Have you ever found yourself entering multiple billing adjustments throughout the month or wanting to adjust all utility accounts at once? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you will love the new routine in Utility Management. The new routine within the Customer menu will help you import a batch of adjustments all at once with a push of a button. The new routine titled “Import Adjustments” can be found in the Miscellaneous list of routines in the Customer menu and will allow you to import a series of billing adjustments, payment adjustments, and write-off transaction types.

The first thing you’ll notice with this routine is that it looks very similar to the other import routines throughout Connect.

After you’ve entered the view, you’ll find your standard import file setup options on the left-hand side. 

On the right-hand side of the routine, you will see a few options that will help you determine how you want these adjustments imported. Here is where you can set the specific cycle (if any), transaction date, transaction type, the description for the adjustment, service to be allocated to, and the amount of the transaction. 

The transaction type drop-down field is where you can designate which type of adjustment you want to import.  Please note, you can only import one adjustment type at a time using the routine. Therefore, you will need an import file for each type of adjustment you would like to enter.

The amount field also has a special feature to designate an amount in the top field that will be used for every customer in the file. If you would like to have a different amount for each customer, then you can specify the amount field in your file and then map it in the grid at the bottom.

The bottom of the grid is where you can designate how your file will be mapped to the database.

We recommend using a fixed-length or delimited file type. These types of files are usually labeled as a .txt or .csv file type and can be created through a third-party application like Microsoft Excel. Once you have your file set up and saved, you can then select the import file location and name and the mapping of the file in the bottom grid will then be available. We also recommend clicking the save button on the toolbar once you are done so that the program will save your setup for future use.
 
After you have your options set up and your file brought in and mapped, you’ll be ready to run the routine. The Print option at the top of the routine allows you to run the report in a Report-Only print mode. This allows you to see what will happen before the transaction records are actually created and saved.

After you run the routine in Report-Only, you’ll be ready to change that option to Report and run it again to create the actual adjustment records.