Managing Background Data: Business Process Owner

Using the Background Data task, the Business Process Owner for Accounting can define the following data used by the Energy Management application:

Define Cost Classes and Categories

You first create cost categories, and then create classes for the categories. For detailed information on entering this data, see Define Cost Category and Classes.

Step 1: Define Cost Classes

The Cost Classes table holds cost classes, which roll up cost categories to more general groupings.

The default schema includes a default set of cost classes; you may wish to use these as is, or modify them to fit your needs. To reinstate the default cost classes, run the Create Required Cost Classes and Cost Categories action.

Step 2: Define Cost Categories by Cost Class

After defining your cost classes, you can define categories for them.

When you document costs (income or expense items), you assign them a cost category, which tags the items with a cost type such as: BUILDING - MAINTENANCE, RENT - BASE RENT, TAX - PROPERTY TAX, TAX - SCHOOL TAX, or UTILITY - ELECTRIC.

The Costs, Scheduled Costs, Recurring Costs, and Budgets tables, and their associated actions, use cost categories for grouping and summarizing costs for cost analysis, budgeting, projections, and chargeback.

The Energy Management Cash Flow Report is pre-populated with a restriction to show Cost Categories that begin with “UTILITY”. In order for your utility bill cost data to appear in this report, you must have all utilities assigned to a Cost Category that begins with “UTILITY”.

Define Accounts

In addition to using the organizational hierarchy for accounting purposes, the Telecom, Lease, and Building Operations domains offer the Accounts table, which you can use as a cost center. This is convenient for charging work orders, work requests, leases, and properties to specific accounts.

When defining accounts, you must complete the Account Code field to uniquely identify each account.

See Defining Accounts.

Define Vendors and their Accounts

You first define vendors and then define accounts for these vendors.

Step 1: Define Vendors

The first step in the billing process is to enter vendors into the system. There are several ways to do so:

Use the Define Vendors task. See Entering Vendors
The business process owner can enter vendor data into the ARCHIBUS tables during the set-up process. For example, business process owners can add new vendors to the Users table and assign vendor processes to these users. For this reason, make sure to notify your business process owner any time that you add a new vendor. For information, see Entering Users.
Use the Enter Bills task.

Note: To include the vendor in email notification, verify that the Email Address in the Vendors table is the same as the corresponding record in the Users table. For more information, see "ARCHIBUS Configuration Options" in ARCHIBUS System Management Help.

Note: Vendors are also used in the Project Management, Service Desk, On Demand, and Preventive Maintenance applications.

Step 2: Define Vendor Accounts

The second step in the billing process is to enter vendor accounts into the system. This is necessary so that bills are allocated to the correct vendor. Vendor accounts are different than accounts in that they contain address information for Billing, Service and Remit To.

To add or edit a vendor account:

In the Process Navigator, select Environmental & Risk Management/Energy Management/Business Process Owner – Accounting/Define Vendor Accounts.
The View and Edit Vendor Accounts form appears. All existing Vendor Accounts appear in the left panel.

From the Vendors list, select the vendor for which you want to add an account.
The Vendor Accounts list shows any account already added for the selected vendor.

From the top of the Vendor Accounts list, click Add New to add a new vendor account.

Enter the following required field:
Vendor Account Code: Enter a unique identifier for this vendor account.

Enter the following required validated fields:
Vendor Code: If the vendor is not already added, select the vendor from the Select Values list.
Bill Type: Select the type of utility bill from the Select Values list.
Site Code: Select the site for this bill.
Building Code: Select the building for this bill.

Enter additional information, including the Billing, Service and Remit To address information.as needed.

Click Save.
Note: Vendor Accounts can also be added in the Enter Bills Task.

Environmental & Risk Management / Energy Management / Business Process Owner Accounting