"s" writes:
I am working out a way to make sure they tally up, i.e. that i am not
paying the same consumption twice.

i have went over my last few bills and found various complications. i
have received bill s for estimated consumption, & acutal consumption,
for periods of variying numbers of days with dates which overlap.

does anyone here bother to check their bills? do you use some kind of
software or excel sheet to do it?

If you're worried about this, call in an actual meter reading every
billing period.

So long as they do an actual read every couple of months, I can't
imagine a utility's software so screwed up that they'd double charge
you even if dates overlap. The estimated usage routines in software
estimates a meter read, and bill estimated cosumption based on that
then the next actual meter read should make everything square for
y'all.

If an actual read ends up to be less than the previous estimated meter
read, you would end up with a credit.

Software wise, it's trivial, so I'd have a tough time worrying about a
utility screwing that up. Screwing up the meter reads or estimates
is always possible, but if a bill comes that's way out of wack, just
compare your meter to the estimated meter read, and go about your
day.

Where you can get screwed is estimates of final or initial reads when
you take over a premises, or if the meter is faulty.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/