Energy Supply Contracts: How To Properly Account For Dropped Accounts
If you run an energy brokerage, are an energy broker, or are involved in the retail energy industry, you already know that dropped utility accounts can be a headache. When a customer’s utility account, which was enrolled with a supplier, becomes inactive or switches to a new supplier, the account drops from the existing supplier contract and is subject to early termination fees.
Now, there are several ways to mitigate a dropped utility account and get it re-enrolled on an active contract, but accounting for dropped accounts is a whole new challenge. In this article, we outline a few different scenarios and how energy brokers can use EDGE On Demand for dropped utility account reporting.
Identifying The Right Customer Contract
First, it’s important to have detailed records so you can correctly identify the customer contract with the dropped account. Some energy brokers are disorganized and rely on supplier reporting for their data. It’s always best to keep your own records so that you can easily search for a customer, contract, or account. With EDGE On Demand’s Accounts application, energy brokers can quickly search for a utility account to view the details of its associated contract. This allows you to quickly respond to supplier drop notifications and help your customers avoid early termination penalties.
Commission Reporting & True-Ups
If you are unable to re-enroll the dropped utility account, then you must reconcile any sales commissions that might have been paid on that account. If you paid your sales representative upfront on the account, then a true-up might need to be issued in order to recoup any overpayment. On the other hand, if the energy supplier paid you upfront, you need a system that can anticipate a negative supplier true-up. Furthermore, a proper commission reconciliation system should identify missing utility accounts from supplier commission statements. This will allow you to confirm when the account becomes inactive. EDGE’s commission reconciliation application allows energy brokers to quickly identify supplier commission statement errors, true-up advanced commission payments, and more.
Learn More About EDGE
It’s important to have detailed reporting so your operations team can better manage your business. In addition, it’s important to have this information readily available to provide transparency to your sales people. If you are looking for a robust energy broker software program that can better manage dropped utility accounts and commission reconciliations, contact us today to learn more about EDGE On Demand.
by Mike Harrison 1/13/23