Accountants and schedulers seldom see the humble invoice as a marketing tool. But ask traders and they w i l l tell you the last time a customer turned hostile when invoiced incorrectly. Customers just don't buy the "pardon my computer" excuse any more. More and more gas contracts are being written with limited recourse for correction of invoicing errors. An automated gas-invoicing system (Figure 1) can save today's thin margins by assuring accuracy and timely cash collection.
Customers just don't buy the "pardon my computer" excuse any more.
To accomplish these objectives, an automated gasinvoicing system needs to take on a market-driven character. The system must perform several functions to be effective, These indude reconciling operations activity; presentation to the customer, preparation for collection; and updating the company's basic records, both accounting and operational. In addition, high technology influences what we need gas-invoicing systems to do.
Reconciling Operations
The process of figuring out what to invoice takes too long and consumes too much resource. We spend most of that time just gathering the basic facts. An automated gasinvoice system begins with accurate capture of the volume and transportation contracts. These form the ground rules for invoicing. But the story doesn't end there.
Rightly or wrongly, deals modify what customers expect to see on their invoice. The gas-invoicing system captures pertinent terms of the deal so that the invoice can be prepared even as the contract goes through find review.
To this mix add last-minute allocation and price modifications from actual field-level confirmations.
This background information becomes the rules that drive the basic functions of the gas-invoicing system. Actual measurement volumes and confirmed nominations