One resident account. Two billing streams, clearly explained.

A customer should not have to call the billing office simply to understand which property, meter, month or charge a balance belongs to.

AJD Connect was shaped around a practical housing-society problem. A resident may have a plot-level maintenance obligation, one or more electricity meters, an unpaid balance from an earlier month and a payment recorded against different billing heads. Showing only a single amount due would be simple—but not useful.

The mobile experience therefore begins with the resident’s authorised Odoo account and preserves the business references behind the balance. The plot, visible meter or meters, monthly bill, due date, arrears, payment status and supporting documents remain connected from the dashboard to the detail screen.

01 / Clear product boundaries

Meter capture and customer billing belong together—but they are not the same job.

The AJD Meter Reader case story is about field execution: assigned routes, register-specific photos, OCR assistance, offline capture and Odoo validation. Its primary user is the person standing in front of the meter.

AJD Connect starts after that controlled handover. Its primary user is the resident asking a different set of questions: What is due? Which meter produced these units? What is the maintenance component? What happens after the due date? Has my payment been posted?

Keeping the stories separate makes each workflow easier to understand. Cross-linking them keeps the end-to-end process honest.

02 / Identity and visibility

One login does not mean unrestricted access to every bill on the plot.

The resident signs in with a mobile account linked to an Odoo tracking ID. Odoo decides whether that account can see plot-only maintenance bills, selected electricity meters or all bills attached to the plot. That matters where a property has multiple floors, shops or meters with different resident responsibility.

The dashboard returns only the permitted plot and meter scope. It then totals the open amount across those visible bills and shows how many electricity meters are linked. The access rule lives on the server, so changing the phone or reinstalling the app does not redefine what the resident is allowed to see.

03 / Electricity billing

The customer bill begins with the validated meter-reading record.

For a metered service, the monthly batch reads the accepted previous and present values, calculates units and applies the relevant tariff structure. Meter type remains part of the calculation: a single-register service follows a different reading pattern from a peak and off-peak service.

The billing engine can bring together the current electricity charge, service or fixed charges, adjustments, eligible discounts, earlier open balance and approved instalments. Due-date rules calculate the applicable late-payment surcharge without replacing the original before-due amount.

04 / Maintenance billing

Maintenance follows the plot and approved charge rules—not a meter reading.

Maintenance rates are governed in Odoo against the applicable company, phase and plot category or product type. The effective configuration is carried into the monthly billing batch, where the resident’s plot supplies the maintenance charge. That creates a repeatable rule instead of a manually typed amount on each customer record.

Where a meter and maintenance responsibility belong together, the bill can display both components while preserving separate maintenance and electricity totals. Where no meter is involved, Odoo can issue a plot-only maintenance bill with its own previous balance, instalment and late-payment treatment.

This is why the recommended design is a single customer app with separate service groups. The resident has one place to look, while operations and finance keep the accounting meaning of each charge intact.

05 / Bill explanation

The detail screen answers the questions hidden by a grand total.

Bills are grouped by their service identity: a specific meter for electricity or a plot-level group for maintenance. Each month carries an unpaid, partially paid or paid status, along with the amount already received and the amount still open.

For electricity, the resident can see the meter, previous reading, current reading and consumed units. The amount breakdown can show current bill, maintenance charge where applicable, arrears, fixed charges, total before due date, late-payment surcharge and payable amount after the due date. The official bill PDF is generated from the Odoo report and saved to the phone.

06 / Collection visibility

A posted payment changes the balance and leaves a receipt trail.

AJD Connect reads paid receipt records already posted in Odoo. A receipt can preserve the amount allocated to maintenance and electricity heads, the related bill and month, the plot or meter reference and the receipt date. The resident can save a PDF copy on the phone.

Partial receipts remain visible as partial rather than being presented as fully settled. Odoo recalculates the remaining principal and, when relevant, the after-due surcharge components against the payment date. This keeps the open balance aligned with the collection record.

The app also presents in-app reminders for upcoming due dates, bills due today and overdue balances. A bill notification can open the related detail instead of leaving the resident to search for the month manually.

07 / Operational result

One customer touchpoint, with the billing ledger still visible underneath.

For residents, the improvement is straightforward: one account for the plot, permitted meters, current dues, monthly history, bill PDFs, payment receipts and due-date messages. Electricity and maintenance are close enough to manage together and separate enough to question intelligently.

For the billing office, the app does not introduce a second ledger. Access scope, readings, charge rules, arrears, due dates, payments and receipt status come from Odoo. The customer sees the same operating record the back office is responsible for maintaining.

Together, AJD Meter Reader and AJD Connect close a practical loop: capture the field evidence, calculate under controlled rules, publish a bill the resident can understand and reflect the posted receipt back against the balance.