4.2 Utility Billing

Question 1

State 3 utility bills.

Answer 1

• Electricity
• Telephone
• Gas

Question 2

How often are utility bills sent?

Answer 2

Either on a monthly or quarterly (3 months) basis.

Question 3

Define batch processing.

Answer 3

Collecting groups of similar data over a period of time and then processing it collectively at a convenient time such as at night, without human intervention or involvement. This batch is held as a transaction file and then after processing the master file is updated.

Question 4

Explain what a master file is.

Answer 4

It stores all information required to produce the next bill, such as customer account number, address details, last meter reading, amount of eg electricity used over the past number of quarters, using information from previous bills.

Question 5

State the 12 stages of producing electricity bills.

Answer 5

1. Meters are read by the meter reading and recorded onto the customer data collection form.
2. Customer meter readings are placed together as batches.
3. These are entered into the computer system.
4. The data is checked, using data verification and validation techniques.
5. Any errors are notified, such as wrong number of digits in customer account number, and an error report is produced.
6. The valid data is used to create a transaction file.
7. The transaction file is then sorted into the same order as the master file using the key field (normally customer account number).
8. The sorted transaction file is stored and will be used to allow the matching of transaction records easily with master file records.
9. Both the master file and transaction file are used to calculate and print customer bills.
10. The details on the transaction file are used to update the master file, and save it as a new master file.
11. Customers are sent their bill.
12. The new master file is used to calculate the bill in the next quarter and the process repeats.