Are You Offering Online Bill Pay?

Gary Sanders, Senior Consultant

Does your utility provide a way for your customers to pay online? If not, it’s time to consider it. Many billing system vendors offer online bill pay solutions which integrate directly with your billing software.

A good, fully integrated online bill pay system is like a Swiss Army knife - one tool that serves many purposes.

Second only to bank drafts, online payments are the easiest and most efficient way to accept payments. Especially if you charge a third-party convenience fee, where your online bill pay provider collects the transaction fee, because your customer pays the full price of processing the credit card transaction.

Even if your software vendor doesn’t offer an online bill pay option, there are many third-party options available. If a third-party solution is your only option, I encourage you to consider it. However, if your software vendor does offer a fully integrated online bill pay option, and you’re not taking advantage of it, here are some of the features you might be missing.

Third-party online bill pay vendors generally fall into one of two categories - companies whose primary line of business is payment processing and outsource print vendors. In the first case, an updated file with customer balances is usually provided to the third party once a day. Outsource bill print vendors who offer online bill pay generally rely upon the balance provided in the most recent bill print file.

The obvious weakness of either of these options is outof-date information. In the first situation, payments made earlier in the day aren’t reflected in the balance your customer sees online. The classic case is a customer pays the bill in the morning and then, not knowing a payment has already been made, their spouse pays it again later in the day, resulting in an overpayment which they will most likely ask you to refund. The online bill print vendor scenario is even worse – no adjustments or payments made after the bill was mailed are reflected in the balance your customer sees online.

A fully integrated online bill pay system solves this dilemma because payments are posted in real time and the customer’s balance is always up to date, eliminating the chance of overpayments on an account.

Additionally, some third-party systems require a file of payments to be imported the next day. This isn’t necessary with a fully integrated system because the payments are logged in the system as they happen. Even worse are third party solutions that don’t provide a file for you to import, requiring your staff to enter each payment manually.

Third-party providers generally provide little more information online than the customer’s balance and due date. A fully integrated online bill pay system should display billing history, payment history, and usage history. Most third-party systems also require your customer to have their account number available in order to pay online, while fully integrated systems often allow your customer to create a profile. The advantages of creating a profile include using a username and password to access the system, eliminating the need for your customer to have their account number accessible when making a payment. Some integrated systems even allow multiple (continued on page 19)

The NRWA Rural Water Loan Fund (RWLF) is a funding program specifically de-The NRWA Rural Water Loan Fund (RWLF) is a funding program specifically designed to meet the unique needs of small water and wastewater utilities. The signed to meet the unique needs of small water and wastewater utilities. The RWLF provides low-cost loans for short-term repair costs, small capital projects, or RWLF provides low-cost loans for short-term repair costs, small capital projects, or pre-development costs associated with larger projects. The RWLF was established pre-development costs associated with larger projects. The RWLF was established through a grant from the USDA/RUS, and repaid funds used to replenish the fund through a grant from the USDA/RUS, and repaid funds used to replenish the fund and make new loans. and make new loans.

Reasons to apply Reasons to apply

• Reasonable interest rates • Reasonable interest rates • NRWA does not charge administrative • NRWA does not charge administrative or processing fees or processing fees • Straightforward application process • Straightforward application process • Quick turnaround • Quick turnaround

Eligible Projects Include Eligible Projects Include

• Pre-development (planning) costs for infrastructure projects • Pre-development (planning) costs for infrastructure projects • Replacement equipment, system upgrades, maintenance • Replacement equipment, system upgrades, maintenance and small capital projects and small capital projects • Energy efficiency projects to lower costs and improve • Energy efficiency projects to lower costs and improve sustainability sustainability • Disaster recovery or other emergency loans available • Disaster recovery or other emergency loans available

Contact your State Rural Water Association or Contact your State Rural Water Association or National Rural Water Association for National Rural Water Association for help with the application process. help with the application process.

For More Information: For More Information:

Applications, information and forms can be downloaded from the NRWA Applications, information and forms can be downloaded from the NRWA website, www.NRWA.org/loans. website, www.NRWA.org/loans.

Email applications to: Email applications to: Or mail to: Or mail to:

nrwarwlf@nrwa.org nrwarwlf@nrwa.org

Rural Water Loan Funds Rural Water Loan Funds 2915 South 13th 2915 South 13th Duncan, OK 73533 Duncan, OK 73533

(continued from page 16) accounts to be linked to a single profile. This is especially helpful for landlords who may have multiple accounts • Is your water or wastewater utility facing or small business owners who pay both their home and costly upgrades to stay in compliance? • Is your utility feeling forced to pose ballot business accounts online. measures to its ratepayers for funding major improvement projects in your system? • Has your system's decision-makers considered hiring a third-party to look over planned improvement projects prior to starting a project? The more information your customers can find online, the less they need to call your office for assistance, reducing the call burden on your customer service staff. Over the years, fully integrated online bill pay systems have evolved into customer portals where customers can do much more than just pay bills and view history. If you offer paperless billing, also known as ebilling, a fully integrated customer portal allows your customers to view and download their bill online, eliminating the cost of printing and postage. Customers can also change their email addresses as desired, again reducing calls to your customer service staff. Additional options provided by some customer portals include updating billing address and contact information, applying for service, initiating turn-off service orders, and sending messages to customer service. If your billing software vendor provides an online bill pay solution, you should seriously consider implementing it. If they don’t have an integrated solution, one of the many third-party solutions is still a better answer than not offering online bill pay at all.

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, contact MRWA for a Project Review. A phone call today might potentially save your system $$ millions $$. With over 400 years of combined experience in the water & wastewater industry, MRWA's pledge to the members it serves is to offer an objective perspective. This is a no-cost "Members Only" MRWA member benefit. Contact us today!

Billy Everett 417.455.6275 beverett @moruralwater.org Joe Anstine 660.351.0394 janstine @moruralwater.org Brad Rayburn 573.300.8664 brayburn @moruralwater.org Jim Patton 573.337.0053 jpatton @moruralwater.org Tom Hyatt 573.783.1745 thyatt @moruralwater.org

Gary Webber Tom Burkhart 660.626.6140 417.546.8699 gwebber tburkhart @moruralwater.org @moruralwater.org

Michael Vavruska 417.630.8852 mvavruska @moruralwater.org

Liz Grove 573.231.6797 egrove @moruralwater.org

Wayne Roderman Jeff Lee 573.776.5115 660.351.1098 wroderman jlee @moruralwater.org @moruralwater.org

Mark Klaus 816.349.2670 mklaus @moruralwater.org

www.moruralwater.org

Gary also publishes a free, bi-weekly e-mail newsletter and blogs at http://edmundsgovtech.com/category/utility/ with Eric Thurman 660.375.3025 Donald Jones 573.259.8801 topics focused on helping utilities improve business office ethurman @moruralwater.org djones @moruralwater.org operations and better serve their customers.

• Is your water or wastewater utility facing costly upgrades to stay in compliance? • Is your utility feeling forced to pose ballot measures to its ratepayers for funding major improvement projects in your system? • Has your system's decision-makers considered hiring a third-party to look over planned improvement projects prior to starting a project? If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, contact MRWA for a Project Review. A phone call today might potentially save your system $$ millions $$. With over 400 years of combined experience in the water & wastewater industry, MRWA's pledge to the members it serves is to offer an objective perspective.

This is a no-cost "Members Only" MRWA member benefit. Contact us today!

Billy Everett 417.455.6275 beverett @moruralwater.org Joe Anstine 660.351.0394 janstine @moruralwater.org Brad Rayburn 573.300.8664 brayburn @moruralwater.org Jim Patton 573.337.0053 jpatton @moruralwater.org Gary Webber 660.626.6140 gwebber @moruralwater.org Michael Vavruska 417.630.8852 mvavruska @moruralwater.org Tom Hyatt 573.783.1745 thyatt @moruralwater.org Tom Burkhart 417.546.8699 tburkhart @moruralwater.org

Wayne Roderman 573.776.5115 wroderman @moruralwater.org Liz Grove 573.231.6797 egrove @moruralwater.org Mark Klaus 816.349.2670 mklaus @moruralwater.org Jeff Lee 660.351.1098 jlee @moruralwater.org Donald Jones 573.259.8801 djones @moruralwater.org Eric Thurman 660.375.3025 ethurman @moruralwater.org