Cost recovery
Are your utility invoices actually right?
Read it.Question it.Recover it.
The short answer
Most overcharging on business utility accounts is not a single dramatic error. It is a small, repeated difference between what the contract says and what the invoice charges, or a charge set against the wrong figure for the site. Finding it means reading each invoice against the signed contract and the recorded meter data rather than against last month's bill. The first review across your invoices costs nothing.
This page sets out where cost is usually lost on business energy, water and waste accounts, what a review covers, what it cannot find, and what it costs. If you would rather just send us an invoice set, that is the fastest way to get an answer.
Where cost is usually lost
Seven places, checked in this order. The first five are billing errors. The last two are money that is billed correctly and still avoidable.
Rates that do not match the contract
Unit rates, standing charges and price change dates billed differently from the signed agreement, most often in the periods either side of a renewal.
Agreed capacity set at the wrong level
Availability charged on a capacity figure that no longer matches recorded demand, either paying for headroom that is never used or carrying excess capacity penalties.
Charges applied to the wrong meter or site
Supplies billed to you that belong to another occupier, or sites you have left that are still being charged, which can run for months before anyone notices.
Estimated reads left to drift
A run of estimates that moves away from actual consumption, storing up a correction that lands as one large invoice later.
Water and waste water lines nobody reads
Volumetric and standing charges, surface water and highway drainage allowances, and meters that are still billed after a supply has been disconnected.
Consumption that is real but avoidable
Plant running through closed hours, heating and cooling working against each other, and base load that does not fall when the building is empty. Correctly billed, still wasted.
Taxes, levies and reliefs
VAT and climate change levy treatment, and reliefs a site qualifies for but has never claimed.
What a review covers
Invoices and supply numbers
A recent full invoice for each meter, with the MPAN, MPRN or SPID. Twelve months is better than one, because a repeated error is easier to see across a year than in a single period.
The signed contract
The rates, charges and dates you actually agreed. Without it, an invoice can only be compared with another invoice, which proves nothing.
A signed letter of authority
So we can hold your account data and put a question to the supplier on your behalf. It does not move your contract or authorise anyone to sign for you.
The read of each invoice
Rates, capacity and reactive charges, levies, taxes, reliefs, readings and supply details, with the arithmetic recalculated rather than accepted.
The findings, in writing
What reconciles, what does not, and what each unreconciled line depends on. Where the data is missing, the gap is recorded as a gap rather than estimated around.
Queries and recovery
A line that does not reconcile is raised with the supplier with the clause and the figures behind it. Any credit or repayment is recorded on the file when it lands.
What a review cannot find
Worth reading before you start, so the result is not a surprise.
- A review cannot find an error that the invoices and the contract do not show. Where a supplier holds the only record of something, we have to ask them for it, and that takes as long as they take.
- It cannot tell you whether your unit rate was competitive on the day you signed. That is a procurement question, not a billing one.
- It cannot recover money that is outside the period a supplier will reopen, and those periods differ by supplier and by charge type.
- It will not always find something. Some accounts are billed correctly, and where that is the case we say so rather than manufacture a finding.
- Consumption that is genuinely used is not an overcharge. Reducing it is a separate piece of work with its own costs and payback.
What it costs and how to start
The first review across your invoices costs nothing. You see what reconciles against the contract and what does not before any fee is discussed.
Where you then appoint us, whether for ongoing validation or to pursue a confirmed overcharge, the fee and how it is calculated are set out in writing and agreed before the work begins. We are paid either by a margin on the unit rate or by a fixed fee, and which one applies is stated before anything is signed.
To start, send a recent full invoice for each meter, the supply numbers and the signed contract or agreed rates, together with a signed letter of authority so we can put questions to the supplier on your account.
Questions
Compare each invoice line with the signed contract rather than with the previous invoice. Check that the unit rates and standing charges match the agreement for the period billed, that the meter readings are actual rather than estimated, that every supply number on the account is yours, and that any availability charge matches the capacity recorded for the site. A difference in any of those is worth questioning.
The first review across your invoices costs nothing. You see what reconciles against the contract and what does not before any fee is discussed. Where you then appoint us for ongoing validation or to pursue a recovery, the fee and how it is calculated are set out in writing and agreed before the work starts.
Once we hold the invoices, the contract and a signed letter of authority, the first read is usually a matter of days. Anything that depends on data only the supplier holds takes as long as the supplier takes to release it, and we tell you when that is what we are waiting on.
A recent full invoice for each meter, the supply numbers, the signed contract or the agreed rates, and a signed letter of authority. Nothing else, and no site visit is needed to begin.
Where an error is confirmed, the correction is normally issued as a credit against the account or as a repayment. How far back a supplier will reopen depends on the supplier, the charge type and the reason for the error, so the recoverable period is established as part of raising the query rather than assumed.
Pay the undisputed amount by the due date and raise the disputed portion in writing. Withholding the whole invoice usually creates a debt position that gets in the way of the query being answered.
Only where that has been agreed with you in writing first. We are paid either by a margin on the unit rate or by a fixed fee, and whichever applies is stated before anything is signed. There are no charges you have not seen in writing.
Yes. Cost recovery is about whether your existing accounts are billed correctly and whether the charges are set against the right figures. It happens whether or not you ever change supplier, and it does not depend on a renewal date.