. It says nothing about whether records have been reviewed, so a provider can show a green badge while a review is still outstanding.

• Up-to-date: no bills are missing for the periods FMX is tracking.
• Missing bills: FMX is expecting a bill for a period that has not been entered. This can appear on its own as time passes, without anyone changing anything. Upload or enter the missing bill, or change the Bill tracking start on the account if tracking should begin later. It also appears briefly while a bill is being reprocessed, for example just after you save Intelligent Suggestions, alongside an Avg Daily Cost of $0.00. That clears itself within a few minutes, so give it a moment before treating it as a real gap.
• No badge: the provider's Billing frequency is set to Other, which turns off missing bill tracking. Billing frequency is read-only, so contact FMX support if you need this changed.

FAQ

I was told about Utility Manager. Where is it?

Utility Manager is the name used in sales material and in conversation with FMX. In the product you will find it as Utilities in the navigation. You will also see Utility Providers in breadcrumbs and Utility bills on the Bills tab.

My email said the bills were entered, but they show as Pending review

Both are correct. The email confirms FMX finished reading the file and created the bill. Pending review is the bill's status until you open it, check the data, and select Submit. The data is in the Bills grid and available to reporting in the meantime.

Do I need to create buildings before uploading bills?

No. FMX matches the address on each bill to your existing buildings and proposes a new building where there is no match. New buildings are created when you save them during review.

Do I have to review before I can use the data?

No. Bills are processed and their data appears in the Bills grid immediately. Reviewing confirms the data is correct, creates the buildings FMX proposed, and is where you set up how future bills from that provider are read.

How many steps are in the review?

It depends on what FMX created, and on how much you have already done. A bill from a provider that is new to FMX needs the most steps. A bill from a provider you already have needs fewer. A bill where the provider, account, and meter all already exist creates nothing new, so there is no review at all. And if you leave a review and come back, the steps you finished are dropped from the numbering, so a four step review can return as three. Work through whatever the review shows you.

Can I add bills from before my bill tracking start date?

Yes. You can also change the bill tracking start date on the account.

How long does processing take?

A few minutes for most uploads, longer for larger files. You will get an email when it finishes.

Why are some fields blank on the data fields step?

Fields marked Calculation are worked out by FMX rather than read from your bill, so they have no example data until the bill is processed. Billing days, Daily cost, Total consumption charge, and Total demand charge are calculated. A blank there is not missing data.

I deleted some bills and providers. Why are the buildings still there?

Deleting bills and providers does not delete the buildings FMX created from them. They stay in the Buildings module, where you can rename or remove them. It also means uploading the same bills again will match those buildings rather than proposing new ones.

Can I attach more than one file to a bill?

Yes. A new upload row appears each time you attach a file.