SAP Implementation Technical Bulletin Bulletin 20160… · SAP Implementation Technical Bulletin 5...

SAP Implementation Technical Bulletin

1 Budget Plan Changes - March 16, 2016

Utility Combined Billing – Budget Plan Changes (Update #6) Impacts both New York and Pennsylvania Upon implementation of National Fuel’s new billing system, budget billing plans (“Budget Plans”) for ESCO/NGS customers will be consolidated into one plan. National Fuel will no longer require separate Budget Plans for supply (ESCO/NGS charges) and delivery (National Fuel charges) for customers billed under the Utility Consolidated Billing (UCB) Model. Payments to ESCOs/NGSs for customers participating under Purchase of Receivables (“POR”) programs will be based upon the billed amount rather than the current practice of basing the payment upon the supplier budgeted amount. The Company will administer the Budget Plan program, e.g. set the budget amount, directly with the customer. As a result, ESCOs/NGSs will no longer be permitted to set Budget Plan amounts, send review indicators or remove their customers from the plan via EDI Enrollment and Change transactions. Customers must contact the Company to leave Budget Billing. ESCOs/NGSs will still have the ability to add their customers to the Budget Plan and obtain a customer’s Budget Plan Status via EDI.1 For the relatively small number of ESCO/NGS Budget Plan customers not covered by POR programs, the impact of conversion to the new consolidated Budget Plan differs. First, as with the current Budget Plan, the pay-as-you-get-paid logic remains in place; ESCOs/NGSs will not be paid until the Company has been paid. Additionally, rather than being based upon the billed amount, payments to ESCOs/NGSs will reflect the payment order rules for the state in which the customer is located. There are three Budget Plan Conversion scenarios:

Customers currently receiving UCB bills with both supply and delivery Budget Plans will automatically be enrolled in the new consolidated Budget Plan.

Where the customer currently has a Budget Plan for the supply charges but not for the delivery charges, the customer will also be enrolled in the delivery Budget Plan and at conversion, will be enrolled in the new Budget Plan.2

1 Pennsylvania NGSs that do not use EDI may use the Company’s web site to obtain a customer’s budget plan

status or add a customer to the program. 2 In early 2015, delivery Budget Plans were added for ESCO/NGS customers that had supply Budget Plans without

delivery Budget Plans. This process will continue, as ESCOs/NGSs add customers to supply Budget Plans, up until conversion to the new billing system.



Where the customer has a Budget Plan for the delivery charges but not for the supply charges, the current delivery Budget Plan will be settled and the customer will not be enrolled in the new Budget Plan.

In any case, if customers wish to be added to the new Budget Plan they can contact the Company directly or enroll through the Company’s web site at: http://nationalfuelgas.com/forhome/paymentoptions.aspx#budgetplan Additionally, if a customer contacts an ESCO/NGS and asks to be added to the new Budget Plan, the ESCO/NGS can add an existing customer in the budget plan using an EDI 814 Change transaction3 or enroll a new customer in the budget plan using an EDI 814 Enrollment transaction. All ESCO/NGS Budget Plans will be settled during the month prior to implementation in preparation for conversion to the new billing system’s Budget Plan. Remaining credit/debit balances between the supplier budgeted amount and the billed amount will be sent to the ESCO/NGS and any balance still owed by the customer will be transferred into the customer’s consolidated plan. Questions concerning Budget Plans should be directed to Transportation Services at (716) 857-7432 or by email: [email protected].

3 Non-EDI suppliers may add their customers to the new Budget Plan by utilizing the Billing Options Update

transaction on the Services For Marketers, Producers & Suppliers web page.

http://nationalfuelgas.com/forhome/paymentoptions.aspx#budgetplan



EDI Matters In general, the ESCO/NGS Budget Plan functionality is being eliminated as a part of the new consolidated Budget Plan and the associated segments/code values with the EDI transactions pertaining to Budget Plans will no longer be supported. There are some exceptions to the general rule, for example the syntax used to add a customer to the Budget Plan in an 814C or 814E EDI transaction is unchanged. Additionally, non-POR Budget Plan accounts will continue to default to “No” for late payment charges.4 The most significant changes (applicable to both the both the 814C and 814E EDI transactions unless noted otherwise) are as follows:

In the segment REF Reference Identification (Current Budget Billing Status), a request to add a customer to an ESCO/NGS Budget Plan REF~NR~Y will add the customer to the new consolidated plan. Similarly, an Enrollment Accept Response with REF~NR~Y not only indicates that the customer being enrolled is on budget billing for the Utility charges, but also for ESCO/NGS charges.

The AMT Monetary Amount (ESCO Budget Plan Installment Amount) segment will not be required/supported because under a consolidated Budget Plan, there is no ESCO Budget Plan amount. Since a request such as AMT~B5~100 will not be necessary, responses will not be provided.

The REF Reference Identification (ESCO Late Fees) segment will not be supported since under a consolidated Budget Plan all supply and delivery charges can be assessed late fees.

For customers covered by POR, the AMT Monetary Amount (ESCO Budget Plan Balance) segment the 814E EDI transaction will not be supported.

4 As is the current practice for non-POR Budget Plan customers, ESCOs/NGSs will be able to enable the Company’s

standard late payment charge calculation.



Web (non-EDI) Entry Pennsylvania NGSs that do not use EDI and grandfathered New York Direct Customers may enter UCB enrolled customers into the new consolidated Budget Plan via web entry screens by utilizing the Billing Options Update transaction on the Services For Marketers, Producers & Suppliers web page at: http://nationalfuelgas.com/marketers/default.aspx .

A more detailed explanation of Web (non-EDI) Entry will be provided in a subsequent technical bulletin.

http://nationalfuelgas.com/marketers/default.aspx



Web File (non-EDI) Matters

The Company provides three files (hereinafter, “web files”)5 that may be used to verify customer Budget Plan status which are accessible from the Supplier / Customer Download Files link on the Services For Marketers, Producers & Suppliers web page at: http://nationalfuelgas.com/marketers/default.aspx

5 Some web files may not be ready at go-live. As necessary, workaround solutions will be provided until the web

files are available.




The first file (available only to non-EDI suppliers), provided in response to a successful enrollment, shows the customer’s Budget Plan Status at the time of enrollment by an ESCO/NGS.

Revised File Layout – New customers – general customer information

(STBA/SATS – file A0)

Current Layout New Layout

Marketer id 7 ch Marketer id 7 ch

Aggregation group id 9 ch Aggregation group id 9 ch

Ratepayer billing id (RBA) 7 ch Ratepayer billing id (RBA) 9 ch

Cust last name 20 ch Cust last name 20 ch

Cust first name 12 ch Cust first name 12 ch

Cust middle initial 1 ch Cust middle initial 1 ch

Premises Address 80 ch Premises Address 80 ch

Mail address 1 35 ch Mail address 1 35 ch

Mail address 2 35 ch Mail address 2 35 ch

Mail zip code 9 ch Mail zip code 9 ch

State code 2 ch State code 2 ch

County code 2 ch County code 2 ch

County name 15 ch County name 15 ch

Town code 4 ch Town code 4 ch

Town name 25 ch Town name 25 ch

School district code 4 ch School district code 4 ch

School district name 15 ch School district name 15 ch

Revenue class 2 ch Revenue class 2 ch

Budget plan yes/no 1 ch Budget plan yes/no 1 ch

Direct pay yes/no 1 ch Direct pay yes/no 1 ch

County slstx exempt rate 7 ch (-1.4) Removed

School slstx exempt rate 7 ch (-1.4) Removed

State slstx exempt rate 7 ch (-1.4) Removed

Town slstx exempt rate 7 ch (-1.4) Removed

Service class 2 ch Service class 2 ch

Billing control 2 ch Billing control 2 ch

Billing control effective date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Billing control effective date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Account baseload 7 ch Account baseload 7 ch

Account degree day factor 9 ch (5.3) Account degree day factor 9 ch (5.3)

NEW>>> Sales Tax Exempt 1 ch

NEW>>> ESCO Provided Sales Tax Rate 6 ch (1.4)



The second file provided by NFGDC, the Aggregation Group Assignment Report, is the customer list by group and is reflective of the NFGDC billing database. The Budget Plan Indicator is also available in this file and is available as a report for online viewing (file T0) and a file for downloading (file J0).

Revised File Layout – Aggregation Group Assignments File

(file J0)




Assignment status code 1 ch Assignment status code 1 ch


Assignment start reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment start reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Assignment start billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment start billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Assignment end reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment end reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Assignment end billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment end billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Customer last name 20 ch Customer last name 20 ch

Customer first name 12 ch Customer first name 12 ch

Customer middle initial 1 ch Customer middle initial 1 ch


Service class 2 ch Removed

Check digit 2 ch Removed

Marketer Rate Code 2 ch (12

occurrences) Marketer Rate Code 2 ch (12

occurrences)

Marketer Rate Effective Dates 8 ch (12

occurrences) Marketer Rate Effective Dates 8 ch (12

occurrences)

Marketer Late Payment Code 2 ch Marketer Late Payment Code 1 ch

Marketer Budget Plan Indicator 1 ch Budget Plan Indicator 1 ch

Marketer Budget Plan Indicator Chg Date 8 ch Removed

Budget Plan Current Balance 11 ch Removed

Budget Plan Monthly Payment Amount 7 ch Removed

Current Service Class 2 ch Current Service Class 2 ch

County Code 2 ch County Code 2 ch

County sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (numeric

1.4) Removed

School district sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (numeric

1.4) Removed

State sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (numeric

1.4) Removed

Town sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (numeric

1.4) Removed

Town Code 4 ch Town Code 4 ch

School District Code 4 ch School District Code 4 ch

Capacity Release Indicator 1 ch Capacity Release Indicator 1 ch

Current Bill Control Number 2 ch Current Bill Control Number 2 ch

NEW>>> Sales Tax Exempt Indicator 1 ch

NEW>>> ESCO Provided Sales Tax Rate 1.4 ch



The third file provided by NFGDC, the Daily Aggregation Assignment Changes, is the customer detailed change list by group and is reflective of the NFGDC billing database. This information is available as a file for downloading (file J1).

Revised File Layout – Daily Aggregation Assignment Change File

(file J1)




Assignment status code 1 ch Assignment status code 1 ch


Assignment start reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment start reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Assignment start billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment start billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Assignment end reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment end reference date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Assignment end billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd) Assignment end billing date 8 ch

(yyyymmdd)

Customer last name 20 ch Customer last name 20 ch

Customer first name 12 ch Customer first name 12 ch

Customer middle initial 1 ch Customer middle initial 1 ch


Service class 2 ch Removed

Check digit 2 ch Removed

Marketer Rate Code 2 ch (12

occurrences) Marketer Rate Code 2 ch (12

occurrences)

Marketer Rate Effective Dates 8 ch (12

occurrences) Marketer Rate Effective Dates 8 ch (12

occurrences)

Marketer Late Payment Code 2 ch Marketer Late Payment Code 1 ch

Marketer Budget Plan Indicator 1 ch Budget Plan Indicator 1 ch

Marketer Budget Plan Indicator Chg Date 8 ch Removed

Budget Plan Current Balance 11 ch Removed

Budget Plan Monthly Payment Amount 7 ch Removed

Current Service Class 2 ch Current Service Class 2 ch

County Code 2 ch County Code 2 ch

County sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (1.4) Removed

School district sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (1.4) Removed

State sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (1.4) Removed

Town sales tax exempt rate 6 ch (1.4) Removed

Town Code 4 ch Town Code 4 ch

School District Code 4 ch School District Code 4 ch

Capacity Release Indicator 1 ch Capacity Release Indicator 1 ch

Current Bill Control Number 2 ch Current Bill Control Number 2 ch

NEW>>> Sales Tax Exempt 1 ch

NEW>>> ESCO Provided Sales Tax Rate 6 ch (1.4)



Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 1) Ignoring the POR discount rate, suppose a Budget Plan customer currently has a delivery

plan amount of $50 and a supplier plan amount of $60. Further suppose the supplier provides $70 of supply service. Will the amount paid to the supplier be different?

Under the current billing system, the ESCO/NGS is paid $60 each month. Under the new billing system, the ESCO/NGS will be paid $70. 2) Presuming the same Budget Plan amounts in the question above, if the supplier provides

$50 of supply service, will the amount paid to the supplier be different? Yes - Under the new billing system, the ESCO/NGS will be paid $50. 3) Under the new Budget Plan, suppose a non-POR Customer uses $55 of delivery and $65 of

supply (total $120) and the budget amount is $100. Also assume no initial balance and that the customer pays the budget amount. What will be the amount paid to the ESCO in New York?

Based upon New York’s payment order, the calculation would be ($100*65/120) and the ESCO will be paid $54.17. 4) Presuming the same amounts as above, what amount would be paid in Pennsylvania? Based upon Pennsylvania’s payment order, the calculation would be ($100 - $55) and the ESCO will be paid $45. 5) Can an ESCO/NGS customer verify a customer’s Budget Plan status without using EDI? NFGDC provides 3 web files that may be used by the ESCO/NGS to verify a customer’s Budget Plan status. These files are accessible from the Supplier / Customer Download Files link on the Services For Marketers, Producers & Suppliers web page at: http://nationalfuelgas.com/marketers/default.aspx. For further details, see the Web File (non-EDI) Matters discussion above. 6) Suppose an ESCO/NGS has a customer that currently has a supply Budget Plan but no

delivery Budget Plan. Will the customer be automatically transferred into a consolidated Budget Plan?

Yes – the customer will be enrolled in the delivery Budget Plan prior to implementation and be enrolled into the New Budget Plan at cutover.




7) Suppose an ESCO/NGS has a customer that currently has a delivery Budget Plan but no supply Budget Plan. Will the customer be automatically transferred into a consolidated Budget Plan?

No – the customer’s delivery plan will be closed and settled prior to implementation of the new billing system. If the customer wants to be enrolled in a new Budget Plan, they should contact the Company directly or the ESCO/NGS can submit an 814 Change transaction after implementation to enroll the customer. 8) What happens to the customer balance on the ESCO/NGS’s supply Budget Plan when the

new billing system is implemented? Will the balance due to/from the customer be automatically transferred into a consolidated Budget Plan?

No – the customer’s supply Budget Plan will be closed and settled with the ESCO/NGS; any resulting credits/debits will be sent to the ESCO/NGS. After settlement with the ESCO/NGS, the customer’s resulting credit/debit will be transferred into the consolidated Budget Plan as a balance due to/from the Company and added to the delivery Budget Plan balance. 9) What happens to the customer balance on the delivery Budget Plan when the new billing

system is implemented? Will the balance due to/from the customer be automatically transferred into a consolidated Budget Plan?

Yes. 10) When the new billing system is implemented, how will the customer’s consolidated Budget

Plan amount be calculated? At implementation, the customer’s Budget Plan amount will be the sum of the previous supply and delivery Budget Plan amounts. 11) When the new billing system is implemented, will the customer’s balancing month change? At implementation, if the customer has different balancing months for their supply and delivery Budget Plans, the consolidated Budget Plan balancing Month will be the latter of the two months. 12) Will there be any changes to the EDI 810 data? For example, currently if a customer is set

up on budget plan for their supply, the budget billing charges come across in the 810 invoice and then an 820 EDI payment is provided for that budget amount. How will those transactions change when ESCOs/NGSs are be paid based on billed amount rather than the budget amount? Will the budget information still be sent in the 810 filed?



After implementation, the budget plan amounts will no longer be provided in the 810. From an EDI perspective, the transaction should look no different than had the customer not been on the budget plan. 13) Will we be able to receive test files for any changes? Yes. 14) Suppose an ESCO/NGS currently bills its customer directly and offers a budget plan. If the

customer is switched into UCB and enrolled in the Budget Plan, can a balance due to the customer be transferred into the new plan?

The Company’s preference is that the ESCO/NGS directly refund the customer; however, the balance can be manually processed as a payment to the customer’s account. If this is the customer’s preference, the ESCO/NGS should contact Transportation Billing to make such arrangements. 15) Suppose an ESCO/NGS currently bills its customer directly and offers a budget plan. If the

customer is switched into UCB and enrolled in the Budget Plan, can a balance due from the customer be transferred into the new plan?

No – as is the current practice, the ESCO/NGS is responsible for pursuing its receivable directly from the customer. 16) Will ESCOs/NGSs be sent a list of accounts with marketer budget plans that will be closed

prior to cutover? No but the ESCO/NGS can download the J0 web file about a month prior to cutover to get a list of accounts where the field Marketer Budget Plan Indicator is set to “Y”. Additionally, as marketer budget plans are closed, the daily J1 web file will show which customers were impacted. Additionally, an 814C EDI transaction will be sent to the ESCO/NGS to record this change. 17) Will there be any changes on the customer’s bill to reflect the new budget plan? The change to the customer’s bill will be subtle. After cutover, the marketer budget plan payment and balance will no longer be shown because it will be consolidated in to the Company budget plan payment and balance. 18) Does the customer receive any special notification on its bill when the marketer budget plan

is closed? No. Depending upon the circumstances (discussed above) the customer could receive a refund but in most cases, the only change apparent to the customer will be the consolidated balance.



19) With the scheduled “go-live” date of May 9, 2016 will the current customer budget billing plans be settled in April? If so, on what date will the settlement (budget true-up) process start?

Yes – this process is scheduled to start on April 5th. 20) Will a list of customers and the day of the true-up be provided? No but the Aggregation Group Assignment Report (web file J0) can be used to monitor the process (see above). The ESCO/NGS should presume that all customers with Budget Plan Indicator = “Y” will be settled prior to May 9, 2016. The Current Bill Control Number field can be used to approximate the true-up date and sequence in which customers will be settled. Starting before April 5th, the ESCO/NGS should monitor changes in the J0 file each day. Each customers Budget Plan Indicator will be set to “N” prior to “go-live” so tracking 814C changes and web file J1 will provide a measure/record of the budget true-up process. 21) Are customers that are on budget billing aware that their accounts are getting trued-up

next month? No – the process is designed to be seamless. Any balance due to the customer or due from the Company will be rolled into the new combined Company Budget Plan. There will however be a bill message on the customer's first post “go-live” bill advising them of the minor, cosmetic change to the Budget Plan Summary section of their bill which is a result of combining the Budget Plans.

SAP Implementation Technical Bulletin Bulletin 20160… · SAP Implementation Technical Bulletin 5...

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