Customers

This guide outlines the main components of the Customers features of the app, which includes:

• creating a new customer
• creating meter readings
• creating payments

Airtable Overview

The Customer features rely on the Customers, Meter Readings and Invoices, and Payments tables in Airtable.

Customers

Customers represent an individual using a meter.

Creating a Customer

Here is an Airtable form to create a new Customer record.

Important Fields

• Name is the name of the customer.
• Meter Number is the number identifying the meter the customer uses.
• Meter Type of either an Analog Meter, Smart Meter, or No Meter. Analog Meter allows the user to input a starting meter and view the rest of the meter reading information. Smart Meter allows the user to only view the meter reading information. No Meter hides all of the meter reading information.
• Tariff Plan links to the chosen Tariff Plan for the customer.
• Meter Readings links to relevant Meter Readings for the customer.
• Payments links to relevant Payments for the customer.
• Site links to the site the customer belongs to.
• isActive indicates whether a customer should still be considered a part of the site. Allows the customer to reactivate at any time.
• Customer Updates links to relevant customer updates for the customer.
• Customer Number is the unique number identifying the customer.
• Starting Meter Reading is the Meter Reading for the customer at the start of the period. Used to calculate the Amount Billed when inputting Meter Readings and updated at the start of each period.

Meter Readings

Meter Readings logs a customer's usage of a meter.

Creating a Meter Reading

Warning: Admins manually creating rows in Meter Readings and Invoices in Airtable is strongly discouraged. There are required columns (such as “reading” that will break the app if not filled out) and assumptions made in the app (such as 1 meter reading per period per customer) that may break if data is not entered correctly. If you do want to create a meter reading, make sure to delete any existing meter reading for the given period and fill out the reading. Otherwise, the customer will be charged for both meter readings.

Here is an Airtable form to create a new Meter Reading record.

Important Fields

• Customer links to the customer who used the meter.
• Meter Number is the number identifying the meter used.
• Reading is the recorded usage amount in kWh.
• Amount Billed is the amount billed for this meter reading in kS.
• Billed By links to the user who owns the meter.
• Date is the date/time the reading was created.

Payments

Payments logs a customer's payment to the user, i.e. the owner of a site.

Creating a Payment

Here is an Airtable form to create a new Payment record.

Important Fields

• Amount is the amount paid to the user in Ks.
• Date is the date/time the payment was created.
• Billed To is the customer who made this payment.
• Collected By is the user the payment was sent to.