Understanding the System

Current's system might work slightly different from whichever software you're coming from with responsibilities and information stored in different areas. Let's go over these so that we have a good foundation moving forward.

Location

A location can be thought of as a service address. It is this the physical location the utility serves. The location can have many associated attributes such as:

Meter(s)
Services
1 Primary Account
Tax Rate
Service Orders

Meters and Services are likely to be the two most important as they play the most direct roll in billing. It's an important distinction that these are linked to the location, not to the account directly. What we can do with Meters and Services will be expanded on more in the Locations specific section.

Meters

In Current meters are tied to the Location rather than the Account. This is because if the primary account changes Account changes, the meter is unlikely to do so as well. During billing or at any time via the Location page, meter readings can be uploaded which will be stored under the meter on the Location.

Services

Services are associated with the Location as well, with similar reasoning to metres. The services offered to a Location are unlikely to change with a change Account or change of ownership. Services can be used to represent a wide range of billing options.

Account

Every system seems to have a different idea of what an account is. In Current an account can be seen as the active responsibility for the location. This could take the form of a current owner, a landlord and tenant relationship where both are on the account, property management company, etc..

While Locations typically have a number such as 123 , Accounts get a suffix i.e. -1 or -2 , leading to Account numbers of 123-1 or 123-2 . This keeps a consistent Location number, as well as distinguishing between the Accounts active over the Locations life. If a property is sold, typically this starts a move out procedure where responsibility for the Location transfers from the old owner to the new owner and a new account is created to represent this (123-1 to 123-2 )

Contacts

Contacts are another tool to organize data and relationships. All accounts should at least have one primary contact representing the main person responsible for the account. In cases of landlord and tenant relationships there could be two contacts where are both parties are represented.

Having multiple contacts on a Location also allows for all parties listed to access the online portal, where they can pay the bill, view consumption, manage autopay, etc.. This is useful in cases such as cohabitation, businesses, and landlord and tenants.