Interested in community solar?Explore community solar
DCS

How do we work?

Our methodology

How we work: the kinds of findings we check for, the way every bill is reviewed, and how each recommendation is sourced before it reaches you.

Last reviewed 2026-06-03

Audit working surface

At Developments CS, our methodology is the way we lower your bills, written down. We read your bills across electric, gas, water, telecom, and IT, then check each one against a structured library of the common billing errors and savings opportunities we have seen, grouped by category. Every candidate finding is reviewed by a person, checked against the source bill and the controlling reference (the provider's own published documentation, the relevant tax rules, or a program's terms), and explained to you in plain language before anything is filed or changed. We publish the kinds of findings we check for below so you can see exactly what we look for. We publish the basis for the claims we make so each one is honest. And we publish how we update and correct this page so the work is on the record.

What we look for

The kinds of findings we check, grouped by category

Every bill we review is checked against the library below. It describes what we look for, not what any account will recover. What a finding means for you depends on the account, the billing, and the specifics of the work. We keep adding to this library as we see new kinds of findings, so it grows over time. The same categories show up across electric, gas, water, telecom, and IT.

CATEGORY

Billing errors

4 finding types

Plain-English definition

Duplicate charge
The same line item appears twice on a bill, or the same charge shows up across two bills in a single billing window.
Incorrect charge
A charge does not match the service delivered, the agreed rate, or the published price for the account, and can be corrected with the provider.
Billing period anomaly
A bill covers an unusual number of days, overlaps a provider billing change, or does not line up with the prior cycle.
Payment misapplied
A payment was applied to the wrong account or returned despite valid funds, leading to late fees and avoidable balances.
CATEGORY

Meter reads

3 finding types

Plain-English definition

Estimated reading
A bill is based on an estimated read rather than an actual read for one or more cycles, which can over- or under-state what you owe.
Consumption spike
Usage jumps well above the recent baseline with no matching change on site, which can point to a meter, leak, or billing issue.
Flat or stuck reading
Usage stays suspiciously constant across periods that should vary, which can indicate a stuck meter or an estimated read.
CATEGORY

Rate & class

3 finding types

Plain-English definition

Rate misclassification
The account is billed on the wrong rate or service class for how it actually uses the service, so it pays more than it should.
Better-rate opportunity
A vetted provider or program offers a lower rate than the account pays today, across electric, gas, water, telecom, or IT.
Minimum charge mismatch
A minimum-bill or base charge is applied that does not fit the account's service class, recoverable as a billing correction.
CATEGORY

Taxes & fees

3 finding types

Plain-English definition

Incorrect tax or fee
A tax, surcharge, or municipal fee is billed at the wrong rate, to the wrong jurisdiction, or on a charge it should not apply to.
Expired or missing exemption
The account qualifies for a tax exemption but the certificate has lapsed or was never filed with the provider.
Surcharge applied in error
A surcharge or rider is applied to the account when it should not be, producing an overcharge that can be corrected.
CATEGORY

Grants & rebates

2 finding types

Plain-English definition

Missed grant or rebate
A grant or rebate program the account qualifies for has not been claimed, with the funding window still open.
Funded upgrade available
A program will pay for a free or near-free upgrade, from HVAC and LED to other infrastructure improvements, that has not been pursued.
CATEGORY

Refunds & recovery

3 finding types

Plain-English definition

Refundable overpayment
Past overpayments traced to a billing error are still recoverable within the provider's claim window, but no claim has been filed.
Stranded credit
A credit balance is sitting unused on an account and can be applied or refunded once it is surfaced and claimed.
Recurring error across accounts
The same billing error repeats across multiple accounts under common ownership, compounding into a larger recovery once audited together.

What we claim, and why

Every claim on this site, with its basis

We do not publish savings figures, promised outcomes, or finding counts. The claims we do make about how we work are documented below with their basis. If a claim on the site does not have a matching entry here, tell us and we will either back it up or remove it.

  • Basis. We maintain a structured library of the common billing errors and savings opportunities documented in the finding taxonomy above, grouped by category. We do not publish a count: the library changes as we add new checks, so any fixed number would be unreliable. Each kind of finding corresponds to a specific thing we check on the bills we review.

  • Basis. Every candidate finding is reviewed by a person, checked against the source bill and the controlling reference, and explained to you with the reasoning behind it before anything is filed or changed. The review is the same from one account to the next.

  • Basis. When we lower a bill you already pay, we are paid from the savings. When we bring you a better rate or product, the vendor usually pays us. Some upgrades are free or near-free through grants and rebates. The exact structure for any engagement is documented in writing before work begins.

How a finding becomes savings

From reading your bills to lowering them

Nothing reaches you as a recommendation without passing through every step below. The human review in the middle is the reason what we bring you holds up when we take it to the provider.

  1. STEP 01

    Read the bills

    We pull and read your recent bills across the accounts in scope, line by line, so we understand what you actually pay and where the money goes.

  2. STEP 02

    Run the checks

    Each bill is checked against our structured library of common billing errors and savings opportunities, the kinds of findings documented in the taxonomy above.

  3. STEP 03

    Human review

    A person reviews every candidate finding against the source bill and the controlling reference before it advances, so what reaches you holds up.

  4. STEP 04

    We bring it to you

    Confirmed findings are explained to you in plain language, with the reasoning and the recommended next move, before anything is filed or changed.

  5. STEP 05

    Apply the lever, then keep watching

    On your go-ahead we act, whether that is a grant, a recovery claim, a better rate, or a product, and then we keep reviewing your bills for the next opportunity.

What we read

The references we check every finding against

Every finding ties back to a reference we can point to. The list below is not exhaustive; for each account it is the provider's own published documentation, the tax and fee rules that apply, the program rules for any grants or rebates the account qualifies for, and current offers from vendors we have vetted. Checking a finding against the controlling reference does not change from one account to the next.

Provider billing documentation

The published pricing, fee, and account-class documentation for each provider serving an account in scope. Every billing-error finding is checked against what the provider's own published documents say the bill should be.

  • Published electric and gas billing documentation
  • Published water and sewer rate documentation
  • Published telecom and IT service agreements
  • Published fee and surcharge schedules

Tax and fee rules

The state and local rules that govern which taxes, surcharges, and municipal fees apply to an account, and the exemptions it may qualify for.

  • State and local sales-tax rules and exemptions
  • Municipal franchise and utility fee rules
  • Account-class and jurisdiction documentation

Grant and program documentation

The federal, state, and utility program documents that govern eligibility, application windows, and how funded upgrades and rebates are paid. We read the live rules for each program an account may qualify for.

  • Federal and state grant and rebate programs
  • Utility-administered efficiency and upgrade programs
  • Program eligibility and application-window rules

Vetted vendor offers

Current rates and terms from the vendors we have vetted, so a better-rate finding is checked against a real, available offer rather than an estimate.

  • Vetted telecom and IT vendor rates
  • Vetted utility and infrastructure vendor offers
  • Current product and technology pricing

Independence

We work for the client, and we are clear about who pays us

Developments CS works for the client. When we lower a bill you already pay, we are paid from the savings. When we bring you a better rate or product, the vendor usually pays us. Either way, the recommendation is always the one that is best for you, never the one that is best for someone paying us on the side. The structure for each engagement is put in writing before any work begins, so there are no surprises and nothing hidden.

Editorial standards

How we update, correct, and frame the work

The conventions below govern what appears on this site, how it changes, and how engagements are referenced in any public-facing material.

Update cadence
Content on this site is reviewed regularly and republished with a new date when it changes. The finding library is reviewed and adjusted whenever a billing change, a program change, or a new kind of finding affects what we check.
Corrections policy
When something on this site is found to be incorrect, we update the page and bump the date. We do not silently edit claims that prospects and clients may have relied on.
No fabricated numbers
We do not publish savings figures, recovery dollar amounts, percentages, finding counts, or client names on this site. If we cannot back a number up, it does not go on the site. Trust comes from the honest no-cost model and a clear explanation, not from invented metrics.
Client privacy
We never identify a client by name or address in public-facing content. Specific accounts are only ever discussed privately, and only with the client's permission.
Independence
We work for the client. When a bill is lowered we are paid from the savings, and when a better rate or product is brought in the vendor usually pays us, but the recommendation is always the one that is best for the client. The structure for each engagement is put in writing before work begins.

Have a question about how we work? Just ask.

Email support@developmentscs.com or send us one recent bill. We will tell you in plain language what we see and how we would approach it, with no commitment.

Get a free bill review