A challenge in many utilities is correctly recording equipment used on projects. The main bottleneck is the flow of information from the field construction to the finance office - if the hours of use are not recorded, there’s no way that amounts can be added to projects. There are best practices in this area that can streamline the process and provide needed information with minimal work. Here are 5 ways to reduce headaches and congestion in this area.

In FERC work order accounting, overhead costs are part of the universe of costs that should also be charged to construction projects - along with the direct costs of utility construction - direct labor and materials. These costs fall under the umbrella of "overheads" and can sometimes be close to or above a project's direct labor and inventory costs.

This article is a high-level discussion of utility construction overheads, i.e. their make-up, calculation, and application.

Electric work orders are the not-so-secret sauce that drives electric rates. Using work orders for projects is the industry best practice. Still, if all costs are not recorded, the customers will not fully reimburse your electric utility or cooperative for the total costs of capital replacement. Cash flow will suffer, directly impacting customer service and system reliability.

As the power supply base of the electric industry moves to more renewables, you might find some of your traditional supply assets are not economical. These uneconomical assets might be impaired for accounting purposes. How do you determine the amount of an impairment, and more importantly, determine how to recover an impairment loss in electric rates? We show you how.

Electric overhead costs are the icing on the cake of an electric project - while the cake contains most ingredients, a cake is not a cake without frosting. This frosting is made up of the overhead costs that make the construction process possible.