Meter reads, billing exceptions and work orders in one loop.
Small utilities run a billing system, a meter reading system and a work order process that were bought years apart. We connect them, so a bad read becomes a work order and a fixed meter becomes a corrected bill without three exports in between.
A customer's bill tripled. The meter read was flagged, but the work order to check it was never opened.
A water district, municipal utility or co-op with a small customer base has the same billing problems as a large one, with a fraction of the staff. Reads come in from AMR drive-by, AMI or handhelds. The exceptions, zero consumption, high usage, estimated reads, stuck meters, have to be worked before bills go out. Each one may need a field visit, and each field visit may need a bill adjustment.
Where those steps live in different systems, staff move the data by export, spreadsheet and memory.
Three systems, bought years apart.
Billing and customer information systems such as Caselle, Tyler Incode or Springbrook, meter data from Badger Meter BEACON, Sensus or Neptune, and work orders in Cityworks, Cartegraph or a shared spreadsheet.
Reads arrive as a file, not a feed
Many smaller utilities still move reads from the meter system into billing with an export and import each cycle, and review exceptions in whichever system shows them better.
Exceptions are worked by hand
Deciding which reads need a field check, and tracking what happened, happens outside the billing system.
Field results do not flow back
A crew replaces a meter or finds a leak. The new serial number, final read and adjustment have to be entered in billing separately.
The customer calls before the utility knows
High-bill calls arrive before staff have looked at the read, and the history needed to answer is in three screens.
Built around the systems you already run.
Read import automation
Meter reads moved into billing on schedule, validated on the way, without a manual export.
Exception workflow
Each flagged read becomes a tracked item with a decision, an owner and, where needed, a work order.
Work order hand-back
Field results, new meter details and final reads written back to billing when the crew closes the order.
Adjustment approvals
Leak credits and corrections proposed from the record and approved by a person before they post.
Customer portal
Customers see usage history and request service, move-ins and move-outs included, without calling the office.
Board and state reporting
Consumption, water loss and billing figures pulled from the systems of record.
Accessible public website
Outage notices, rates and forms on a site that meets accessibility expectations for public bodies.
A website you do not maintain
Managed Website plans from $495 a month, build included, kept current and secure.
Automation and custom software work is scoped and delivered for a fixed estimate you approve before we start.
One system, where billing and the work behind it reconcile.
We have not worked for a utility. The closest proof is how we run our own operation: clients, recurring billing, time entries and tasks all read from the same records, so there is one answer to any question instead of one per tool. That is what lets the billing check itself.
An exception that becomes a work order, and a work order that corrects a bill, is the same idea: one record instead of three exports.
Running a company's websites and tools without an IT team.
A small utility with a billing system, a meter system, work orders and a website has four systems and often nobody whose job is making them agree. The playbook covers what that costs and where to start.
Walk us through one billing cycle.
Bring your exception report and your work order process. We will show you where the hand-offs can stop being manual.