Account Health
You identify a negative charge on an account. It is for £350 and from 14 months ago. What do you do?
Leave it.
We now leave any negative charge that is:
- Over 12 months old
- Anything that is under £400 within the last 12 months.
Unless you have caused the negative charge yourself during a rebill or on occasions where we will reapportion readings for backbilling.
Any increase of the balance over 12 months will be submitted for back billing and the increase will be written off; This leads to wasted hours within the business writing off balances when that time could be spent in other areas of the business.
What is stopping the account from being billed up to date?
Issue: There has been a Meter exchange (MEX) on the 18th June but it doesn’t have a final or initial read on either meter for this date.
Fix: These reads need inputting, and the account then needs billing up to the present date. We must ensure we separate the invoices on the MEX date.
Inputting these readings is as simple as adding a normal reading to kraken.
An account has a consumption gap and has stopped billing automatically. What tool can you use in the statements and invoices tabs in Kraken to see why?
Billing pathway run history
The Billing Pathway Run History is a button within the invoice and statements tab on Kraken that will show us the FULL HISTORY of any invoices that have either SUCCEEDED or FAILED to be issued automatically on an account.
We can use this to identify WHY the account is not automatically billing so that we know where to go to fix the issue.
Some examples include suspiciously high charges or trying to bill to a quarantine reading
When might Kraken automatically hold a bill?
1. Financial Thresholds (SME Specific Limits)
2. Meter Reading & Data Issues
3. Billing Period & Supply Errors
4. Back-Billing Issues
5. System & Process Holds
What is RTS?
Definition and Function: RTS (Radio Teleswitch System) controls peak/off-peak rate switching and schedules heating and hot water activation.
Mandatory Phase-Out: The infrastructure phased out between June 2025 - 30th June 2026. Legal obligation.
Identification: a blue RTS flag.
Impact on Customers (if unreplaced):
Failure to switch between peak and off-peak tariffs.
Account becomes inaccurate and unreliable.
Action Steps for Un-upgraded Accounts:
Check eligibility using the Smart Checker.
Book a standard smart meter installation appointment.
Why is it important to split invoices after a meter exchange (MEX)?
VAT.
If we don’t split the invoices, Kraken has the potential to charge a 5% VAT customer at 20% + CCL.
An Example: We have exchanged an old meter that has used 1,000 units for a new meter with an initial read of 0 units and kept them on the same invoice. Kraken registers this as 9000 units of usage within the month and increases the VAT from 5% to 20% for the customer.
SMART Snapshot reads
What are they/what do they tell us?
Where to find them?
When/how would you use them?
- Smart snapshot reads are automatic cumulative meter readings captured at midnight each day according to the meter's internal clock.
- Under the 'Properties' tab via the Meter spanner.
- The readings also confirm active meter communication through the date of the latest midnight log.
Last month, we set up a Payment Arrangement for a customer to clear an existing debt.
Today, the customer submits a fresh meter reading and It turns out we’ve been severely underestimating his actual usage.
When we recalculate the customer’s Payment Arrangement today, do we:
A) Increase only his ongoing usage amount and leave his monthly debt repayment untouched?
B) Recalculate both his ongoing usage AND increase his monthly debt repayment amount?"
B — Recalculate BOTH the ongoing usage AND the Debt Repayment Element (DRE)
If we didn’t review it for 12m+, we need to review the account and potentially write-off any unfair charges as a result of our oversight.
What is a 'live late' and how could you identify one?
What is it: A live late is a live account whose bill is late.
Kraken is designed to estimate and send out bills as a backstop when we don’t have actual reads, and the frequency of this varies on payment methods.
Fixed Monthly DD: 90 Days without an Actual Reading
POROB/VDD: 30 Days without an Actual Reading
How to identify:
Account checks on the Kraken account homepage. It will have a red ‘Billing Overdue’ on a live late.
Invoices tab - check last invoice date.
This customer insists this meter is faulty. Why would you/why would you not book an SLT test for this customer?
Only as a last resort. A consumption conversation is almost always the correct action.
Only 1 in 10 meters are faulty. 90% of the tests we do as a business are at a cost. It's £100.93 for the customer (refundable if faulty - but unlikely) and £250 to the business
Why is it important to re-apportion the charges accurately when producing a catch-up bill?
VAT and Tariff changes
It is important that we apportion the usage between the last actual reading and the catch up reading for VAT thresholds and also any changes in tariff prices.
If we don’t apportion the readings Kraken will recognise this spike as 1 months usage which puts them over the threshold and therefore invoice the customer 20% + CCL
We were informed of a COT 14 months ago but we’ve only just processed a COT today. The back-billing request was instantly REJECTED. Why?
Look at the reading history on screen: What critical detail is missing that caused the team to reject the back-billing?
There is no Actual meter reading from the last 28 days.
We cannot process a back-billing write off without a fresh read taken within the last 28 days to validate the calculation
How does our billing cycle work in SME?
Look at this visual.
SME accounts are set to bill on the 1st of the month
Kraken will look for a reading on this dates and produce charges.
It will continue to bill to any actual readings that are received between the 1st and 5th.
On the 6th, Kraken will estimate the 1st for any account without a reading as long as it’s not a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday.
What is the VAT threshold 20% VAT and CCL
33kwh/day and over is 20% VAT and CCL for Electric
145kwh/day and over is 20% VAT and CCL for Gas
Anything under these is 5%
Remember 0% reduction in place for 5% band, from 1 Oct 26 - expected March 27).* Also any tariff changes → price changes need to be taken into account
Why is it important to input reads types (ops, user, estimate) accurately?
- Stops any confusion when billing an account for us and also for the customer.
- Whenever rebilling an account if we input an estimated reading down as an ops reading will display as a customer reading on the invoice we send out to the customer.
- Its important that whenever we are inputting estimated readings we tick the ESTIMATE box to ensure it goes through as an estimate. If we don’t it will go down as an ops reading and has the potential of the next person looking at the account thinking that it was a reading taken over the phone by one of us or taken from a field agent.
- The same goes for ticking the VALIDATE box- This should only be ticked when the customer sends us a reading that we know is accurate. This sends off whats called a d10 flow and once validated by the DC they will send us a d19 flow back. 2 weeks following this the EAC will be updated on Kraken.
- Practical elements
What is the purpose and benefits of Market-Wide Half Hourly Settlements?
Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) transitions all electricity consumers from estimated usage profiles to actual 30-minute consumption measurements to balance the national grid. Under this framework, the industry reconciles the energy suppliers purchase against real customer usage, shortening the settlement adjustment window from seven months down to four.
Goal: Creates a smarter, more efficient energy market that accurately reflects real-time generation and consumption, supporting the integration of renewable energy.
Business Benefits: Replaces rough estimates (EAC) with granular, specific data, enabling more accurate bulk energy purchasing and reducing financial imbalances.
Customer Benefits: Delivers precise bills based on actual half-hourly consumption rather than estimates, increases usage transparency, and enables tailored time-of-use tariffs that allow customers to lower bills by shifting consumption to off-peak
Explain what checks you would do when submitting a backbilling assessment request?
1. Reason for back bill over 12mths. (in detail, screenshots where possible):
2. Date of latest billed actual reading *need a read within the last 28 days*
3. Any photos of the meter attached are the account and to the meter read screen.
4. The customer has been informed of the invoice amount and date they were informed: (Calls/Emails linked to the account)
5. Invoices held for back billing review
6. If there has been a meter exchange which has been billed through to ensure one meter is finalised on one invoice and the new meter started on a new invoice.
1. Identify why this meter may be faulty
2. How do we resolve/what checks can we do?
1. The SMART meter has stopped communicating with us.
2. Use the Smart Troubleshooting Guide & customer interference conversation+ reach out to a SMART focal
1. Identify the issue with this account?
2. What is the best solution to put in place?
3. How might we explain this to a customer?
1. It is a SMETS1 meter - this is outdated therefore an Asset Replacement is needed.
2. Use Stay Smart Checker
3. "I've noticed that your smart meter's connectivity is currently relying on the 2G/3G network, which is being phased out nationally. Have you received any communication from us regarding this? To make sure you stay connected and continue receiving accurate bills, we need to book an appointment to upgrade your metering setup to the latest 4G technology. This is completely free of charge and ensures your service remains seamless."
Explain what is the issue, what caused it, 3 ways to verify?
The Issue: Kraken has stopped billing automatically and has left a consumption gap since June 2026.
The Cause: The jump from 2630 to 102670 would be a suspiciously high charge, so Kraken has stopped billing. So the meter is 6 digits. After the 1 April 2026, Kraken has it down as having clocked over, back to 0, but that is incorrect. MHHS Migratiton has actually fixed the register, and put it to what it should be. Instead of 925 and 2630, it should be (100)925 & (10)2630.
3 Verify/Fix: We need to dig deeper to determine what data is correct - i.e is it 5 digits or 6? You can check the digits in properties tab, and by looking at the meter type. Lastly check snapshot reads if smart meter.
We can re-process d149 (software info - registers) and d150 (hardware info - meter make & model) to get it back on track and aligned again.