Electricity/Gas/Water
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What is this feature?  
RMS provides a feature to enable water, electricity or gas meter usage to be recorded, costed and charge to residents' accounts.  
 
How is it used?  
Most commonly used in Caravan Parks, the Meter feature can be used to charge any usage fee based on consumption.  
 
Can all three be in use at the same time?  
You may use any combination of meter charges, including all three at once.  
 
How is a meter charge set up?  
Select Use Elec/Water/Gas meters in Set Up/General Info/modules  
You must first set up an Account Code and Sundry Charge for each meter charge.  
 
The setup for each meter (Electricity/Gas/Water) is identical as below.  
   
1.  Set up the various rates.  
From the Top Tool Bar choose Ancillary Setup (the down arrow to the right of Set up ), then Electricity/Gas/Water, select Electricity then . Click the Add button to add in the first level of Electricity Charges.  
For example: This could be from 1 to 100 for the first 99 units used. Set the Amount to be what the pricing level is for that range of usage i.e. 0.1015 then click on Save.  
   
Add each level of charge starting from the next number i.e. 101 to Cutoff 999999 where 999999 is the cutoff of the last charge level.  
Many properties may only have one level from 1 to 999999 at an amount similar to 0.1015.  
 
Additional tariffs (2 and 3) may be set up to allow different charges to apply at selected sites. eg Permanents may be charged a different rate to Annuals.  
 
Now exit back to the Main Menu.  
   
2.  Tell the computer which sites have meters that require reading.  
From the Setup Menu click on Category/Units and choose the first category. Click on Areas to display the site in that category.  
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Edit each site by highlighting it and clicking the edit button. Click on the Meters TAB and turn on or off the required meters. Turn on by clicking onto the required box and a tick will be displayed indicating that is now on. Select which tariff is to apply for this site, tariff 1 is displayed by default use the drop down to select a different tariff if you have decided to have more than one tariff.  
This is also where you put the initial reading (so the computer knows where to start from).  
You can also use this area to perform meter maintenance. Let's say a site was unused for a while but the water meter had advanced due to leakage. You could change the initial reading to compensate for the leakage before you do the first reading for the new reservation.  
   
Repeat the procedure for every site in every category, turning on the meters for those that require reading, each with their appropriate tariff..  
   
3.  Adding a utility surcharge and linking the rates to the charges.  
From the Top Tool Bar choose Ancilliary Setup, then Electricity/Gas/Water, click on Setup. In the Meter Tariff Charge box for Tariff 1 select Electricity from the List of sundry charges – this is the charge to which the money generated by Electricity charges will be posted.  
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If you have an Electricity Surcharge, that is a flat charge which is billed to the customer every time their meter is read (i.e. Elect Supply Fee), you will need to add it into the Account Codes, you could use the Electricity Account code or have an additional one for Supply fee. Sundry Charges; add a sundry charge called Supply fee or Meter reading fee there is no need to put in an amount into the sell price field as the charge will be raised from the tariff previously setup and select Full Tax. This is done before you can allocate it to the Access Fee, Tariff 1 section of this screen.  
   
4.  Setting your Meter Reading List Sequence.  
Most readings will be taken in an unusual sequence that will not necessarily mean that you walk from site 1 to site 20 in order. This feature allows you to set the order in which the reading is done, making it quicker to gather all the readings.  
 
From the Top Tool Bar select Ancillary Setup, click on the utility required eg Electricity, the Reading Sequence is displayed on the right. Only those sites you have specified as having a meter will be listed here- which is a check that you have all sites set up. Highlight a site and use the up and down arrows to arrange the reading sequence to suit your property's layout..  
 
Click Save to save the order.  
 
5.  Setting the initial reading figure.  
As mentioned above, setting the initial reading figure is done via the Site setup area under the Meters Tab. Simply type in the initial reading and click on save. This area can also be used for performing reading maintenance for leaking meters or consumed energy between reservations etc.  
   
6.  Setting up the system to keep seperate accounts for Electricity Gas and Water.  
By default the system is set to put the utility charges onto the normal reservation account along with any tariff transactions. Legislation in some states requires that separate accounts for each utility be kept.  
 
To activate this function you must turn on Split Accounts form the Top Tool Bar select Setup, Accounts, Setup, Options Tab.  
 
To check the Use Multiple Accounts for Electricity/Gas/Water, you must first activate the Split Accounts option required as shown above.  
 
You will now have 5 accounts for each Reservation, Rent (where the tariff (for tourists) or Rental (for long-term bookings) is posted, Extras – usually used for Long Term Bookings being for charges not relating to rental, Gas (for Gas charges), Elect (for Electricity charges), Water (for Water charges).  
 
All automatically generated Electricity/Gas/Water charges will now be placed on their respective accounts.  
 
Changing Meter charges  
Price changes may be entered at any time and will apply from the next reading. Check that you have changed all tariffs for each utility as tariffs 2 and 3 will be in use where different prices are charged for various resident types.  
 
7. Setting up Rebates.  
First, set up an applicable account code and sundry charge for the Rebate. In the Sundry charge Setup, enter the rebate amount in Sell price Level 1. Tick Credit Note box also.  
 
For each site that is to receive a Rebate each time the Meters are read, you need to choose a new Meter Tariff. From the Setup Menu click on Category/Areas and choose the first category. Click on Areas/Sites to display the site in that category.  
 
Edit each applicable site by highlighting it and clicking the edit button. Click on the Meters TAB. Choose Tariff 2 from the drop down list. Svae and Exit.  
 
From the Top Tool Bar choose Ancilliary Setup, then Electricity/Gas/Water, click on Setup. As in step number 3 above, this time for Tariff 2, choose Electiricty from the drop down list for Meter Tariff Setup. In the Rebate box for Tariff 2, select sundry charge for Rebate from the List of sundry charges.  
 
Electricity Rebate  
 
Everytime a meter read is now down for those clients setup as Tariff 2, they will receive a Rebate credit also on their account.  
 
 
 
 
 
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