All Guardian utility management services, whether delivered online or in traditional paper format, are powered by Guardian Soft+
®, our proprietary billing and account management software.
Guardian utility billing practices comply with Federal, State and local submetering regulations, and our bill formats provide easy-to-understand information that helps residents control their utility costs. Monthly billing statements also include line item options for rent, refuse, cable and condominium fees.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. At guardian, we provide the tools you need to manage and control your utility expenses. Tools like Guardian Scan+®, an exclusive online information service, which lets property managers proactively respond to water leaks and vacancy heat losses on a daily basis.
Property managers have 24/7 online access to current and historic billing information and can easily manage resident account records, including occupancy updates and final bills.
Service Components and Applications
Guardian Soft+®
Guardian Soft+® billing and management information software is built on 27 years of learning, learning what works and doesn’t work in the multifamily utility cost recovery industry. Guardian software provides our clients with online interactive real-time information designed to maximize recovery of utility costs in apartments, shopping centers, manufactured housing communities and other mastered-metered properties.
Guardian Link+®
Guardian Link+® service saves time and improves utility management services for residential and commercial properties by providing meter reading data, volumetric consumption data, and utility billing information on portable electronic media and via electronic transmission. Through this service, our data exchange software module establishes an electronic link between Guardian Soft+® and most property management software programs including Yardi, OneSite and Rent Manager.
Guardian Scan+®
Guardian Scan+® information service provides our clients with 24/7 access to daily meter readings and consumption for each apartment unit. Click here to learn more about Scan+®.
Independent Billing Rates
Many billing services artificially force the total charges billed to residents to equal the master bill*. This approach is simple, easy to administer and requires no understanding of the underlying tariff. Is this right approach for your property? We don't think so.
First, since the amount billed to residents exactly equals the amount shown on the master utility bill, there is no way to independently verify that the utility is using the correct rate for your property. Utilities often make mistakes in setting up property billing rates. And these mistakes can result in ongoing, undetected overcharges. Click here to read about one owner’s experience.
Second, underground and internal water leaks remain undetected when resident charges are forced to equal the master charges. Since the master bill includes the costs associated with water leaks, residents may be charged for water that did not flow through their meter.
Third, if submeters in any unit are not working, the cost of water usage in those units is passed along to all other residents whose meters are working.
Our approach to rate development is threefold:
1. Understand the local tariff.
2. Test our understanding of the tariff by replicating the master utility bill.
3. Create a property-specific billing rate that conforms to the tariff.
Property-specific billing rates leverage the cost saving potential of submetering, maximize recovery of utility costs and produce resident bills that accurately reflect actual usage.
Utility Applications
- Water
- Gas
- Heat Cost Allocation
- Boiler/Chiller System
- Hydronic Heating & Cooling Systems
- Electric
- RUBS Allocation Billing
- Vacancy Cost Recovery
Property Applications
- Apartments
- Condominiums
- Campus Housing
- Retirement Communities
- Manufactured Housing Communities
- Life Style Communities
- Shopping Centers
- Warehouse Facilities
- Offices
* One way to force the amounts to equal is to divide the master utility charges by the total cubic feet of usage measured by all the submeters. This number becomes the “billing rate” which is then multiplied by each resident’s usage. In this way, the sum of all resident billings is forced to equal the master charges