(It’s like iTunes!)
Remember buying songs in the iTunes Store? You could scan any album’s track list for free, no download needed, and only paid when you clicked “Buy” on the one song you wanted.
Bayou’s utility API works the same for customer utility data.
Every utility bill arrives locked by default, and you decide which ones to unlock and pull or display in your application.
While other vendors make the process of polling for new utility data more cumbersome, we’ve built our developer experience from the ground up with this feature in mind.
With Bayou, every utility bill is pulled automatically after customer authentication; it’s up to you in how you’d like to use that data.
What “locked” means in Bayou’s product
When your customer links their utility account, Bayou fetches every bill the utility makes available.
The metadata, including bill date, total amounts, utility name, meter IDs, etc., shows up in your dashboard with a status of locked.
Locked bills sit in your dashboard, cost nothing, and keep your invoice at zero until you need the data.
Unlocking data is like buying the track
Press Unlock this bill on any line item in the dashboard or call the /unlock endpoint in the utility API and Bayou delivers the full JSON load—usage, charges, tariffs, meter readings.
Each unlocked meter is priced transparently, exactly the way iTunes charges per song.
Set your company’s “auto-download” rules
With Bayou, you can control how much data you want to pull during your customers’ initial onboarding.
In Settings › Customer Data you choose how Bayou unlocks data by default:
- Get the historical range with options like all past bills, a fixed window (1, 12, 24 months), or none
- Or fetch continuously: On (unlock new bills as they drop) or Off
One-off control at the bill level
Even if you need a single statement, you can override the defaults on any bill without touching global settings.
Unlock bills through the dashboard or API, get the file, and keep the rest of the utility account data locked until you need it.
In summary, Bayou turns utility data into an iTunes-like experience. Bayou pulls all utility data reliably, and you unlock only what utility data matters most to you.
It’s just like building the perfect iTunes playlist.
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