Forty meters, nine end dates, two spreadsheets
Your client runs a chain of shops and a small warehouse. Between them there are dozens of electricity MPANs and several gas MPRNs. Some are on a group contract with one supplier ending in the autumn. A few newer sites went to a different supplier on their own contracts. Two were added mid-term to the main contract. One shop closed last year.
The end dates live in a spreadsheet the account manager built when you won the client, and in the CRM, where only the main contract end date is recorded. When you run the renewal report, the CRM says the client renews in October. The spreadsheet says three sites end in June. Nobody is sure which is right until someone finds the contract confirmations.
Why end dates drift
Contract data for business energy is held at meter level, but most brokers' systems hold it at client level. The detail that matters sits in documents and spreadsheets that are updated by hand.
- Group contracts contain meters added and removed at different times.
- Sites taken on mid-term may have their own end dates.
- Suppliers' confirmation letters and contract documents are in inboxes and shared drives.
- CRM fields hold one date per client, not per meter.
- Changes of tenancy, closures and new sites are not always passed on to the broker.
Each change is small. Over a year or two, the register no longer matches reality.
What a wrong date costs a consultancy
A missed end date can leave a client's meter out of contract, and the client will reasonably ask why their broker did not see it coming. It also means lost commission for the consultancy on that meter.
Wrong dates cause wasted effort too: tendering for sites that are not due, or approaching suppliers with incomplete meter lists. And every time an account manager leaves, the knowledge of which meters are on which contract leaves with them if it was never written down properly.
A meter-level contract register
We build a contract register that holds contracts at the level suppliers actually work at.
- Every meter is recorded with its MPAN or MPRN, site address, client and current supplier.
- Each contract is recorded with its supplier, start and end date and the meters it covers. A meter can move between contracts over time, and the history is kept.
- Supplier contracts and confirmation letters are read with an extraction step, using a model such as OpenAI or Anthropic Claude, to pull out meter numbers, dates and supplier names. A person checks each extraction before it is saved.
- The register flags problems: meters without a current contract, meters on two contracts, end dates that differ from the CRM, and sites marked closed but still on contract.
- Your CRM, whether HubSpot, Salesforce or another, is updated through its API with the next end date per client, and the register holds the detail behind it.
- A renewal view lists meters by end date, grouped by client, for the months ahead.
| Question | Spreadsheet and CRM | Contract register |
|---|---|---|
| When does this meter's contract end? | Depends which source you ask | One recorded date, from the document |
| Which meters are in the group contract? | Worked out from emails | Listed, with history |
| Meters with no contract | Unknown | Flagged |
| CRM and documents disagree | Found at renewal time | Flagged when it happens |
| Account manager leaves | Knowledge goes with them | Stays in the register |
The register records contract facts. Advice to clients on when and how to buy remains your consultancy's judgement.
Renewal reports you can trust
When you run the renewal report for the next quarter, it lists meters, not just clients, with dates taken from source documents. The three shops ending in June show up alongside the group contract ending in October. The closed shop shows as flagged rather than silently sitting in the list.
When a supplier confirmation arrives, it is read, checked and added in minutes. When a new account manager takes over a client, the register shows them everything. And the CRM is right because it is fed from the register rather than typed in separately.
Do your contract dates drift?
- End dates are held in spreadsheets per client.
- Your CRM records one end date for multi-site clients.
- You have found meters out of contract that nobody saw coming.
- Contract documents are scattered across inboxes and drives.
- Handing over a client between account managers takes days.