Could we have the option available please to change the day in the month that our bill is generated ?
Messaging the team via wattbot suggested this was not possible, so posting it here as an idea to be implemtned.
For example, ours bill is currently generated mid-month. I would like to switch to last day of the month or 1st of the month.
Hi
This FAQ indicates you can change your billing date, so don't know what happened with Wattbot.
https://community.purepla.net/topic/show?tid=10320&fid=31
You can't choose last day of the month, because its number varies, and choosing anything after 28th can cause complications for your direct debit.
Hi
This FAQ indicates you can change your billing date, so don't know what happened with Wattbot.
https://community.purepla.net/topic/show?tid=10320&fid=31
You can't choose last day of the month, because its number varies, and choosing anything after 28th can cause complications for your direct debit.
Thanks for your reply.
That FAQ link talks about payment date. I am talking about billing date.
In other words : It does not matter (to me) what day in the month the direct debit payment actually goes out.
But I am interested in choosing what day the bill gets produced.
Thanks for your reply.
That FAQ link talks about payment date. I am talking about billing date.
In other words : It does not matter (to me) what day in the month the direct debit payment actually goes out.
But I am interested in choosing what day the bill gets produced.
Hi Ohit
Sorry I’m about to get ‘technical’.
Strictly speaking you don’t have a ‘billing date’ - mainly because bills contain charges only.
However, you do have a ‘statement date’ - statements are a picture of your current account status, including both charges and payments (spot the ex-accounts clerk in me.)
Your first statement was created within a few days of the mensiversary of your ‘switching date’ and the mensiversary of your switching date is the date at which your direct debit is taken each month.
Presumably therefore, to change your ‘billing date’ you would need to change your ‘payment date’?
For example, I joined 26th April 2019, my monthly DD is taken the 26th of each month (except for Bank Holidays and Weekends) my last statement covered 26 September - 25 October - each new ‘billing period’ starts the same day my DD is supposed to be taken, the statement covering that ‘billing period’ is normally produced 2 days later.
I assume, but not having changed it don’t know for sure, that if I changed my payment date to 10th of the Month, my statement date would follow suit, and for the month of the change, would cover 26th - 9th. I guess only someone who’s already done this would know for sure.
Judging by WattBot’s slightly poorly-worded response, they actually don’t change the statement to match the new direct debit date.
Hi
My attempts to research this here on the community suggest that the billing/statement date can't be changed, except possibly by the tortuous route of switching away and switching back 17 days before the date you want.
Anyway, you've made the suggestion, so we'll see how Pure Planet responds. In the light of the discussion so far, it would be interesting to know why this would be helpful to you?
Apologies for misunderstanding your original suggestion.
Stephen
+11
Given that the DD can be changed to any slot in the month as desired it’s academic where the billing point is other than synching with the payment date (which can vary anyway.) It would be a huge amount of work for no apparent gain.
I don’t think any other company would offer this either but am prepared to be corrected.
So yes I vote for it but I doubt it will happen.
Thanks for your reply.
That FAQ link talks about payment date. I am talking about billing date.
In other words : It does not matter (to me) what day in the month the direct debit payment actually goes out.
But I am interested in choosing what day the bill gets produced.
Hi Ohit
Sorry I’m about to get ‘technical’.
Strictly speaking you don’t have a ‘billing date’ - mainly because bills contain charges only.
However, you do have a ‘statement date’ - statements are a picture of your current account status, including both charges and payments (spot the ex-accounts clerk in me.)
You’re right - “as a customer I want to choose my statement date - i.e. when my statement/bill is generated”
Statement date is the correct term to actually use.
Hi
My attempts to research this here on the community suggest that the billing/statement date can't be changed, except possibly by the tortuous route of switching away and switching back 17 days before the date you want.
Anyway, you've made the suggestion, so we'll see how Pure Planet responds. In the light of the discussion so far, it would be interesting to know why this would be helpful to you?
Apologies for misunderstanding your original suggestion.
Stephen
No problem. Thanks for your reply.
Useful so I can clearly see what my usage is per calendar month.
Given that the DD can be changed to any slot in the month as desired it’s academic where the billing point is other than synching with the payment date (which can vary anyway.) It would be a huge amount of work for no apparent gain.
I don’t think any other company would offer this either but am prepared to be corrected.
So yes I vote for it but I doubt it will happen.
I understand how it could be a non-starter with the current process that PP follow.
But it is definately possible, especially when a change of statement date is one-off or rare/infrequent.
The direct debit payment may be linked in someway, but generally does not actually affect the statement production/generation process.
For example, to produce a PDF statement:
it’s a nightly batch process.
Two dates are presented to the software system: today’s date and the last successful statement date (e.g. a day last month).
Then between those 2 dates you calculate the energy used: get meter readings, calculate total price of total consumption, add the membership fee/standing charge, add VAT, etc.
Within those same two dates, it will be known what direct debit payements (or otherwise) have been received, so add those to the statement.
Add everything up and final balance/total is displayed.
Statement/Bill is ready for emailing out.
If right now I could change my statement date, then it’s just a different input into the batch process with the “two dates” that are presented.
I do not know about other consumer utility companies, but definitely other statement generators/billing providers can and do do this.
Thanks for posting this
Replies are correct, this isn’t currently doable (which, no doubt, is why you’ve suggested it as a new idea!).
This could get a little messy as it would impact the Membership fee, which is charged monthly but calculated daily.
Also, selfishly, our statement dates are fairly evenly spread across the month, which means even loads on systems and contact times.
OK - thanks.
Makes sense that would increase your work - both systems development and systems load, but that’s expected when building a product/service/business right? :)
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