my water company charges every two months so it runs from 5/18/2026 to 7/20/2026. It asked me the offset for days and I tried to put in 30 but it said it was too large and right now it says it’s gonna reset on September 1. How do I get it to reset on or about the 20th?
Just above this heading I read a warning box:
Important
When using the offset configuration parameter, the defined period must not be longer than 28 days.
Looks like you have hit a barrier. Maybe try bimonthly?
Are you using the GUI or YAML?
GUI - I have to add 10 characters
That billing period is invalid. Did you mean 19th to the 20th?
The way you have it the energy company would start billing for the next period on the 18th but not stop billing you for the previous period until the 20th. Thus double charging you for 1 to 2 days.
BILLING PERIOD
05/18/26 to 07/20/26
Yep exactly, it is incorrect. Your billing period does not end before the next begins.
This period 05/18/26 to 07/20/26
Next Period 07/18/26 to 09/20/26
There is an overlap of two days that you would be double charged for.
I know what you are saying but they change it every two months. I have never understood why but it never overlaps.
Assuming it is not 60 days (changes date due to differing numbers of days per month) then you can’t use a regular reset cycle. So don’t define one.
You will have to reset it with an automation using a calendar or similar trigger. The utility meter reset action only works if you have tariffs defined. If you don’t use the tariff feature then use the utility meter calibrate action to set the meter to 0 instead.
My utilities use a combination of fixed number of days elapsed, fixed day of the month like the 20th, and ‘whenever they damn well feel like it’ - makes it a bit hard to correlate with your app.
In the overall scope of things, it averages out over a few billing cycles. There is never any overlap in billing periods.
Thanks! I appreciate it
One of my bills says in the fine print 'Your next meter reading will be obtained on or about XX/XX/XXXX". It also flags whether it was a guesstimate or an actual reading, though these are rare these days.
The frustrating thing is for the random one, you find out after you receive the bill what the billing span was for.
Is the reset able to be applied to the historic data retrospectively?
What country?
California