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Utilities

The Utilities module tracks consumption and cost for shared facility utilities: electricity (ECG main + sub-meters), water (GWCL + overhead-tank pumps), bulk LPG, internet, security feeds. Read meters, allocate costs, surface unusual usage.

What residents see

If your facility passes utility costs through to residents:

  • My Utilities widget on the dashboard with this month's reading and the calculated charge for each metered service.
  • Statement breakdown shows the cost-per-unit and total per utility on every monthly invoice.
  • History — last 12 months of consumption, useful for residents comparing across seasons.

If your facility absorbs utilities into a flat service charge, residents don't see this module at all.

What facility admins / staff do

Register meters

Utilities → Add Meter:

  1. Type — electricity, water, gas, internet, other.
  2. Label (e.g. "Main ECG Meter", "Block A water sub-meter").
  3. Serial number — for cross-checking with the utility provider.
  4. Location — where the meter physically lives.
  5. Cost per unit — current rate (GHS per kWh, per cubic metre, etc.). Pass-through rates can be tied to the upstream provider's tariff.
  6. Multiplier — if the meter is a current transformer (CT) meter, the reading × multiplier gives actual consumption.
  7. Direction — consumption (most meters) or generation (solar).

Log readings

The Readings tab is your monthly meter-reading workflow:

  1. Pick a meter.
  2. Enter the new reading (or scan a photo of the meter face — system tries to OCR the digits).
  3. The system auto-calculates consumption since the last reading and the cost.
  4. Save.

For sub-metered facilities (one main ECG meter + per-block sub-meters), log all sub-meter readings on the same date. The system reconciles the sub-meter sum against the main meter to surface any leakage.

Allocate to invoices

Settings → Utilities → Allocation Rules: - Direct pass-through — sub-meter readings post directly to the unit's invoice for the relevant period. - Pro-rata — main-meter cost split across units by floor area / bedroom count / fixed allocation. - Mixed — common areas pro-rata, units direct.

The system runs the allocation when you generate the cycle's invoices.

Alerts

Utilities → Alerts flags: - A meter reading well above the unit's running average (potential leak / fault) - A meter reading below average (potential bypass / theft) - A meter not read this cycle - Sub-meter sum < main meter (leakage > threshold)

Each alert links to the relevant meter and the historical readings.

Reports

  • Consumption trends per utility per month
  • Cost analysis (utility cost as % of total expenses)
  • Anomalies (units with consumption > 2 standard deviations from type-average — useful for spotting failed appliances or unauthorized occupants)
  • Loss analysis (sub-meter sum vs main meter reconciliation)

Tips

  • Read on the same day every month — keeps consumption windows consistent and makes comparisons meaningful.
  • Photograph meter faces — disputes about "did you really get 245 units?" go away when you have a date-stamped photo.
  • Set alert thresholds tight — better a false-positive on a high-usage month than missing a 30,000-unit leak that ran undetected for 60 days.
  • Reconcile main vs sub-meters monthly — leakage is the silent killer of facility budgets in Ghana. Catching a 10% loss takes 5 minutes; ignoring it for a year costs you a generator's worth of fuel.
  • Talk to your CautaReside operator about smart-meter integration if you have lots of sub-meters — manual reads are tedious; some modern meters push readings automatically over LoRaWAN or 4G.