What is Meter Reading Software?

Definition

Meter reading software is a technology for collecting consumption data from water, gas, or electric metering and submetering devices and transferring said data to a central database for analyzing and billing.

Why it Matters

Many commercial properties, particularly offices and retail, receive one large utility bill each month for the entire building and it is up to the landlord to divvy the costs up among tenants. Some properties still do this process based on a square footage model, but that is not fair to tenants, who may have significantly different consumption amounts.

As such, submeters are installed to measure individual tenant consumption. The process of reading these meters each month is often done on clipboards, transcribed into spreadsheets and then to accounting where bills are generated. Meter reading software helps to digitize this process, eliminate human error, speed up recovery and unlock analytics.