Course 08 of 20 · Natural Gas Desk Academy

Allocation, Imbalances & Invoice Reconciliation

Stage B, Physical contracting and daily operations. Level 4 of 10.

Post-month allocation, imbalance quantification and cash-out, and the invoice reconciliation and dispute cycle.

121 chapters · 12 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 02, Course 06, Course 07

Enrol or enquire See the 121 chapters
How a chapter is sized

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter is a single self-contained explainer of 8 to 10 narrated minutes, covering one idea to the point where you can use it.

Chapters run in order. Each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

12 modules · 121 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Month After the Gas Day Closes Ch 1-10
  1. Why the Month Does Not End When the Month Ends
  2. Scheduled Quantity Against Allocated Quantity
  3. The Four Numbers That Must Agree
  4. Who Produces the Numbers and Who Just Receives Them
  5. The Settlement Calendar from Flow Day to Final Cash
  6. Why Small Errors Repeat and Large Errors Get Noticed
  7. Physical Imbalance Against Financial Exposure
  8. The Shipper Imbalance and the Customer Imbalance
  9. What Belongs to the Back Office and What Belongs to the Desk
  10. How the Course Is Built and Where Each Thread Goes
M1 Allocation at a Shared Point Ch 11-20
  1. What a Shared Receipt or Delivery Point Actually Is
  2. The Meter Total as the Only Hard Fact
  3. Receipt Point Allocation Against Delivery Point Allocation
  4. The Operating Balancing Agreement and Who Signs It
  5. The Difference Between Measuring and Allocating
  6. Nominations as the Starting Point for a Split
  7. Behind-the-Meter Measurement and Its Limits
  8. When the Parts Do Not Add to the Whole
  9. Fuel, Shrinkage and Line Loss Inside the Split
  10. A Worked Split at a Three-Party Interconnect
M2 Allocation Methodologies and the Predetermined Agreement Ch 21-30
  1. Pro Rata Allocation and What It Assumes
  2. Swing and Ranked Allocation Methods
  3. Percentage and Fixed-Volume Methods
  4. Choosing a Method for the Position You Hold
  5. What a Predetermined Allocation Agreement Contains
  6. Negotiating the Allocation Method Before Gas Flows
  7. Default Rules When No Agreement Exists
  8. Allocation Where One Party Is Also the Operator
  9. Changing the Method Mid-Term
  10. Comparing Two Methods on the Same Month
M3 The Allocation Statement and How to Check It Ch 31-40
  1. Anatomy of an Allocation Statement
  2. Preliminary, Final and Revised Statements
  3. The Arithmetic Check You Run First
  4. Recomputing the Split Yourself
  5. Reading the Statement Against Your Own Daily Records
  6. Unit and Heating Value Traps in a Statement
  7. Missing Days and Estimated Days
  8. Accepting, Querying or Rejecting a Statement
  9. Keeping an Allocation History You Can Defend
  10. A Worked Statement Review
M4 Measurement Adjustment and Prior Period Adjustments Ch 41-49
  1. Why a Measured Quantity Changes After the Fact
  2. The Prior Period Adjustment as an Instrument
  3. Pricing a Correction to a Closed Month
  4. Adjustment Windows and the Point of No Return
  5. Cascading a Correction Through Everything Downstream
  6. Materiality Thresholds for Reopening a Month
  7. Receiving an Adjustment You Did Not Expect
  8. Raising an Adjustment of Your Own
  9. A Worked Prior Period Adjustment
M5 Quantifying the Imbalance Ch 50-60
  1. What an Imbalance Really Measures
  2. Daily, Monthly and Cumulative Positions
  3. Building the Imbalance from Allocated Quantities
  4. Imbalance by Point Against Imbalance by Party
  5. Positive and Negative Positions and Which Costs More
  6. Imbalance Inside a Storage Account
  7. Transport Imbalance Against Supply Imbalance
  8. The Customer-Side Imbalance on an Aggregated Pool
  9. Rolling the Position Forward Day by Day
  10. Explaining Where an Imbalance Came From
  11. A Worked Imbalance Build for One Shipper
M6 Tolerance Bands, Cash-Out and Penalty Pricing Ch 61-70
  1. The Tolerance Band and Why It Exists
  2. Tiered Tolerances and Escalating Consequences
  3. What Cash-Out Actually Means
  4. Choosing the Cash-Out Price
  5. Highest and Lowest Price Cash-Out Rules
  6. Operational Flow Orders and Balancing Penalties
  7. Forecasting the Cash-Out Bill Before It Arrives
  8. Deciding Whether to Correct or Pay
  9. Passing a Balancing Charge to Whoever Caused It
  10. A Worked Cash-Out Calculation
M7 Resolving an Imbalance Without Paying Cash-Out Ch 71-79
  1. The Routes Out of an Imbalance Position
  2. Trading an Imbalance with Another Shipper
  3. Finding the Counterparty for an Imbalance Trade
  4. Pricing an Imbalance Trade
  5. Netting Across Accounts and Across Points
  6. Carrying a Position into the Next Month
  7. Using Park and Loan Services to Close a Position
  8. Imbalance Resolution Where Trading Is Not Permitted
  9. A Worked Resolution Decision
M8 The Monthly Invoice, Line by Line Ch 80-91
  1. What Arrives at Month End and From Whom
  2. The Commodity Invoice and Its Core Lines
  3. How the Billed Price Was Derived
  4. The Transportation Invoice and Its Demand Charge
  5. Fuel and Surcharge Lines on a Transport Bill
  6. Imbalance and Overrun Lines on the Invoice
  7. Taxes, Levies and Regulatory Charges
  8. Credits, Rebates and Capacity Release Proceeds
  9. The Sales Invoice You Issue
  10. Estimated Invoices and True-Up Billing
  11. Payment Terms, Due Dates and Netting Agreements
  12. An Invoice Read End to End
M9 Reconciling the Invoice Ch 92-101
  1. The Reconciliation as a Three-Way Match
  2. Preparing the Reconciliation Workpaper
  3. Matching Quantity Before Matching Money
  4. Tolerances for the Reconciliation Itself
  5. Chasing a Variance to a Named Cause
  6. Reconciling the Transport Bill Against the Tariff
  7. Reconciling Your Sales Ledger to Delivered Volumes
  8. Reconciling to the Hedge and the Trade Capture
  9. When You Cannot Make It Match
  10. A Worked Three-Way Reconciliation
M10 The Dispute Cycle and Its Deadlines Ch 102-110
  1. What Counts as a Dispute and What Is Just a Query
  2. The Deadlines That Extinguish a Claim
  3. Pay Now and Argue Later
  4. Drafting the Dispute Notice
  5. Assembling the Evidence Pack
  6. Negotiating a Settlement of a Billing Dispute
  7. Escalation Inside the Agreement
  8. Regulatory Complaint and Arbitration as Last Resorts
  9. A Worked Dispute from Notice to Credit Note
M11 Accruals, Controls and a Worked Month Ch 111-121
  1. Why Month End Needs a Number Before the Facts Arrive
  2. Building the Purchase and Transport Accrual
  3. Unbilled Revenue on the Customer Side
  4. Accruing the Imbalance and Cash-Out Position
  5. Measuring the Accrual Against What Actually Settled
  6. The Control Framework That Catches Recurring Errors
  7. Segregation of Duties in Settlement
  8. Metrics That Tell You the Process Is Working
  9. Capstone, Part One: Closing the Month
  10. Capstone, Part Two: Reconciling and Disputing
  11. What Reconciliation Cannot Recover

The brochure gives each of these 121 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 8 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Natural Gas Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway