The questions Kiwi businesses
actually ask us

We are an SME energy broker. We review what your business currently pays for power, gas, fibre, water and waste, compare commercial rates across the New Zealand market, negotiate on your behalf, and manage the switch from end to end. We are not a retailer and we are not a lead-generation form — you get a person who does the work, not a list of numbers to ring yourself.

For a power comparison, three things: your ICP number, roughly how many kWh your site uses in a month, and roughly what you pay in a month. That is it. We look the rest up. You do not need to dig out a contract or wait for your next bill to find out whether it is worth a conversation.

ICP stands for Installation Control Point. It is the unique 15-character code — letters and numbers — for the physical electricity connection at your site. You will find it printed on your power bill, usually near the top, under a heading like "ICP" or "Installation number". It identifies the connection rather than the retailer, so it stays the same when you switch. That is exactly why we ask for it: it lets us look up the network and price category that genuinely apply to your site instead of guessing from your postcode.

Not to get started — a first estimate takes under two minutes and needs no bill. When you want a full written proposal we do ask for a recent bill, because a proposal has to be built on your real charges rather than on a rounded number you remembered.

Most Kiwi businesses are on a better plan within 7 days of engaging us, and the path from first call to signed contract is typically under two weeks. The part that takes longest is usually waiting on you, not on us.

No. Nothing physical happens at your site. A retailer switch changes who bills you for the energy delivered to your connection — the connection itself, the meter, and your local lines company all stay exactly as they are. Your ICP does not change either.

A Letter of Authority is your written permission for us to talk to retailers about your account on your behalf — to request your usage history and to ask for commercial rates in your name. You sign it online in a couple of minutes. It is not a commitment to switch: it lets us go and get the numbers, and any actual switch is a separate decision you make once you have seen them.

A real person. Every client gets a dedicated account manager who knows your sites, and you deal with the same person each time rather than re-explaining your business to whoever picks up.

Yes, and it is one of the places we are most useful. Multi-site operators usually have connections that were signed up at different times, on different price categories, in different lines areas, all landing as separate bills. Consolidating those ICPs onto a single arrangement — and getting one view of what the whole group actually spends — is core work for us, not an edge case.

Yes. We review your plans as the market moves rather than switching you once and leaving you on a rate that quietly ages. A rate that was sharp two years ago usually is not sharp today, and the whole point of having a broker is that somebody is watching that for you.

Our fees, and any retailer commissions, are disclosed and agreed in writing before any switch. You will not find a charge you have not already seen written down and agreed to. If a number would surprise you later, it belongs in front of you now.

We compare commercial rates across the New Zealand market rather than selling one supplier. Where a retailer pays commission, that is disclosed in writing alongside our own fee before you sign anything — so you can see exactly who pays us what, and judge our recommendation with that in front of you.

Then we say so. Our savings tool has a specific outcome for exactly this case: when your current rate already beats what we can put in front of you, it tells you that instead of manufacturing a saving out of rounding. A broker who can never find a reason to leave you alone is not giving you advice.

Your energy rates — the variable charge per kWh and the daily fixed charge — and our service fee. We do not raise them during the term, and a rise in the wholesale market is not a reason we can. The one component nobody in the industry can lock is network, or lines, charges: those are set by the lines company that owns the network your site sits on, they are regulated separately, and every electricity retailer in New Zealand passes them through at cost. If your lines company changes its charges, that part of your bill changes and we tell you when it does.

Because it costs us less to set up. An assisted sign-up is a consultant call, a rate pull, a proposal build and a manual account set-up; doing it yourself on the site is a form submission. Our service fee online is 4.95% rather than the 5.95% that applies when one of our people does it for you, and the one-time set-up fee of $350 that applies on that channel is waived entirely. Both are our real prices on both channels, both are written into your agreement, and both are fixed for your three-year term.

It compares two real numbers, not two guesses. The current side is what you actually pay — the monthly figure you give us, annualised. The new side is built from the real rates that apply to your ICP’s network and price category: your monthly kWh at the variable rate, plus the fixed daily charge for 365 days, plus our service fee, then grossed up for GST so it lines up with the total you read off your bill. We deliberately do not assume you are currently on a discount, which makes the estimate conservative rather than flattering.

Because three years is what you would be signing. The online sign-up runs for a three-year term and your energy rates are held at the level you accepted for the whole of it, so the saving is quoted over the same period as the commitment. The annual and monthly figures are shown next to it every time the three-year one appears. The three-year figure is simply that annual saving across the term — it does not assume your current prices go up, even though rates that are not fixed generally have.

Fifty-five minutes from the moment you are quoted. It is a real hold rather than a countdown graphic, which is why we do not put a clock on the page: the rates are held on our side, refreshing does not restart anything, and the sign-up checks the hold before it records your agreement. If it runs out before you have finished, nothing is withdrawn — we re-check the price book and show you the figure that applies then, which is usually the same one. The rates themselves last far longer than the hold: a price schedule is reviewed roughly twice a year, not every hour.

Yes, the comparison is. Commercial rates are quoted excluding GST, so we gross the new cost up by 15% before comparing it to the GST-inclusive total on your bill. Comparing an ex-GST rate against a GST-inclusive bill is one of the easiest ways to make a saving look 15% bigger than it is, and we do not do it.

Because part of every commercial power rate is a delivery charge set by the lines company for your area, and lines areas price differently from one another. Two identical cafes on identical usage, one in one region and one in another, do not pay the same rate — and a national average hides that entirely. Our rate lookup is keyed to your ICP’s own network and price category, so what you see is the rate that applies to your connection.

No. It is an estimate built on the rates available for your connection and the usage figures you gave us — change either and the number changes. Savings are estimates and may vary; the final figures are confirmed in writing before anything is signed. This is not financial advice.

No — commercial only. Our team works on commercial tariffs, ICPs, demand charges and business contracts all day, and that focus is the reason we are useful. Household plans are a different market with different rules, and we would be pretending if we said otherwise.

Hospitality and food service, grocery and retail, fitness and recreation, food production and manufacturing, automotive, offices, healthcare and multi-site franchise groups. Single-site independents and 28-site groups both fit — what matters is that it is a business connection rather than a household one.

No. Our office is in Manukau, Auckland, but the work is nationwide — comparison and switching are done on your ICP and your usage, and neither of those needs somebody standing in your carpark. We work with businesses from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South.

In your client portal. The "My Account" link in the header takes you straight there, and it is where your spending, usage and invoices live.

Call 0508 692 455 or email info@managemybills.co.nz. We are open Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 8:00pm. If it is about a specific site, having the ICP handy makes it a much shorter call.