With Time of Use you charge a different rate for the same consumption depending on when it happened — for example a higher rate during the day ("Peak") and a lower rate at night ("Off-Peak").Instead of one meter reading producing one invoice line, Time of Use splits a billing period's consumption into bands, each billed at its own rate.
You decide how many bands there are (e.g. Peak/Off-Peak, Day/Night, or a three-tier Peak/Shoulder/Off-Peak scheme) and which clock hours on which weekdays belong to which band.
Where to find this in Zero Friction
Three screens are involved: one to define the bands and calendar, one to link a calendar to a property, and one to price each band. Types and a calendar need to exist before they can be used anywhere else.
Task | Where to go | Note |
Define Types & Calendar | Configuration (under the Metering group) → Time of Use | Two tabs: Types and Calendars. |
Link a Calendar to a property | Locations → Location Group → Settings → Invoicing defaults | Only needed for the calendar-driven approach — leave empty if the meter is already channel-driven (see below). |
Set a rate per band | Configuration → Billing → Billing Items → open a consumption-based item → tariff → add condition | "Time of Use" is only available as a condition on consumption-based billing items. |
Suggested order: 1) create the Types and build a Calendar → 2) link that calendar to the relevant property (if calendar-driven) → 3) add the Time of Use condition and rates on the billing item.
Setting up Types and a Calendar
Time of Use Types
A Type is a name for a band: a code (the stable key used everywhere else — tariffs, calendars, invoice lines) and a description the customer sees (e.g. "Peak", "Off-Peak"). Types have no automatic colour — they're distinguished by name only.
Time of Use Calendar
A Calendar is a weekly schedule: exactly seven weekdays, and for each weekday a list of time windows, each linked to one Type. You add a window (a start and end time, a Type from a dropdown) and mark which weekdays it applies to.
A simple day/night calendar where the weekend is seen as night, looks like this once saved:
Weekday | 00:00–06:00 | 06:00–22:00 | 22:00–24:00 |
Monday to friday | Night | Day | Night |
Saturday and sunday | Night | Night | Night |
A real-world calendar usually differs between weekdays and weekends (e.g. the whole weekend as Off-Peak) — each day can have its own layout.
Validation rules: every calendar must cover the full day, with no gaps or overlaps:
All seven weekdays must be present, each exactly once.
Every weekday needs at least one window.
Windows on the same day may not overlap and may not leave a gap.
The first window starts at 00:00, the last ends at 24:00.
The configuration screen checks these rules live — a green check per weekday when complete, an orange warning with an explanation when not — so you catch issues before saving.
How consumption gets split into bands
There are two independent ways to assign consumption to a band. Which one applies depends on how the meter is set up — not on a per-invoice choice.
🗓️ Calendar-driven
One meter channel records all consumption. A Time of Use calendar is assigned on the property group's billing settings. Each reading period is split by clock time: the system converts the period to local time, looks up that weekday's windows, and assigns the matching Type.
Go to: Locations>Locationgroups>Settings
🔌 Channel-driven
The meter already has a separate channel per band (e.g. one channel for peak, one for off-peak), each linked directly to its Time of Use Type. No calendar is needed — the band comes from the channel the reading arrived on. Because the boundary is physical rather than clock-based, this path is exact and unaffected by daylight-saving transitions.
⚠️ For calendar-driven consumption: if a reading interval crosses a calendar boundary (e.g. an hourly reading spanning a Peak→Off-Peak switch), the first band it overlaps wins. This is flagged for follow-up. A time window is always evaluated per calendar day — it is never split across midnight.
Setting up a rate per band
A Time of Use band is linked to a price through a tariff condition — the same mechanism used for other conditional pricing (e.g. based on payment method). In practice, a consumption-based billing item's tariff gets two (or more) branches, each with a different Type as its condition and its own unit price:
Tariff branch | Condition | Unit price |
Energy — Peak | Time of Use = Peak | €0.20 / kWh |
Energy — Off-Peak | Time of Use = Off-Peak | €0.10 / kWh |
A few things are checked automatically when saving:
The billing item must be consumption-based — a Time of Use condition on a fixed/subscription item is rejected.
Every Type used in the tariff must actually exist (a deleted or wrong type is rejected).
You don't choose calendar-driven vs. channel-driven at the tariff level — the tariff only cares about the Type. Zero Friction automatically resolves, for each slice of consumption, which Type applies.
Example
A monthly-invoiced contract, 100 kWh of consumption for the month, split exactly 50/50 (midnight–noon Peak, noon–midnight Off-Peak):
Band | Consumption | Rate | Amount excl. VAT |
Peak | 50 kWh | €0.20/kWh | €10.00 |
Off-Peak | 50 kWh | €0.10/kWh | €5.00 |
Total |
|
| €15.00 |
The total metered consumption and the total billed consumption still always add up to 100 kWh — the split changes how consumption is priced, not how much was recorded. This works the same way whether the meter is cumulative (start/end readings) or delta (periodic values), and whether the split comes from a calendar or from separate channels.
On the invoice and in Billing Insights
On the invoice
Each Time of Use band gets its own invoice line, grouped under the same article as the rest of that billing item, but marked with a Time of Use label on the quantity:
Description | Quantity | Unit price | Amount |
Energy consumption |
|
|
|
01/04/2026 – 30/04/2026 | Peak – 50.000 kWh | €0.200 | €10.00 |
01/04/2026 – 30/04/2026 | Off-Peak – 50.000 kWh | €0.100 | €5.00 |
In the "Overview of your consumption" section (where enabled on your invoice template), each measurement row also shows the Time of Use label under the meter number, in italics — so the customer immediately sees which reading belongs to which band.
There's nothing extra to configure on your invoice template: the Peak/Off-Peak split appears automatically through the existing invoice-line and consumption-overview templates as soon as a Time of Use tariff is active.
In Billing Insights
On the contract's Billing Insights tab, the consumption tracker groups its rows by Time of Use band, exactly as on the invoice:
Period · Band | Meter · Quantity | Amount |
01/04/2026 – 30/04/2026 · Peak | Meter 000123456 · 50.000 kWh | €10.00 |
01/04/2026 – 30/04/2026 · Off-Peak | Meter 000123456 · 50.000 kWh | €5.00 |
Each row pairs the metered quantity for that band with the matching invoice line — handy for quickly checking billing completeness, just like the regular consumption tracker, split one level further by band.
Troubleshooting
Problem | Solution |
"Time of Use" doesn't appear under Configuration. | Contact your CSM — the feature may not be enabled yet for your organisation. |
A calendar can't be saved. | Check that every weekday is fully covered: starts at 00:00, ends at 24:00, no gaps or overlaps. The screen shows exactly where the problem is per weekday. |
The "Time of Use" condition isn't available on the tariff. | Check that the billing item is consumption-based. Fixed or subscription items don't support this condition. |
A Type can't be selected on the tariff. | The Type may no longer exist. Check the list of Types on the Time of Use screen. |
The split on the invoice doesn't match expectations. | Check that the right calendar is linked to the property (calendar-driven), or that the meter channels are correctly linked to their Type (channel-driven). |
FAQ
Do I need to choose between calendar-driven and channel-driven per invoice?
No. This is determined by how the meter is set up, not per invoice or billing period.
What happens if a reading straddles a calendar boundary?
The first band it overlaps wins. This is flagged so you can review it.
Can a Time of Use Type get its own colour?
No, bands are distinguished by name only, not by colour.
Does every weekday in the calendar need the same layout?
No. Each weekday can have its own layout, e.g. the whole weekend as Off-Peak.
Do I need to configure anything on my invoice template?
No. As soon as a Time of Use tariff is active, the split appears automatically on the invoice and in Billing Insights.
Does this also work with delta meters (periodic consumption instead of readings)?
Yes. The split into bands works the same way regardless of whether the meter is cumulative or delta.