A Software Company in Boston That Starts With the Utility Bill

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

A property manager in Back Bay keeps a folder of utility bill PDFs for twelve buildings, and every spring someone types the numbers into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager by hand so the City of Boston gets its BERDO report on time. Under the ordinance, large buildings report energy and water use each year, have the data checked by a qualified third party in set years, and now face emissions limits. A software company in Boston building for owners has to follow that data from the bill to the filing. This page draws the year as a calendar, then what the work costs. Progression is based in New York, builds for Boston owners and managers remotely, and offers on-site sessions on request.

A folder of utility bills in a shared drive

Open the folder and you can see how the year went. Twelve buildings, a January PDF and a February PDF for each, a spreadsheet of tenant meters copied from somewhere, and a file called final_v3 that three people have edited.

Nothing in that folder is wrong on its face. The trouble is that no one can say which bill fed which number, and the City’s report, due once a year, depends on exactly that.

What a software company in Boston needs to know about BERDO

The City of Boston’s BERDO page describes the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance as a local law that aims to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings. Owners report the previous calendar year’s energy and water use, and starting in either 2025 or 2030, depending on size, buildings also comply with annual emissions standards.

The City says only 5% of Boston’s buildings account for nearly 40% of the city’s carbon emissions, which is why the ordinance reaches the largest buildings first.

Which buildings does the City say are covered?

Residential buildings with 15 or more units, non-residential buildings of 20,000 square feet or larger, and any tax parcel whose buildings sum to at least 20,000 square feet or 15 units. The City publishes a covered buildings list.

How is data reported?

Owners report key building characteristics and annual energy and water use through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, complete the City’s BERDO reporting form for data related to emissions compliance, and complete third-party verification.

Where do the first numbers come from?

From the utilities. The City’s page links instructions for requesting data from Eversource and for linking National Grid data to Portfolio Manager, so a build starts by asking which utility supplies each building.

The BERDO year as a calendar

The table lays one building’s year against what the software does on each date. Only May 1 and May 15 are dates the City lists; the other rows describe steady working habits that keep those two dates easy. The sign-off column names a role, since software never signs for the owner.

Pulling bills without retyping them

The first task is the dullest and the most valuable: taking a bill as it arrives, whether PDF or portal download, and turning it into rows without a person copying digits. Where a utility offers a data download the software uses it, and where it does not the software reads the PDF and shows the person what it read, side by side.

Tenant meters the owner does not control

Some meters belong to tenants, and their numbers arrive late or not at all. The software keeps a request log for each one: who was asked, when, and what came back, so a gap in March is explained by April.

Mixed use and the half floor area line

The City treats a mixed-use building or tax parcel as residential if 50% or more of its gross floor area, excluding parking, has a residential use. A build stores each building’s floor area by use and shows which side of that line it sits on, leaving the City’s classification to the City.

• Store every original bill before anything edits it.
• Show a person what was read from a PDF before it is saved.
• Log every change with the name of the person and the time.
• Keep one record for each meter, even when ownership of the meter changes.
• Export in the shape the City and Portfolio Manager ask for, and check the export once by hand.

Verification years built into the system

The City says third-party verification is required for the first reporting year, for the first emissions compliance year (2026 or 2031) and every five years after. In a verification year the owner hires a qualified third party to verify the reported data.

What a verifier asks for is the verifier’s business. A build can still be kept so that every number traces to a bill, every edit carries a name and a time, and a package of the year’s records comes out in one export.

What belongs in the audit trail?

The original file, the value read from it, any correction and who made it, and the date. Anything less leaves an owner explaining a number from memory.

Does the software verify the data?

No. Verification is done by a qualified third party under the City’s process. The software helps the owner hand over complete records.

Portfolios, schedules and hardship elections

For 2027 the City lists May 1 as the date for building portfolios, individual compliance schedules and short-term hardship, tied to 2026 emissions, and May 15 for annual BERDO reporting. Software should hold each choice with its date, because the choice outlasts the year it was made.

A portfolio, a schedule or a hardship plan is a decision the owner makes with the City. Policy questions go to the City’s help desk at 617-635-3850 x5 or energyreporting@boston.gov, or to counsel.

• Record which election applies to which building.
• Record the date each election was made and who made it.
• Keep the City’s reply with the election.
• Show the election beside the building’s figures, so a reader sees both.
• Keep policy decisions out of the software’s settings.

When the deadline moves

On April 15, 2026 the City announced that it was extending the 2026 reporting deadline to August 15, 2026, three months later than the usual date. Buildings subject to a 2025 emissions standard had until that date to complete third-party verification as well.

The City’s announcement also lists a help desk, free one-on-one technical support, free reporting and verification services for under-resourced owners, and flexibility measures including hardship compliance plans. It says 2026 is the first year the largest buildings must comply with emissions standards.

Why dates belong in settings, not code?

A date written into a program has to be changed by a developer. A date kept in a settings table can be changed by the person who reads the City’s notice, in minutes, with the old value kept in the history.

Who reads the City’s notices?

One named person on the owner’s side. The software can show the current dates on its first screen, so the whole team sees the same calendar.

Questions to ask a software vendor about BERDO

Before any work starts, a handful of questions show whether a vendor has thought about the filing or only about the screens. Ask them in the first call and write down the answers.

• How does a bill get into the system, and who checks what was read?
• Where do the City’s dates live, and who can change them?
• What does the history show when a number is edited?
• What leaves the system for Portfolio Manager, and how is it checked?
• Who can see a building’s record, and who can change it?
• How does a verification package come out?
• What happens to the data if we change vendors?

A vendor that answers each of these with a person, a screen and a date is describing a system. One that answers with a promise is describing a pitch.

What a software company in Boston, MA should not decide for you

Good software here calculates and stores. It does not choose a compliance route, purchase energy credits, request hardship or interpret the ordinance, because those belong to the owner, the City and counsel.

If a vendor says its program will decide what your building should do, ask who is accountable when the City disagrees.

The owner’s year end report

At year end an owner needs one page for each building: what it is, how its emissions compare with the standard, where verification stands and what is still open. Software should produce that page without anyone assembling it by hand.

The same pages roll up into a portfolio view for a board or a lender. For the wider software work around it, see our software development company page and our energy software development work.

What does a build like this cost?

Cost depends on how many buildings, how many utilities and how much of the data is on paper. Progression quotes after a written scope. The table shows what published market figures say software of this size costs, and hosting, licenses and security testing come on top.

How should an owner compare two proposals?

By what each one names: the buildings, the utilities, the exports and who maintains the settings. A single total with no list is hard to compare and harder to hold anyone to.

Who in the owner’s office works with the software?

A BERDO year touches the property manager, the engineer, an analyst and the person who signs. Each needs a view of the same record, and none needs the others’ permissions.

• The property manager sees bills, gaps and the calendar.
• The engineer sees meters and readings.
• The analyst sees comparisons and exports.
• The signer sees the year end page and the open items.
• An administrator manages dates and permissions.

For a Boston owner who also needs an app for tenants or staff, our app development company in Boston page covers that work, and our real estate software development page covers property software beyond BERDO.

Frequently asked questions