Utility companies, particularly water utilities, are often faced with a very real challenge of trying to do everything in-house. In addition, building owners, mobile home park managers or managers of large or small apartments, condos or multifamily dwellings may all have to deal with the ongoing issue of billing and collecting for water usage.
For many of these utilities as well as property owners and managers, hiring water billing services can take all the work out of this monthly task. These systems can either continue with paper billing or move up to fully online billing services.
The Online Advantage
By going with fully online water billing services, it is possible to reduce costs and also provide a better billing system for your tenants and occupants. Account owners can simply go online to view and pay their bill, or even look at usage comparisons or patterns to help them to become more aware of when and how they are using water.
Online payments also make it easy for the utility or property owner or manager. They can also log into their own secure accounts and view usage, payments, pattern changes or even identify unusual water usage that may be an indication of a problem in the water lines.
Asking About Services
Take the time to talk to the water billing services you are considering. Make sure to ask about:
* Types of payments processed
* Access to current and past bills online through the client and business account
* Data collection periods (data in real-time or sent in once a day)
* Costs for the service
* Experience in client billing
* Any downtime experienced by the system and how data is stored and secured
It may also be important to ask for one or more references from the past or current businesses, utilities or property managers using the billing service. This information can be very helpful in making a final determination.
To learn more about the water billing services offered at ABT Water Management, visit us online.