Meter readings are used by BMS to calculate billing charges for assets such as copiers and printers that bill by page count.
Navigate to Billing → Assets to access the meter entry options, or use Manage Meters → Send Meter Requests on the Billings screen's Open tab to chase outstanding readings.
Entering Meters for a Single Asset
To enter a meter reading for one asset, navigate to Billing → Assets and click Enter Transaction Meters (the same screen is also the Enter Meters item in the Billing nav). Search for the asset by its serial number. Once the asset is found, enter the current meter reading and save.
BMS will validate the reading against the previous reading to check for anomalies — for example, a reading that is lower than the previous value will be flagged before saving.
Importing Meter Readings in Bulk
For large fleets, meter readings can be imported via CSV file. Navigate to Billing → Assets → Import Meter Readings. The import screen requires:
Import Type — select Manual CSV for a standard file upload. Ten further device and fleet formats are supported, including Lexmark Fleet Mgmt CSV, Konica Minolta CSV, Kyocera CSV (plus a 3 tier Kyocera CSV), OKI CSV, Print Audit CSV, Ricoh @remote CSV, Ricoh External Readings CSV, Streamline NX CSV, and 3manager webhook
File — choose the CSV file containing the readings
Source Reference — an optional label to identify this import batch
Column Mapping — map your CSV columns to the BMS fields: Serial No, Black Meter, Colour Meter, and Sourced At (the date the reading was taken)
Once the mapping is configured, select Process Import. BMS will validate each row and apply the readings to the matching assets.
Requesting Meters from the Billings Screen
The Billings screen is organised into Pending, Open, Released, Completed, and Cancelled tabs. When generating billing runs, BMS can identify which transactions on the Open tab still need meter readings. Apply your filters to narrow down the billing transactions you want to chase, then open the Manage Meters button group and choose Send Meter Requests to generate the requests for the outstanding readings across those transactions. (Manage Meters also offers Apply Latest Readings and Generate Late Readings.)
You can also request readings for a single transaction: open the billing record and click Send meter request on the transaction's toolbar. The form lets you set a Due By date, Return Email and Return Fax, Notes, and the Send Method, along with three checkboxes — Incl Imports?, Incl Read Meters?, and Allow Resend? — before you click Send Request.
How Send Meter Requests Selects Which Meters to Chase
When you run Send Meter Requests, BMS works out which meters to include as follows:
Only Open-tab billings are considered. The request runs across the transactions matching your current filter on the Open tab — rows there carry a status of Open or Held. Transactions that have already been Released are never included.
Meters flagged as Not Required are excluded. Within those transactions, BMS gathers the transaction meters for assets where a reading is required, automatically skipping any asset whose meter is flagged as Not Required.
Already-read meters are excluded by default. Unless the Incl Read Meters? option is ticked, BMS filters out meters that already have a reading for the period — this covers readings in any read state, including good, averaged, high variance, zero and negative readings (zero and negative values still count as having been read). Tick the option if you want to re-request readings that have already been supplied.
Auto-read assets are excluded by default. Unless the Incl Imports? option is ticked, assets flagged as auto-read (for example, those whose readings arrive via an automated import feed) are filtered out, since their readings are expected to arrive without the customer being asked.
The Allow Resend? option controls whether meters that have already been sent a request can be requested again.
How the Requests Are Sent
Once the meter list is generated, BMS sends the requests to the relevant customers using the chosen send method, with the Due By date and return details from the request form. Readings supplied in response are entered against the matching transaction meters, after which th