Efficient customer and financial management is essential for the operation of any water utility. mWater’s Customer Management and Accounting tools are designed to support that work by offering an integrated solution for tracking customers, usage, billing, payments, and financial data in a clear and systematic way.
These features are built to be modular and adaptable, enabling each utility to configure the system to its specific needs, whether that involves basic billing or a full accounting suite. With support for meter readings, automated invoicing, tariff-based billing, and comprehensive financial reporting, the system helps ensure accuracy, consistency, and visibility across customer interactions and financial operations.
This section of the guide provides a step-by-step overview of how to
set up and use the Customer Management, Meter Reading, and Accounting
modules. It includes instructions for configuration, permissions, data
entry, and daily use. The goal is to provide a clear framework that
supports utility staff in managing operations more effectively, with
reliable data at every step.
These modular features offer a comprehensive solution for managing customer interactions and financial operations. Our modules for Customer Management and Billing, Meter Reading, and the Accounting Suite seamlessly integrate to provide a holistic system. Together, they empower you to efficiently manage customer accounts, generate and send invoices, track payments, accurately record water usage, apply appropriate tariffs, automate consumption-based billing, maintain a full chart of accounts, manage payables and vendors, and generate essential financial reports. Only use the features that are relevant to you.
This integrated approach streamlines operations, improves accuracy, and provides a clear financial overview for water utilities and service providers.
Our vision for a data-driven utility
Quickstart - Setting up Management Features
These features are set for each system individually. So to set one up, first open an existing system you manage, or create a new one.
Customer Management can be set up from any of the three module pages: Customer, Meters or Setup Accounting if you are an admin of the system.
Setup is a simple, three-step process:
1. Choose Your Financial Structure (Chart of Accounts)
Even if you don't enable full accounting features, an accounting system is set up behind the scenes to allow for tracking customer transaction.
We offer a number of ready-made Charts of Accounts to get you started. You can always .
If you are running a small utility / , we recommend choosing the Simplified Chart of Accounts
If you are running a larger utility, you can begin with the Standard Chart of Accounts.
2. Select Features to Enable
Choose whether you want to enable the Meter Reading Module and/or the Full Accounting Module. The Customer Management Module is enabled in any case. You can toggle these modules on and off at any future time as well.
3. Configure Billing & Currency
Set the billing day which is the day of the month on which customer bills are generated.
Write the ISO Code of the currency relevant for the accounting system.
Finally, click Setup at the bottom to complete the process.
Our platform is designed to bring you more benefits the more you use it. So if you make use of asset management, you'll find that you can connect customers to assets of the type Connection, linking your physical water connections to customer records.
Going through the three-step setup
If you want to suggest another Chart of Accounts for us to add to the options for all utilities to use, get in touch at info@mwater.co.
Some additional options become available once you have gone through the setup process. You can change the Default Accounts Receivable Account. An A/R account is mandatory to track and manage the money customers owe for goods or services sold on credit. You can also set a logo and texts to show up in every customer bill that you print. Finally, you can set detailed permissions.
Bill Customization
You can optionally add customization to your bills by adding a title, footer and/or logo of your choosing.
You can add a title, footer and logo to your bills.
An example bill with custom text and logo
Permissions
Customer management features have detailed, role-based permissions to allow for full control over which users can do what.
You can set any user or group as an Admin, in which case they can do all the other permissions listed. Otherwise you can individually toggle on the accounting and customer management permissions:
- Reading Meters
- Record Charges
- Record Payments
- Manage Customers
- View Accounting
- Manage Transactions
Note that to edit these permissions, a user needs to be part of the admins of the organization who is set to manage the system itself. In other words, Admins set for the accounting system can't edit Permissions but can edit data.
You can also limit users and groups to one or more Meter Reading Routes. You can optionally assign customers to routes, and a user only sees the customers of the routes they are part of in the app.
Once the modules are set up, you can create tariffs, start adding customers and then recording meter readings which will generate charges.
Data in Accounting
The main types of data in the accounting system are:
Customers -
A record associated with a person, household, or institution that
pays to receive a good or service from the company. In the context of
water utilities the customers are the end users who pay for and receive
water service like households, businesses, churches, schools, etc.
Customer Accounts - An account associated with a customer. A customer typically has one but can have any number of accounts. This separation is important if, for example, a customer has multiple properties, or different tenants over time in the same property.
Vendors - An
account associated with a person, business, or institution that
provides a good or service to the company for payment. In the context of
water utilities this in may be pipe supply stores, gas stations,
employees, electricity providers, etc.
Accounts - A record in the general ledger that is used to collect and store similar information. These can include Assets (e.g. bank accounts, petty cash, accounts receivable, etc), Liabilities (Accounts payable, loans, etc), Equity (stakeholder's equity, owner's equity, or a non profit's net assets), Revenue (water sales, inscription fees, penalties, etc), and Expenses (gas, chlorine, employee accounts, etc).
Transactions - Any
business event having a monetary impact of the financial statements of
the company. Transactions credit (Add to) one account and debit
(Subtract from) another by the same amount. They require a "From
account", a "To account", a "Date", and an "Amount".
Bills: Bills
are statements issued to customers of their current balance along with
payments and debts incurred since the last statement.
Assets: Resources the business owns or controls that provide future value.
Liabilities: Obligations the business owes to others.
Equity: The owner’s residual interest after liabilities are subtracted from assets.
Revenue: Income earned from normal business operations.
Expenses: Costs incurred to generate revenue.
All accounts belong to one of these types of accounts, as well as an Account Category.
Adding accounts
Click Accounts
Click the +Add account button
Select the type of account from the list.
Enter a unique account code
Enter a unique account name
Setup Tariffs
Tariffs
are rates at which charges are applied to customers every month. These
can be volumetric, fixed, or both. Tariffs are used for reoccurring
charges and not for one-time charges like adding a new connection or a
meter replacement fee. Each customer has one tariff type that is applied
to them. This tariff will be used to automatically calculate monthly
charges to their account.
In order to add a new tariff:
Click Meters
Click the Meter Reading Setup button
Click + Add Tariff
Enter a unique tariff name
Enter a water sales account from the list. This must be a revenue account.
Choose Fixed Fees or Meter Rates
Fixed tariffs are used to charge customers for monthly fees that
do not change based on water consumption. These fees can be fixed
subscription fees, meter reading fee, etc. Multiple rates can be added
to one tariff type.
Meter rates are tariffs applied to metered connections. This rate
will be multiplied by the volume consumed during the month to calculate
the customer’s charge.
Fixed Fees
1. Click + Add Fee
2. Select the Income Account
3. Set the Amount that will be charged each month
4. Set when the fee is applied. This will be the date that shows up on the bill when the charge was incurred
5. Set optional start and end dates of when this fixed fee is applicable. This is used for things like promotional rates. Leave blank if it is a permanent rate.
Meter Rates
1. Click + Add Rate
2. Set the Price per m3
3. Set the optional Fixed fee that will be charged in addition to the volumetric consumption charge
4. Minimum and maximum volume allow for a multi-tiered tariff
structure. The meter rate will vary depending on which consumption tier
the user falls in.
5. Set the optional start and end dates
Finally, click Save on the bottom right to save the fee or meter rate.
Key points:
Make sure to have at least one tariff. These will be assigned to customers in a different step.
The billing cycle day for all tariffs should all be set to the same day
You can set various meter rates to cover different volume ranges and date ranges, in case you want to charge more or less after a certain monthly amount of usage.
Customers
The customer tab is where you can view existing customers, add new customers, and see customer bills.
Each customer needs a unique Customer ID. You should also enter a
name for the customer. Billing address, phone number and notes are
optional. You can also toggle the customer status between Active and
Inactive to make it easier to only track customers who are currently
active. Then you need to add an account to be able to read meters for the customer, or to create bills for them.
Typically, a customer only has one account, but it is possible to add any number of accounts to one customer. This is relevant if, for example, the same property has tenants that change over time and each tenant should have their own account, or if a certain customer manages multiple properties with multiple water connections.
Bills are created on the day of the month assigned in the accounting system configuration, at midnight US Pacific time.
Customer data entry
To learn how to import customers and other data, see the section on Importing data.
Customer accounts
Adding a customer account
Each customer account represents the billing and service relationship between the utility and the party responsible for paying for water services.
Each Account ID needs to be unique, and each account has to be linked to an Accounts Receivable Account so that it can be billed. The utility's default Accounts Receivable will be automatically set as the first option.
You can optionally enter an opening balance for the customer in case they have something outstanding from before you started using the accounting features in mWater.
You can link the account to an asset within your water system. It can either be an asset of the type Connection (recommended) or Water Point. If the asset already has its Meter ID filled, it will show up in the account field automatically.
Each can be linked to a Tariff. This designates the costs that the customer will accrue from using this account. It's assumed that each customer account is linked to a single meter you can track. Creating tariffs was covered in the previous section.
Meter Reading Routes represent optional groupings of customers into routes, for example along a certain street, part of town, or other grouping. You can assign users and teams to Routes from the Permissions section of the Configure Accounting view. If a user is assigned to one or more routes, then the user will only see the customers who are part of those routes in the app.
Assign routes to users from the Permissions section of the Configure Accounting page
The Accounts Receivable (AR) account in a water utility (or any business) is a financial asset account that represents money owed by customers for services already provided but not yet paid for.
Customer Overview
With the customer overview, you as manager of the water utility, can bring data together to get clear insights and help you take next steps. It can help you answer questions such as:
Are we financially healthy? (What is our cash flow situation?)
Who isn't paying? (Where do I need to focus collection efforts?)
Are our operations running smoothly? (Are meters being read on time?)
The customer overview is a console provided automatically for your water system, containing a customer map with some key indicators and information about which customers have paid up, and a list of customer data. The customer map allows you to see the customer accounts with connections on a map, as well as which customers are in arrears. The customer list is a filterable list of all customers.
So by mapping assets (Connections) and entering customer records, tariffs and meter readings, you'll get a command center that can become a place you visit every day to see whether you are on track, and what action to take to improve your position.
Note that you can turn the overview into a console using the button on the top right. Then you can edit the console using the Portal's regular features and evolve it to fit your needs. Finally, you can add the console you have created by using Custom Tabs on the Configure Page of the water system.
An example customer overview page showing accounts receivable, the collection rate, the number of active cusomter accounts and meters read in the last 30 days
Details about the key indicators:
Total Accounts Receivable: The total balance of all customer accounts of active customers.
Collection Rate: The amount of money collected from customers divided by the amount billed in the last 30 days.
Active Customer Accounts: The number of customer accounts linked to customers that are marked as Active.
Meters Read: How many meters (customer accounts) have readings within the last 30 days from today.
Note that you can toggle map layers on and off, and hover over customer connections to get more information:
Below the map you can find a summary table showing outstanding balances per customer account split into day ranges. There is also a chart showing the total volume consumed per month based on meter readings.
Outstanding balances per customer account and a chart of water volume per month
Bills
Bills are formal requests for payments to be made by the customer to the water utility. It is linked to a specific customer and specific customer account and is generated on a monthly basis on a preset date.
Bills generated by mWater contain:
- Customer account details (customer ID, address, account number) - Billing date - Previous unpaid balance - New charges for the billing cycle - Total amount due - Any payments made or missing
You can set the bill title, footer and a logo on the Configure Accounting-page.
Example Bill
Meter readings
Customer meter readings can be done both in the Portal and the App.
Note: If a mWater user is part of a water system (= part of an organization that is set as the Managed By field of a water system) they will automatically see a Customers button in the Standard Configuration of the app.
To record a meter reading for a customer in the app, click Customers on the homepage, select the appropriate system (if you are part of more than one), and then find the relevant customer in the list.
Note that customers are ordered in order of nearness. In other words, customers who are closest to you are at the top of the list.
A meter reading contains the following fields:
- Date of Meter Reading (default today)
- Previous Meter Reading
- Current Meter Reading
- Volume (m3)
- Photo (Optional)
By entering the current meter reading, the app will calculate the volume. It will also calculate the amount based on the tariff the customer is on.
You can also record charges that a customer is due, such as connection fees, and payments that the customer has made through the customer view in the app.
Note that mWater is not an app that allows you to transfer money. Instead recording payments is only intended for you to make a note that a payment has been made using some other service.
Vendors
Vendors represent organizations or individuals who provide goods or services to your utility such as equipment suppliers, contractors, fuel providers, or maintenance services.
The Vendors section in the accounting module allows you to:
Track payables: Monitor what your utility owes each vendor.
View balances: See outstanding balances at a glance, helping manage cash flow.
Organize vendor data: Store names, contact information, and payment history in one place.
Importing data
Importing customers
Customer data can be imported using the Import Customers option at the top of the Customers-page.
You can include opening balances to customers during import in case there are outstanding charges or balances.
Details of the import:
Important: The column headers in your XLSX file must exactly match the order and names shown below and in the template.
Customer Code (Required, unique identifier for the customer)
Customer Name (Required if 'Customer Code' is new)
Customer Status (Optional. 'active' or 'inactive' but defaults to 'active')
Customer Address (Optional)
Customer Phone (Optional)
Customer Notes (Optional)
Account Code (Required, unique identifier for this customer's account)
Accounts Receivable Account (Optional, account code for accounts receivable (uses default if blank))
Opening Balance (Optional, positive/negative decimal number for opening balance)
Opening Balance Date (Required if Opening Balance is specified)
Tariff Name (Optional, existing tariff name)
Water Asset Code (Optional, existing water asset code)
Route Name (Optional, existing route name)
Importing transactions and meter readings
Transactions can be imported at any point, whether at the start of using the accounting features or on an ongoing basis to bring transaction data from a financial system. The Import view is accessible from the Transactions page.
Each transaction needs a From Account and To Account as well as date and amount. Note that you can also import meter readings as part of transactions.
Upload an XLSX file with the following columns. The system will validate
the data based on the type of accounts involved in each transaction.
The column headers in your XLSX file must exactly match the order and
names shown below and in the template.
Date (Date) (Required, format YYYY-MM-DD)
From Account (From Account) (Required, account name or code)
To Account (To Account) (Required, account name or code)
Required if 'From Account' or 'To Account' is an 'Accounts Receivable' type.
Must be empty if 'From Account' or 'To Account' is an 'Accounts Payable' type.
Must be empty otherwise.
Required if Meter Start, Meter End, or Meter Volume are provided.
Vendor (Vendor) (Optional, vendor name)
Required if 'From Account' or 'To Account' is an 'Accounts Payable' type.
Must be empty if 'From Account' or 'To Account' is an 'Accounts Receivable' type.
Must be empty otherwise.
Meter Start (Meter Start) (Optional, numeric. Requires Customer Account if provided.)
Meter End (Meter End) (Optional, numeric. Requires Customer Account if provided.)
Meter Volume (Meter Volume) (Optional, numeric. Requires Customer Account if provided.)
Reports
Profit and Loss
The Profit and Loss (P&L) report also known as the Income Statement summarizes the financial performance of a utility over a specific period of time. It shows the total income earned and the expenses incurred, allowing users to assess whether the utility operated at a profit or a loss during that time frame.
Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet provides a snapshot of the utility’s financial position at a specific point in time. It lists what the utility owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities), and the remaining equity held by stakeholders.
What it includes:
Assets: Resources the utility controls that provide future value, such as cash, bank accounts, accounts receivable, and equipment.
Liabilities: Financial obligations the utility must settle, such as loans, accounts payable, or unpaid bills.
Equity: The residual interest in the utility’s assets after liabilities are subtracted. In nonprofit settings, this may be referred to as net assets.
The Balance Sheet ensures that all financial data is balanced according to the accounting equation.
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
This report is useful for understanding the utility’s overall financial health and ensuring accurate financial records for auditing and oversight.
Accessing data
All the customer, meter reading, transaction and accounting data is accessible as part of data sources when you are creating dashboards, datagrids, or maps, so that you can create the reports most useful for you.
This means any data you've entered you can bring into charts and tables or any other widgets, and then order it and filter it according to your needs. You can study the data model here.
Note that each accounting system is partitioned into its own space, so if you manage multiple systems please first search and find the appropriate system.
For example to show outstanding balances by customer as a bar chart, you can select Customer Accounts as the data source. Then, select the Customer Name under the Customer branch for the category axis value, and Balance from the customer account as the value axis.
You can highlight positive and negative values with different colours by adding a Threshold Line at 0.
Outstanding customer balances
The features are designed at the system level and not for aggregation. In case you need to aggregate data you may be best off exporting data from each system into some aggregation platform.
We are very interested in hearing your experiences and feedback with these features. Please reach out to as at info@mwater.co or fill out this feedback survey.
