Sound familiar?
- Usage bills are calculated in a spreadsheet from meter read exports
- Estimated reads cause disputes nobody can trace
- Broker commissions are reconciled against supplier statements by hand
- Tenants on a sub-metered site query every bill
- Contract renewal dates are missed and customers roll onto worse rates
- Reporting for Ofgem or investors takes days
Key facts
- Our automated billing software was first built to bill electricity, water and gas usage
- Meter data handling for MPANs, MPRNs, half-hourly reads and smart meter data
- Billing designed around Ofgem's 12-month back-billing limit (SLC 21BA)
- Broker and TPI portals for quotes, contracts, commissions and renewals
- Heat network and sub-metering billing for landlords and operators
- Integrations with accounting, payments and industry data services
- Fixed-price quote after a free chat
We started with energy billing
Energy billing is part of our history. One of the first bespoke systems dijitul developments built, around 2011, was automated billing software to invoice customers for their energy usage: electricity, water and gas. That system grew into the automated billing software we still build today. It taught us the awkward parts: estimated and actual reads, mid-period tariff changes, standing charges, VAT rates that differ by customer type, and credit notes when a read is corrected.
Today we build for energy suppliers' supporting systems, brokers and third-party intermediaries, heat network operators, landlords and site operators who resell or recharge utilities, and businesses that monitor their own consumption across many sites.
What we build for energy and utilities
- Usage-based billing engines. Tariff structures, time-of-use rates, standing charges, climate change levy and VAT, generated as invoices and posted to your accounting system.
- Meter data handling. Import of half-hourly and non-half-hourly reads, validation against tolerances, estimate generation and replacement when an actual read arrives, keyed by MPAN for electricity and MPRN for gas.
- Broker and TPI systems. Customer and site records, quote comparison, contract tracking, commission reconciliation against supplier statements, and renewal reminders. See CRM development.
- Customer portals. Bills, consumption graphs, meter read submission and payments by card or Direct Debit. See customer portals.
- Heat network and sub-meter billing. Clear bills for residents and commercial tenants on shared heating or private wire schemes.
Ofgem rules and industry change
- Back-billing: Standard Licence Condition 21BA stops suppliers billing domestic and microbusiness customers for energy used more than 12 months before the bill, with limited exceptions, according to Ofgem. Billing software must track when charges were first billed accurately.
- Billing accuracy: Ofgem's 2026 domestic billing performance assessment says billing drives about 30% of complaints to suppliers and 55% of Energy Ombudsman referrals. Clear bills and traceable reads matter.
- Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS): suppliers began migrating meters on 22 October 2025, with all meters due to migrate by 7 May 2027, according to Elexon. Systems that assumed monthly or quarterly reads need to handle half-hourly data at volume.
- Heat networks: Ofgem is introducing heat network regulation in phases, covering fair pricing, transparent bills and customer service, with registration deadlines in January 2027, according to Ofgem. Operators need billing that shows how charges are built up.
- Microbusiness and broker conduct: Ofgem has tightened rules on how brokers deal with microbusinesses, including transparency of costs and access to redress, so broker CRMs need clear records of what was disclosed.
- Water: non-household water retail in England is regulated by Ofwat, with market data handled through the central market operator.
Building billing that people trust
Billing software has to be explainable. Every line on a bill should trace back to a read, a tariff and a rule. We store reads and tariffs immutably with effective dates, calculate bills from them, and keep the calculation so a query can be answered in seconds. Corrections create credit and re-bill entries rather than editing history. Payments run through Stripe or GoCardless with webhooks, and invoices sync to Xero, Sage or QuickBooks. We use PHP 8 and Laravel or Python for calculation-heavy services, with PostgreSQL for time-series reads.
Anatomy of a usage-based bill
To show why billing software needs care, here is what goes into one line of a business electricity bill. First the reads: an opening read and a closing read for the period, each flagged as actual, customer-supplied or estimated. If the period spans a tariff change, consumption is apportioned across the two rates, by half-hourly data where available or by a profile where not. Day and night or time-of-use rates split consumption again.
Then come standing charges per day, capacity or availability charges for larger sites, pass-through network and policy costs if the contract passes them through, climate change levy for business customers unless an exemption applies, and VAT at the standard or reduced rate depending on customer type and usage level. When an actual read later replaces an estimate, the bill is not edited: the system issues a credit for the estimated charge and a new charge for the actual, both linked to the original, which is what an auditor or ombudsman expects to see.
Each of these rules is stored as dated data. That means a bill from 18 months ago can be reproduced exactly, and a tariff change is a configuration task rather than a software release.
Getting started
Tell us what you bill or broker, and where the data comes from. After a free chat we scope tariffs, data sources and edge cases, then give a fixed-price quote. Related: dashboards and reporting and payment gateway integration.
What we deliver
- Usage-based billing engines with tariffs, standing charges and VAT
- Meter read capture, validation and estimate handling
- Customer portals for bills, reads, usage graphs and payments
- Broker and TPI CRMs with commission tracking and renewal alerts
- Heat network and sub-metering billing with clear bills
- Dashboards for consumption, debt, complaints and billing accuracy
How it works and what it costs
Every project gets a fixed-price quote after a free initial chat and a short scoping stage. You own the code and the data.
Free chat
Tell us the problem in plain English: what you do now, what goes wrong and what "better" looks like. No charge, no obligation.
Scoping
We map the processes, systems and data involved, agree what is in and out, and write it down so there are no surprises.
Fixed-price quote
You get a fixed price for the agreed scope, or a phased plan for bigger builds, so you can start small and prove it works.
Build and test
We build in short stages you can see and try, test against real data, then go live carefully with a rollback plan.
Hand over and look after
You own the code and the data. We can host it, support it and keep improving it, or hand it to your own team.
Frequently asked questions
Have you built energy billing software before?
Yes. dijitul's automated billing software was first built around 2011 to invoice customers for electricity, water and gas usage. We have built usage-based billing systems since, and bring that experience to tariffs, estimates and corrections.
Can you bill tenants for sub-metered energy?
Yes. We build billing for landlords and site operators who recharge electricity, gas, water or heat, with reads, tariffs and clear bills. Resale and heat network rules apply, so we design around Ofgem guidance.
Does your billing handle the back-billing rule?
Yes. We record when each charge was first accurately billed and flag any charge that would fall outside the 12-month back-billing limit for domestic and microbusiness customers under Standard Licence Condition 21BA, so it can be reviewed before a bill is issued.
Can you build a broker CRM?
Yes. dijitul builds broker and TPI systems covering customers, sites, meters, quotes, contracts, commission reconciliation against supplier statements and renewal reminders, with a record of what was disclosed to each customer and when.
Can the system handle half-hourly data?
Yes. We design data stores and imports for half-hourly reads at volume, using PostgreSQL with partitioning or time-series extensions. That matters more as Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement completes and half-hourly data becomes normal for every meter.
How is pricing handled?
Every dijitul project is a fixed-price quote after a free chat and scoping. Billing systems are often phased, starting with one tariff type or one customer group, so you can prove the calculations before moving everything across.
Related
Tell us what you need to build
Free chat, clear scope, fixed-price quote. You own everything we build.