Solution 03
Pilot audits utility and supplier invoices line by line against the contracts you signed and the tariffs that govern them. Across our book, we find recoverable savings on about 7 in 10 audits we run — averaging 10% of the invoiced amounts they apply to. Refunds, rate corrections, tariff opportunities, and contract enforcement.
Why it matters
The invoice you pay each month is generated by a billing system that doesn't know what contract you signed, doesn't always know what tariff you qualify for, and doesn't reconcile retroactively when something changes. Errors compound. Most of them favor the supplier or the utility. Almost none of them resolve themselves.
FAILURE MODE 01
Negotiated rates, bandwidth allowances, and pass-through definitions don't always make it from the contract into the utility's billing system. The bill comes from a system that doesn't read your contract.
FAILURE MODE 02
Most commercial accounts qualify for multiple tariffs. Utilities default-assign based on incomplete information and rarely revisit. Wrong schedule, wrong price, year after year.
FAILURE MODE 03
Capacity, ancillaries, and transmission pass-through lines are the fastest-growing and least-audited charges on most bills. The utility calculates; nobody verifies.
FAILURE MODE 04
Most utilities and suppliers will refund documented errors — but the recovery window is finite. Errors caught two years later are often unrecoverable. Time is the silent cost.
What we do
What the bill says vs. what the contract requires.
Line-by-line reconciliation of every invoice against the governing contract and applicable tariff. Pilot audits rate accuracy, demand calculations, capacity passthroughs, ancillary line items, tax categorization, and meter multiplier application. When the bill doesn't match, we document it and recover.
Putting the account on the right tariff.
Most commercial accounts qualify for multiple utility tariffs but sit on one — chosen years ago, sometimes for reasons no one remembers. Pilot evaluates every eligible schedule against actual usage data, identifies the right one, and files the switch. Same load, lower bill.
Recovering what was already overpaid.
When an audit surfaces a billing error, the work isn't done — the refund still has to be claimed, documented, and pursued. Pilot handles the recovery process end-to-end: claim filing, dispute resolution, escalation when needed, and confirmation when the credit appears.
Track record
Some audits find nothing. Some find more than 40%. The averages above are at portfolio scale across 25 years of engagements. The math that matters internally: roughly 7% expected savings on invoiced amounts, on average, across all audits we run.
Engagement fit
Pilot runs invoice verification across the full portfolio continuously. Every bill audited monthly. Tariff opportunities surfaced as they emerge. Refunds claimed and recovered without internal involvement.
More on Turnkey →Pilot runs invoice verification as a defined scope service. Common pattern: client retains procurement and ops; Pilot owns audit, tariff analysis, and refund recovery. Standalone or as part of a broader Co-Managed engagement.
More on Co-Managed Advisory →Coverage in regulated markets: Invoice verification & tariff analysis is one of two solutions we run in regulated markets (decarbonization is the other). Standalone engagements available wherever utility billing exists.
What you get
Every invoice verification engagement produces the same structural artifacts. Specifics depend on what the audit surfaces — but at portfolio scale, about 7 in 10 audits return recoverable savings averaging 10% of the invoiced amounts where they apply.
Within the first 30 days: 12 months of invoices reviewed against contracts and tariffs. Issues categorized: billing errors, rate-switch opportunities, contract-enforcement gaps, refund-eligible items.
Every bill, every site, audited monthly. Discrepancies flagged within the recovery window. Exception report delivered to finance.
Eligibility evaluation across all applicable schedules. Recommendation for tariff switches with projected annualized savings. Filing handled by Pilot.
Every refund claim tracked from filing through credit. Dispute resolution managed by Pilot. Status visible in PowerUp at any time.
Cumulative summary: errors caught, refunds recovered, tariff switches filed, ongoing rate optimization. Built for board and audit-committee distribution.
Real-time visibility into invoices, audit findings, refund status, and rate optimization opportunities. Same dashboard your Pilot advocates work from.
Related solutions
Invoice verification often runs as a standalone engagement, but it pairs especially well with procurement (audit + buy) and utility bill pay (audit + pay). The Pilot bundle that catches everything from rate optimization to error recovery to payment reconciliation.
Solution 01
Audit catches what the contract missed. Procurement makes sure the next contract doesn't miss the same things.
Procurement →Solution 06
Audit and pay, one workflow. Errors caught before payment, refunds reconciled into the next cycle.
Utility Bill Pay →Solution 04
Capacity tag exposure is one of the largest unaudited cost categories. Audit + load strategy = full control of the demand-side bill.
Load Management →Solution 08
Invoice audit finds what you're overpaying. ASHRAE audit finds what you could stop consuming.
ASHRAE Audits →Talk to Pilot
Send us 12 months of utility invoices for one site. We'll return an audit summary showing what we'd find at portfolio scale — typical issues, refund potential, tariff opportunities. No commitment to engage; the sample audit is on us.