Industries · Utilities
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. We build the connections so the exception, the work order and the adjustment are one record.
Where the software stops
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. Each works. They rarely work together.
Meter reading and AMI
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.
Billing and CIS
Exceptions are worked by hand
The exception report lists high, low, zero and estimated reads. Deciding which need a field check, and tracking what happened, happens outside the billing system.
Work orders
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.
Customer service
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.
The paperwork
What a billing cycle produces.
Each item below starts in one system and has to finish in another. That hand-off is where the delay and the errors are.
- Read exception lists
- High, low, zero and estimated reads that must be reviewed before bills are released.
- Field work orders
- Re-reads, meter tests, leak checks and change-outs raised from those exceptions.
- Meter change-outs
- Old and new serial numbers, final and initial reads, entered in both the meter system and billing.
- Billing adjustments
- Leak credits and corrected bills approved and applied after the field result comes in.
- Connect and disconnect orders
- Move-ins, move-outs and shutoffs that have to reach the field crew and the account at the same time.
How we help
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 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 $95 a month, kept current and secure.
Automation and custom software work is scoped and delivered for a fixed estimate you approve before we start.
Proof · Albright Labs · the same kind of work
One system, where billing and the work behind it reconcile.
We have not worked for a utility, and this is not utility experience. 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. Across 991 invoices, 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.
Go deeper
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.
Utilities
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.
A senior engineer reads it and replies within one business day.
or call +1 (610) 756-5060