Improve coordination between billing and work orders

From shut ons, shutoffs, and customer communication to capturing unbilled work and understanding water leakage, billing systems and work order management makes for a critical integration.                          

Why is combining billing with work order management so powerful? 

Coordinating billing and fieldwork can be complex - whether it’s dispatching a technician to the field for a shut-off or any other customer service action. Billing departments infrequently have an effective way to manage dispatch to the customer and know when that work is done. 

Without proper integration between billing and the field, coordination often requires several phone calls, paper record-keeping, missed work or billing opportunities, and wasted time. Additionally, communicating with customers on issues that may directly impact them or their area of town is not always straightforward or even possible.

Integrating your billing system with a work order management system can make all of these problems go away - and offer some unique benefits that you may not have contemplated: like measuring water leakage across your network.

Muni-Link and Utility Cloud’s Integration

We are now introducing Muni-Link and Utility Cloud’s billing and work integration: two modern web-based platforms combined to effectively bridge the gap between billing, field worker and customer.         

With this integration, billing departments can dispatch work orders automatically based on the work action required. These actions include: re-running a meter reading, shutting off service, automatically creating new accounts for a new move in, and more. When fieldwork is complete, the loop gets closed with billing (and the customer) so that the appropriate notification or invoicing processes can take place.

With up-to-date fieldwork data mapped in GIS and Muni-Link’s customer notifications portal, you can communicate issues and work with customers in advance.             

Pro Tip: This integration allows the utility to understand the difference between water usage and billing information, which helps you prioritize and understand leakage across the system.         

6 benefits of billing and work integration

With this new billing and work integration, utilities can expect to:                 

1. Generate more revenue     

Your utility can generate more revenue by completing more work in the same amount of time.     

2. Enhance customer service 

With advanced customer notifications based on up-to-date work history, communicate issues with customers.  

3. Capitalize on administrative savings  

Save time and money on administratively burdensome tasks: move in/move out coordinations, meter re-readings, and shut on/shut-offs.   

4. Automatically bill for billable work 

Automatically billing the customer for billable work gives your utility another opportunity to capture otherwise potentially lost revenue.   

5. Identify accounts that are not paying

Identify which accounts aren’t paying so you don’t lose money in the process. This also gets you to follow-up on those accounts quicker and prioritize your work where it’s most valued. 

6. Quantify leakage across your system and prioritize capital needs

Measure the differences between revenue-generating water and expected water volume across your network to quantify water loss and dig in on the parts of town that might be leaking. 

With this integration, utilities can take advantage of both capturing lost revenue opportunities and achieving operational efficiencies all while taking advantage of the inherent benefits each system offers independently.