Practical guide / Utility Usage & Bill Review Workbook 1.0
Make sense of readings before comparing the bill.
Link meter readings to explicit tariff segments and bills. Review measured usage, complete date coverage and the difference from the actual bill without inventing missing readings.
Your first useful result: Identify the meter and tariff Follow the first task
Identify the meter and tariff
Enter the physical unit and the dated flat tariff with unit rate and daily standing charge.
The linked records and input checks use the same stable IDs and your chosen dates.
Review: Review the labelled results and correct source warnings before acting.
Record an exact interval
Give the meter segment a stable name. Enter both readings and dates, then link the tariff that covers the whole interval.
The linked records and input checks use the same stable IDs and your chosen dates.
Review: Review the labelled results and correct source warnings before acting.
Compare the actual bill
Enter the invoice meter and exact interval dates. All complete reading splits are combined; missing interval coverage is warned.
The linked records and input checks use the same stable IDs and your chosen dates.
Review: Review the labelled results and correct source warnings before acting.
Check the assumptions.
- Save a working copy. Manual entry, with no automatic sync or external connections.
- Supplied tables have fixed capacities. Extend formulas, tables and validation together before using extra rows.
- Use one currency. Blank means unknown; enter 0 when the amount is known to be zero.
- Resolve the highlighted input rows before relying on the summary.
- Each reading row is one explicit start/end interval in one meter segment and one tariff. Split a row at a tariff change.
- Readings use the physical unit printed on your meter. Units from different meters are not added together.
- No interpolation, gas conversion, tiered prices, time-of-use rates, taxes or inferred reset. Start a new named segment after a meter reset or replacement.
Keep a copy you can return to.
Keep the supplied clean and example files unchanged. Save your own working file with a useful name, such as utility-usage-2027-home.xlsx, and keep a dated backup before a large edit. A purchased ZIP is the blank source, not a backup of your entries.
If an input or formula is replaced
Undo the edit while it is still available, or return to a known good backup. If you need a fresh clean file, transfer only your records into its marked input cells and follow the setup guide again. Do not paste whole sheets over the supplied formulas, validations or reference lists. Check IDs, units, dates and linked results against the example before relying on the copy.
When the supplied rows are full
20 meters · 100 tariffs · 1,000 readings · 300 bills · 120 period review. Calculation ranges and validations have fixed capacities. A new row below a table does not prove that every linked result includes it.
For a separate period, project or volume, preserve the old workbook and start a named clean copy. If records must carry forward, record exactly which inputs you transfer, preserve their references and compare the opening and closing figures. Avoid copying historical activity as both an opening amount and a new movement. There is no automatic migration between files.
Inspect the workbook before you choose.
View its real sheets and a fictional calculation example.
Explore Utility Usage & Bill Review WorkbookWritten for version 1.0. Examples describe the supplied workflow; they are not customer results.