Auditing metered utility billing takes two reports, and using the right one at each step is what makes the audit reliable. One tells you whether every meter has been read; the other tells you what those readings billed. This article is the procedure that ties them together.
The Two Reports and What Each One Does
Both live under Reports → Marina and Reports → Campground. They sound alike, and picking the wrong one is the most common reason an audit goes nowhere.
Report | One row per | Use it to |
Meter Read Rent Roll | Meter, showing only its most recent reading | Check coverage — which meters exist, where they are, and whether each has been read recently |
Meter Reads | Reading, across a date range you choose | Audit charges — consumption, rate, service charge, and total billed |
The Meter Read Rent Roll carries no cost, rate, usage, or billed-amount columns. It cannot tell you what a customer was charged. Only the Meter Reads report has Cost Per Unit, Service Charge and Total Cost. If you have been looking for a billed amount on the rent roll, that is why you could not find it.
Step 1 — Confirm Every Meter Has Been Read
Start with coverage, because a missed meter produces no rows anywhere else and is invisible on a readings report.
Go to Reports → Marina → Meter Read Rent Roll (or Reports → Campground → Meter Read Rent Roll).
Select Meter Name, Last Reading Date, Previous Reading, Current Reading, Unit / Slip Name, Unit Group, and Customer Name.
Run it and sort by Last Reading Date ascending. Your stalest meters come to the top.
What to look for:
Blank Last Reading Date — the meter has never been read at all.
A date before the current billing period — the meter was missed this cycle. Filter Last Reading Date with operator < and the period start to list these directly.
Blank Unit / Slip Name — the meter is not assigned to a space, so it will never bill anyone.
Because this report starts from the meters themselves, every meter appears whether or not its space is occupied. Blank customer columns simply mean the space is empty right now — that is expected, not a fault.
Step 2 — Fix What Step 1 Found
Missing readings
Enter them in Marina → Meter Readings or Campground → Meter Readings before the billing run. A reading entered after invoicing will not retro-correct an invoice already issued.
Unassigned meters
Open the space record and confirm a meter is linked. A meter with no space cannot be billed and will not appear against any customer on the Meter Reads report.
Meters on the wrong space
If a meter has been replaced or physically moved, its recorded space may be out of date. Correct the assignment on the space record, then re-run the report to confirm.
Step 3 — Audit What Was Actually Billed
Once coverage is clean, switch reports to check the charges.
Go to Reports → Marina → Meter Reads (or the Campground equivalent).
Select Meter Reading Date, Meter Name, Unit Name, Previous Reading, Current Reading, Cost Per Unit, Service Charge, Total Cost, Invoice Date, and Customer Name.
Set Subtotal to Total Cost so the report totals what was billed.
Click Get Report, set the date range to your billing period, and run it.
Export to Excel if you want to sort and filter offline.
Note: A reading only appears on the Meter Reads report if it is attached to a reservation — that link is what turns a reading into a billable charge. Readings taken on vacant spaces are not billable and will not be listed. If a reading is missing here but present on the rent roll, check whether the space was actually occupied on the reading date.
Step 4 — What to Check in the Figures
Abnormal consumption
Sort by Total Cost descending, and compare Previous Reading against Current Reading on anything unusual. A large jump may be:
A meter rollover — the reading passed its maximum and restarted, which shows as a current reading lower than the previous one
A transposed digit on entry
Genuine heavy use — a large vessel, a rig running air conditioning, or equipment left on
Very low or zero consumption usually means the occupant was away, or the meter has failed. Rollover corrections are covered in the meter billing edge cases article.
Readings not yet invoiced
Filter Invoice Date to is empty. These readings have been recorded but not billed — either the billing run has not happened yet, or they were missed by it.
Rates applied
Review Cost Per Unit across the period, particularly after a rate change. A handful of readings still carrying the old rate is easy to miss and easy to correct before invoicing.
Closing the Audit
Before generating invoices:
Enter every missing reading found in step 1
Correct erroneous readings, including any rollovers
Re-run the Meter Read Rent Roll and confirm no meter has a stale Last Reading Date
Re-run Meter Reads for the period and confirm the Total Cost subtotal is what you expect
Running the coverage check before every billing run, rather than after a customer queries a bill, is the single change that removes most metered-billing disputes. A missed reading caught before invoicing costs nothing to fix; the same reading caught afterwards means a credit, a re-issue, and a conversation.