UtilityAPI makes it easy for you to collect utility data from your customer's utility account and associated meters linked to our platform. Follow these three steps to receive your customer's approval and get the data you need today!
1. Send your customer an authorization link
Make it easy for your customers to approve sharing access to their utility data by sending them your authorization form in a way that works best for them.
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Email – Add the link in an upcoming email to your customer.
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Text Message – Send the link via text to your customer.
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In-Person – Pull up the link on your device during a site visit for immediate authorization.
By default, your authorization form will automatically display your company name. To add credibility and increase your authorization form's completion rate, upload your company's logo.
2. Your customer authorizes
When your customer receives the authorization form, they'll need to complete the form by:
- Entering their email address;
- Selecting their utility;
- Entering their utility login account credentials (or other available authorization mechanism);
- Clicking the "Authorize access" button.
The information entered into the authorization form allows us to send your customer an authorization receipt and link their utility account to our platform. All information entered into the authorization form is securely stored and encrypted.
3. Pick the meters you need data from and get it
After your customer completes the authorization form, we will notify you via email and automatically add your customer's utility account to your dashboard. Each utility account added will have a list of utility meters and a set of data, including information about the customer's utility rate associated with them. We call this data Meter Data and provide it to you free of charge.
From this list of meters, you need to identify which meter you want an additional Bill or Interval Date from. Once you've identified that meter or meters, complete the following steps:
- Click the blue "Get Data" button to open your data duration window;
- Confirm the number of months of data you need to collect. Note that all data durations are set to 12 months by default, but you can change that at any time.
- Click the "Get Data" button again to start the data collection process.
- While we collect data, the button will say, "Collecting," when the collection is finished, the button will turn green and say, "See Data."
That's it; you've completed your collection of customer utility data. Remember, the first collection of data each month is free, and if your account is enrolled in Duration Based Pricing, 1 month of data only costs $1.50.
If you want to complete these same actions via our API, you can check out our Quickstart guide in our API docs.