The starting point: metered consumption data
Every billing run starts with consumption data from the meters on site. For an embedded network, that means individual tenant meters — each measuring the electricity consumed by that tenant during the billing period. Conexie pulls this data from your data loggers in real time and stores it at whatever granularity the hardware provides (typically 5-minute intervals). At billing time, we aggregate that data across the defined billing period for each tenant.
Applying the tariff structure
Raw consumption in kilowatt-hours doesn't become a bill amount until you apply a tariff. Embedded network tariffs vary — some are flat rate, some are time-of-use, some include demand charges based on peak draw. Conexie stores the tariff structure for each customer or site, and applies it to the interval data to produce a line-by-line breakdown: energy charges, network charges, metering charges, and any applicable fees or discounts. This is where the billing logic lives.
Creating the invoice in Xero
Once the line items are calculated, Conexie creates a draft invoice in your connected Xero organisation via the Xero API. The invoice is linked to the tenant's contact record in Xero, uses your configured chart of accounts, and includes the calculated line items as individual invoice lines. You can review draft invoices before they're approved and sent, or configure automation to approve and send them directly. The PDF is generated on Conexie's side — not pulled from Xero — so it reflects your branding and formatting rather than Xero's default template.
Reconciliation and the audit trail
Because the invoice data originates from metered readings stored in Conexie, every invoice has a full audit trail. You can trace a dollar amount back to an interval reading, and from there to the physical meter that produced it. This is important for dispute resolution — if a tenant questions a bill, you can show them the underlying data rather than just the totals. Payments made in Xero are reflected in Xero's reporting. The two systems stay in sync for the invoice record itself.
What this doesn't automate
Automated billing handles the calculation and invoice creation, but it doesn't replace human oversight. Tariff changes, tenant move-ins and move-outs, meter replacements, and billing disputes all require someone to act. What automation eliminates is the spreadsheet work — the manual data extraction, the formula-based calculations, and the copy-paste into Xero that most embedded network operators are still doing. That's typically two to four hours per billing cycle, per site. At scale, it's the difference between a billing process that's manageable and one that requires dedicated staff.