Juice 4.X User Manual

Navigating a new system is one of the biggest hurdles to becoming an expert with that system.

The Juice prepayment platform allows customers to take control over their electric service. Meter connections and disconnections are automated and conducted based on utility policy.

Juice functions are available using an icon, tab or button to access that function. Visibility and access to these links vary by system role and deployment.

Accounts will be one of the most commonly dfd interfaces in the system. Access is available with either the Accounts link or Accounts icon depending on the menu.

Simple 'string' searches may not be enough to find the right customer. Giving you tools to find the right customer the first time, the search box will accept special characters.

Engineering teams will often need to manage meters and record physical changes to the network.

In Juice the term vendors is used for groups and individuals. Specific groups (stores, regions, or shifts) can be described as a vendor group or the entire organization may be configured as a vendor. This is left to the utility and system administrator's discretion.

Reports are pulled from Juice data live. If needed, data can be pre-processed to allow even faster reporting.

System users are non-customers that have access to the system, including utility staff as well as outside vendors. All staff needing to use Juice should have a personal login defined by the system administrator. System user can found using the Search System Users link.

Several special functions will be available from the cogs menu including system user management.

Every deployment should have a trusted individual with the ability to create and manage system users. This access will make it extremely important for this person to understand how different functions and roles in Juice interact to best provide the right tools and access to other team members.

Juice has been deployed and is live in four languages. Due to regional differences we fine tune each installation when issues arise.

Unlike postpaid systems, where invoices are issued after usage has taken place, prepayment requires we know the tariff ahead of time. By definition, STS prepayment converts money into kWh units when generating a token. It will be critical to have the tariff configured correctly. Since tariff structures vary from country to country we have made them highly configurable.

One of Juice's main functions is to convert money into energy. In order to transact and support multiple currencies, Juice will require all new installation to create a currency.

Fees can be added to customer accounts as arrears. Please keep in mind; while it may not be a legal issue, it increases customer confidence when fees are published publicly. People are less willing to pay when they feel cheated. Any debt incurred by the customer should be added to the account as an arrears.

Taxes are managed in Juice internally; they should be reviewed and updated as needed.

Over the years, commercial teams using Juice found themselves in a position where they needed to adjust customer accounts. With the Bulk Account Adjustments tool, you can create batches of customer adjustments at any time.

How Juice a trinity refers to a location, a meter, and a customer depends on how they are connected.

In Juice the physical point of connection is called a 'Location.' Locations are part of a Utility's infrastructure, they are just as important as the lines and poles.

In Juice the meter is called a 'Meter.' They can be used to measure kWh, kL, or any other service.

Customer on boarding will vary by installation and possibly by account type. This is a general overview which will show core Juice concepts that should be considered during on boarding.

Meter and locations are typically paired and will remain a pair before, during, and after a customer has moved in. They only considered part of a trinity when assigned to a customer.

Most installations will have meters and locations paired. If that's the case the only thing needed to make a trinity is create a new customer and assign them a paired location and meter. If the customer is already in the system and just needs a new location to be assigned, the same steps can be used.

Some deployments may also include a flat file customer import and update feature. This feature includes a tool that imports .csv files using defined column names. After being imported, this data is used to create new customer, meter, and location records in the system. If the information already exists, these records may be updated. Batch updates are not recommended on a production system.

In an active customer account, system users will have the ability to edit and control the customer's account profile.

While these options will vary by user and deployment, the actions covered in the tabs are important conceptually to Juice

A fundamental function of Juice is to convert money to energy. The wallet allows Juice to store and track customer funds. Customer can also use to wallet to transact online or via mobile.

Juice accounts have a wallet balance that can be used for currency, but in some installations a unit balance may be more useful. It's designed to be used with AMI meters but does not require a meter.

Some utilities may require customers to pay a deposit for a variety of reasons. Deposits may have an interest applied, Juice will track this rate once configured. This is a separate group of funds from the wallet and will have different accounting.

Customers may have multiple meters assigned; under usage you will be able to view the selected meter's usage. For postpaid customers, there will be an obvious link with the Arrears tab. For prepaid customers arrears may be used to display minimum charges or legacy arrears. Both tabs will be useful when reviewing a customer's financial history.

Control tabs will allow management of relationships to and from the account. For example, multiple meters may belong to one customer; those meters may be assigned directly using the control tab.

Juice will have several documents generated for a customer on a regular basis. For easy access all messages, receipts, and statements will be available under the Docs tab.

Juice will have fixed charges available for invoicing; these will be configured at system deployment. Fixed charges may be used for goods or services available to customer, including 3rd party services.

Juice has the ability to service different customer configurations, including post paid. This will work well with AMI meters, not so much with token-based STS meters.

Customer may have a contract with the utility to describe the service if the tariff does not have all the business logic need to describe the customer.

Depending on job role and deployment these tabs may not be available to all users.

Juice's main function is to turn cash into power.

Quick Pay is a term used in Juice for buying power. Sometimes it's just called 'QP'

Quick Pay is a term used in Juice for buying power. It's normally used for cash transactions but other payment methods are also available.

Juice Cards provide functionality similar to prepaid phone scratch-off cards used around the world. This article does not describe the business process of ordering Juice Cards in detail as that may vary. Generally, Utiliflex will receive a purchase order for Juice cards and will generate a unique Juice card entries. This batched information is sent to a trusted printer along with card art. The physical cards are then delivered to the utility ready to be distributed locally.

We have a special system used to generate Juice card numbers. While the capacity to create these numbers is within Juice, it is not a normal menu item and we restrict it's access.

Vendor groups should have at least one person in charge of managing users and able to represent the vendor group commercially.

Vendors, both internal and external, will be responsible for collecting cash from prepaid customers. Reporting cash and collecting cash from vendors will be a daily process in most installations. Some vendor configurations may not need this step or may need automated collection and reporting. Please let your project/commercial manager know so we can implement this process where appropriate.

Transaction records are used for most commercial activity in Juice. Of course a few exceptions, such as creating arrears, exist. This section will explain common features of a transaction entry and expected values.

To help address the complex nature of a prepaid transaction, reversals allow commercial staff to address the various interactions related to a financial transaction in Juice.

Juice collects, stores, and organizes system data, like customer info, usage patterns, and more. Juice reports allow users to review data across the system from a single starting point. Juice reports may be customized per installation. If you have a business need for a specific report, feel free to email the Utiliflex support team.

Engineering will have very specific access to an account. This access will be useful for adding or removing a meter or location to an account. All of the below steps will be accessed from the manager account screen under the Control tab.

In Juice a meter is assigned to a location and a customer. This grouping is referred to as a trinity. When it's being broken up there are several cases possible, such as a customer moving to a new home. In that case the meter and location will remain paired and the customer will have the same account with a new meter and location pair.

In Juice, the meter is installed and removed from the location. This can be done under the manage location screen in the control tab.

Often the Engineering team will need to manage meters individually due to a wide array of reasons. These options will normally generate a token that needs to be manually entered into the meter. All of the utilities here will be found in the manage meter screen under the control tab.

Often the Engineering team will need to manage meters individually due to a wide array of reasons. These options will normally communicate with the meter. Response time will normally depend on server to meter communications, not Juice. (This means double clicking and/or reloading the page will not help.) All of the utilities here will be found in the manage meter screen under the control tab.

To better manage customers and to facilitate the collection process, Juice has a customizable disconnection schedule with clearly defined logic to ensure a hassle-free prepaid experience for customers and the utility.

Juice allows Engineering teams to parameterize disconnections, send batch commands, and review system status for AMI head end(s).

Meter installation dates can be recorded in Juice. This will allow better reporting for customer installation and can be used for low usage analysis to reduce losses.

The Juice Prepayment platform's architecture is FOSS (free and open source software) which is intended to provide a robust, highly technical system with reduced implementation and licencing cost. Utiliflex has extensive experience working with FOSS and can provide full support for the Juice Prepayment platform.

This section covers general server info and operating system tips.

Seed is an external Juice app that provides a smartphone and computer interface for customers.

External vendors (3rd party vendors or utility vendors not on LAN) may use the vend portal for transactions and account look up.