Review a utility invoice with a site or account-number mismatch

Anchor the invoice to a physical service point

Utility invoices can look routine even when they belong to another site, former tenant, landlord account, or company entity. Preserve the bill and record provider legal name, customer account, meter or service identifier, service address, mailing address, billing period, read dates, usage, tariff or service class, prior balance, current charges, taxes, fees, due date, and buyer entity selected at intake. Do not route by mailing address alone. A centralized AP address may appear on every bill while the underlying service point determines ownership.

Compare the bill with the approved site register, lease or facilities record, vendor master, prior verified invoice, purchase order where used, and utility portal under controlled access. Keep each identifier in its original format. Leading zeros, meter replacements, and provider migrations can make related accounts look different, while neighboring suites can have similar addresses. Record which field links the bill to the site and which fields conflict. Avoid changing the vendor account or cost center until the facilities or finance owner resolves identity.

Reconcile account history and billing periods

Build an account chronology covering opening, occupancy, provider changes, meter exchanges, transfers, closures, and earlier bills. Include effective dates and final reads. A new account number may be legitimate after a provider conversion, but the old account may still carry a final bill or credit. Link both without assuming the balance moved correctly. If the invoice contains a prior balance, trace it to earlier documents and payments. A current amount can be valid while an inherited arrears balance belongs to a predecessor or another entity.

Check billing-period continuity. Compare previous ending read with current starting read, estimated and actual indicators, usage units, adjustment lines, and overlapping dates. AP does not need to judge engineering consumption, but it can identify a duplicated period, unexplained gap, reversed estimate, or meter mismatch. Send facilities the exact service point, dates, readings, and charge at issue. A seasonal increase by itself is not proof of error, and a total close to last month does not prove the account is correct.

Investigate moves, meter changes, and shared sites

Site changes require commercial context. Review lease start and end dates, responsibility clauses, move-in documentation, landlord allocations, and facility closure records through the appropriate owners. If several entities share a building, identify the approved allocation basis rather than dividing the invoice by headcount or square footage on AP’s initiative. Record common-area charges separately. Facilities confirms the served location; procurement or legal interprets the agreement; finance decides coding, accrual, and entity treatment.

Verify provider contact through a known portal, published account channel, or established record before discussing the account. Do not call a number added to a suspicious invoice without checking it. Ask for confirmation of account ownership, meter, service period, and corrected billing when needed. Keep the case reference and response. A provider representative’s verbal statement should be documented but does not authorize internal entity or coding changes. Route bank or autopay changes through separate controls.

Post only the supported obligation

After resolution, compare the supported bill with the ERP document. Confirm provider account, buyer entity, service address, period, amount, tax, cost object, approval, and due date. Link a corrected bill to the rejected version and screen for duplicate entry. If only part is supported, follow company policy for dispute or partial processing and keep the residual visible. Check that a final bill does not leave an automatic recurring template active and that a new account does not bypass normal owner approval.

Close with the source bill, site and account evidence, chronology, provider communication, owner decisions, posting reference, and remaining credit or dispute. Track exceptions by provider, location, cause, and age. Repeated site mismatches may reflect weak site-master maintenance; repeated estimated-read disputes may need facilities review. Outsourced AP can prepare the record and follow up, but it should not decide occupancy responsibility, allocate shared utilities, or accept a new provider account without authorized evidence.

Reconcile a site transition case

A site transition may produce a final bill for the old meter, an opening bill for a replacement meter, and a landlord recharge covering common areas. Build three separate lines in the review even if one provider statement presents them together. Match service dates to occupancy, meter exchange evidence, and the approved lease responsibility. Show overlapping dates and prior balances explicitly. Facilities must confirm physical service, and finance must decide entity and allocation treatment. AP should not assign the full statement to the new cost center simply because that code is active today.

Verify closure by checking the provider account after posting. The old account should show its supported final balance or credit, the new account should begin with the documented read, and the landlord charge should retain its allocation authority. Confirm that autopay or recurring invoice settings do not remain attached to a closed account. Review the next bill for continuity. This follow-through catches cases where the invoice was coded correctly once but the master, template, or provider record still points to the wrong site.

For month end, identify service already consumed but not yet supported by a correct bill. Finance decides whether and how to accrue it using the site and period evidence. Do not post a known wrong-entity invoice as a placeholder. Link any accrual reference to the open provider case so a corrected bill reverses or clears the right estimate instead of creating another charge.

Keep provider case numbers and promised correction dates in the aging queue. A pending corrected bill does not remove the service period from close review. Recheck it promptly and record the result.