"Here is our site list"
A new client sends a spreadsheet of their sites. It has addresses, some meter numbers, and a column called "notes" with things like "two meters here?" and "closed, check". Their bills tell a different story: a few MPANs that are not on the spreadsheet, and some sites with gas that the spreadsheet does not mention. The supplier data you requested lists meters at an address the client says they left last year.
Your analyst spends days reconciling it in a spreadsheet of their own, and when the client opens a new site next month, nobody updates it.
Why meter lists are never right first time
Clients rarely know their meters. Sites are run by operations teams, bills are paid by finance, and nobody holds a definitive list.
- Client site lists are built for other purposes and miss meters.
- Bills show some meters but not those billed elsewhere or on different accounts.
- Supplier data may include old or disconnected meters.
- Addresses are written differently in every source.
- Sites open, close and change over time, and the list is not maintained.
Everything built on a wrong list is wrong
Tenders, bill validation, reporting and commission all depend on the meter list. A missing meter is not tendered, not validated and not reported. A meter that should not be there wastes effort and confuses suppliers.
Reconciling lists by hand takes a lot of analyst time, and the result decays as soon as it is finished. Each new service or renewal starts the reconciliation again.
There is a client relationship cost as well. Asking the client's finance team the same questions about the same sites at every renewal suggests the consultancy never kept the answers, which is not the impression you want to give someone paying for expertise.
A meter inventory built from every source
We build a meter inventory that treats each source as evidence, not as the truth.
- Client site lists, bills, supplier data and contract documents are imported. Bills and PDFs are read with an extraction step using a model such as OpenAI or Anthropic Claude.
- Addresses are normalised and matched, so the same site written three ways becomes one site.
- Meter numbers are validated for format, and each meter is linked to a site, with the sources that mention it.
- Conflicts are listed for a person: meters in one source but not another, meters at closed sites, sites with no meters.
- Once confirmed, each meter carries its site, supplier, contract, LOA coverage and status.
- New bills and supplier data continue to be checked against the inventory, so new or missing meters are flagged as they appear.
| Source | What it contributes | Common gaps |
|---|---|---|
| Client site list | Sites and addresses | Missing meters, stale sites |
| Bills | Meters actually being billed | Only those on bills you have |
| Supplier data | Meters on supplier accounts | Old or disconnected meters |
| Contracts | Meters under contract | Sites added later |
A person confirms every conflict. The inventory keeps a note of what was decided and why, so the reasoning is not lost.
A list you can rely on
When a new client joins, the inventory is built in a structured way and the analyst spends their time resolving real conflicts rather than copying between spreadsheets. When the client opens a new site, the first bill flags a meter that is not in the inventory, and it is added.
Tenders, validation and reporting all draw from the same list, so they agree with each other.
Is your meter list a spreadsheet of doubts?
- Client site lists and bills disagree.
- You have found meters that were never tendered.
- Meter lists are rebuilt for each renewal.
- Addresses are written differently in every source.
- New and closed sites are not picked up.