An Introduction to Water and Sewer Billing
Water and sewer services are essential to daily living, but delivering them requires careful coordination of many elements, from customer information to meter readings. Water and sewer billing software helps utility companies facilitate these elements and deliver high-quality services efficiently and accurately.
Sewer and water billing systems can eliminate many manual, paper-based processes, offering a better experience for customers while providing many other benefits. Let’s take a closer look at sewer and water management software and how it can impact utility businesses.
What Is Water and Sewer Billing Software?
Sewer and water utility software uses a customer information system (CIS) to streamline day-to-day operations for utility companies and municipalities. The CIS can manage information for a large customer base and use it for related activities.
The software facilitates processes like billing and payment collection through a self-service portal for customers and various backend resources for utility companies. Some of the functions you’ll find in sewer and water utility software include:
- Billing and collections, such as calculating rates and issuing bills.
- Customer account management and communication platforms.
- Technical support and customer service.
- Backup and disaster recovery through cloud-based systems.
- Backflow inspection and field service tools.
- Integrations with other utility management systems, like accounting and credit card processing.
Your water and sewer billing software should adapt to your current and future needs. For example, your software provider might tailor the solution to your needs and workflow. As technology changes, a provider should also offer ongoing support, such as security updates.
Why Do Water and Sewer Utility Companies Need Billing Software?
Delivering these services can be complex, and sewer and water billing systems unlock benefits throughout the process, from enrolling new customers to improving on-time payment rates. With the ever-present need to work efficiently and stay up-to-date on technology demands, a utility company’s software plays a significant role in staying competitive.
One of the most noticeable benefits of sewer and water utility management software comes from operational efficiency. It can streamline your workflow in many ways, such as automating tasks like invoicing customers and reading meters. Automation and integrations reduce manual data entry, which can boost accuracy and help you avoid costly or time-consuming errors from slow and unreliable paper-based systems.
If your water and sewer utility software also offers a customer portal, it can reduce your team’s workload. Rather than calling one of your employees, users can take action online. A portal also helps water treatment software deliver an exceptional customer experience. Today’s residents expect simple, 24/7 account management and flexible payment options. A water billing system allows utility providers to offer this modern experience and boost customer engagement.
These benefits are among the most valuable, but depending on its features, billing software can also help in areas like accounting, compliance and data security.
Importance of Customer Engagement
Traditional Problems With Billing Residents for Water and Sewer Services
Conventional utility billing practices come with their share of challenges. A water system’s utility billing services can address these problems through different features and resources. Some common challenges include:
1. Inaccurate Data
Billing depends on many kinds of data, from the customer’s name to the reading from their meter. Manually typing information can lead to human error and discrepancies. For example, an employee could mistype information in a document or misread a meter.
With the help of seamless integrations and automation, water bill management systems can significantly improve accuracy by eliminating these opportunities for errors.
2. Late Billing and Payments
Utility companies often face cash flow issues due to slow billing processes or cumbersome payment collection options. Sewer and water billing systems help streamline cash flow with efficient workflows and flexible bill management for customers. The easier it is for customers to pay their bills, the less time you need to spend chasing down payments.
3. Communication Issues
Several teams contribute to water and sewer billing, such as operations, customer service and maintenance crews. Your sewer and water utility software can connect these teams and your customers to give everyone access to the most updated information.
Some examples include:
- Updating field service activities as they happen to inform customer service queries and decisions about work orders.
- Notifying customers of service interruptions, upcoming due dates and other messages.
- Centralizing data to provide consistent, accurate information across customer portals, customer service software and other interfaces.
- Linking external systems like meter-reading software and asset management software.
To support communication, look for a solution that integrates water and wastewater billing software with other systems, like asset management software, geographic information system (GIS) data, accounting software and meter-reading systems.
4. Data Security
About a third of consumers would stop working with a business that failed to protect their sensitive information. Good security is a must-have, and traditional billing systems — such as those that use disconnected software solutions or store information on-site — could put customer data at risk.
A cloud-based water and wastewater billing solution can significantly improve security, especially if it uses security best practices. This approach leaves data handling to trusted cybersecurity professionals rather than in-house teams, which are often spread thin.
Muni-Link’s Water Billing System
Utility providers have unique workflows and needs, so we developed the Muni-Link billing solution with the help of municipal authorities. The result is a comprehensive system to streamline sewer and water billing with accuracy and speed. Our cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model means you can access Muni-Link from anywhere you have an Internet connection.
Some notable features of Muni-Link include:
- Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) certification: With CASS certification, you can use Muni-Link to improve address accuracy with the program from the United States Postal Service (USPS). Reduce undeliverable mail and address errors to save time and money.
- Centralized customer account information: Your customer service team can view an entire customer account from one easy-to-read page for lower call times and more accurate data.
- WebPresence: Our user-friendly communication tool allows utility providers to share information with the public regardless of technical skill. Easily send out resources, calendar events, job applications, policy updates, surveys and other content.
- A self-service portal: Empower your customers to manage their sewer and water bills with automated billing, payment history, usage data and more.
- Regular updates: Technology moves fast, and our team can help you keep up with regularly updated software.
With a rounded selection of resources and capabilities, our water and wastewater software offers benefits throughout each stage of the process. Save time and money with purpose-built tools for sewer and water services.
Streamline Your Water and Sewer Billing With Muni-Link
Whether you need to manage a vast customer base or implement small water utility billing software for a growing town, Muni-Link can help. We’ll work with you during the switch to tailor Muni-Link to your workflow and ensure your team can make the most of it. Muni-Link’s parent company, Link Computer Corporation, has been providing IT expertise since 1980, and we have a long track record of success. Request a demo today to see Muni-Link in action.