Intuitive, AI-powered utility billing software for municipalities and utility authorities.

Key features of Diversified Billing AI

With Diversified Billing AI, Diversified Technology re-imagined how a utility billing system should work, starting with the steps a billing clerk repeats every cycle.

• A user-customizable dashboard displays key billing system metrics at a glance.
• Rule-based processes operate on their own, without operator intervention.
• Processes can be started with a voice command.
• Integration with the Master Calendar module automates task management across the billing cycle.
• Integration with the Work Orders module connects the billing office with field staff in real time.
• Customer records hold every transaction and communication, and a record can be moved from one parcel to another.
• Separate parcel records hold meter data and work order history for each property.
• A comprehensive audit trail records every transaction, adjustment and user action.

AI-powered billing automation software that saves labor steps

Diversified Billing AI is billing automation software, and every process in it is built to save labor steps. When a decision follows a rule, the system makes it, and your billing staff spends its time on the accounts that need a person.

Each meter read is compared with the reading the system expects for that account. A read that comes in outside parameters you set goes on an exception list, and the system generates a work order to have the meter re-read or checked. The operator doesn't need to be involved, and the work order can go straight to the field crew through the Work Orders module.

In many billing offices a person still prepares every late notice and shutoff notice by hand. Diversified Billing AI generates them on a rule your office sets once. Ten days after the due date, for example, the system can create the late notice and email it to the customer with no human hands involved.

The AI also works on the billing run itself:

• AI flags billing anomalies in each run before bills go out.
• Codes generated by smart meters, including leak alerts and tamper events, raise alerts on the account.
• Billing, payment, notice and penalty processes run automatically on rules your staff customizes.
• AI generates payment plan recommendations for customers who fall behind.
• An AI-powered administrative assistant generates reports, customer summaries and alerts.

Water billing software for every rate structure

Water rates are where utility billing gets complicated. One account can carry a minimum charge, tiered consumption, a summer irrigation rate and a fire line fee. Many utilities design their rates with the American Water Works Association's M1 manual, Principles of Water Rates, Fees, and Charges, and each structure it describes adds a rule the billing office has to apply every cycle.

As water utility billing software, Diversified Billing AI holds those rules as settings your staff controls. You set the tiers, seasons, minimums and effective dates, and the system applies them to every account in the cycle.

Meter reads import directly into each billing cycle, and the Smart Meter API integration brings daily reads from smart meters into the same database that drives billing. With smart meters, residents see their own readings in the Citizen Action Center, and the automated meter turn off and turn on process shuts off a past-due account remotely and restores service the moment the payment posts. The office handles both without sending a truck to the property.

Sewer billing software that follows the water meter

Many municipalities bill sewer from water consumption, and the exceptions are where the work is: winter quarter averaging, pool credits, irrigation meter deductions and flat rates per dwelling unit. Sewer billing software has to know which meter feeds each sewer charge, which months count toward an average and which accounts carry an exemption.

Diversified Billing AI bills sewer as its own service on the same account as water. You set the calculation once, it runs every cycle, and the resident receives one bill for both. Authorities that also manage on-site septic systems track inspections and pumping against the same parcel record.

A utility CIS with one record for every customer and parcel

A utility CIS, or customer information system, is the record behind every bill. It holds the account, the service address, the meters, the owner and tenant history, payment arrangements and every note a clerk has left. When those pieces sit in separate systems, a resident asking why this bill is higher than last year's costs the clerk three lookups.

Diversified keeps the customer record in one place. Each record holds every transaction and every communication with that customer, and it moves with them: when a customer changes address inside your service area, the record moves to the new parcel. Each parcel keeps a record of its own as well, with meter data and work order history for the property.

Customers can keep several phone numbers and email addresses on file, and each type of communication can go to a specific number or address. A shutoff notice can go to the owner's phone while receipts go to the tenant's email.

Changes of occupancy can run through an Automated Move In / Move Out process, which generates final bills and deposit refunds and dispatches meter pulls and sets as work orders. Delinquency, shutoff lists, liens and payment plans all read from the same record.

Benefits for customers, municipal staff, and boards

Benefits for customers

• A comprehensive customer portal gives residents their billing, payment and consumption records, and lets them pay bills or set up autopay.
• Residents with smart meters see their own readings without calling the office.
• Customers manage multiple accounts with a single login.
• Customers keep multiple phone numbers and email addresses on file.
• Specific communications go to specific numbers or addresses.

Benefits for municipal staff

• The interface is easy to learn and easy to use, so a new employee can be productive without formal training.
• Highly automated, rules-driven processes take the drudgery out of setup.
• Processes run automatically or start with a voice command.
• Meter read exceptions and late notices are handled by rules, so staff stop making the same routine decisions every cycle.
• Master Calendar task management keeps everyone on track.
• Comprehensive customer and parcel data is quick and easy to reach.
• Staff generate reports and share them with customers by email or text.

Benefits for boards and management

• An individually customizable dashboard gives each level of management the real-time information it needs.
• Master Calendar task management shows the real-time status of every task: completed, in process, overdue or not yet started.
• Process automations let labor hours be reduced or repurposed, which helps an office that is short-staffed or struggling to hire.
• A comprehensive audit trail gives auditors every transaction and the user behind it, which shortens the annual audit.
• Remote shutoffs and reconnections through smart meters cut truck rolls.

Municipal billing software pricing

Diversified Billing AI is included in both base packages of Diversified Municipal Center. The Utility Authority Package, built for water, sewer, gas and electric authorities, is $3 per property per year. The Local Government Package is $6 per property per year. Both include unlimited users, hosting and support, so the price stays the same when you add a clerk.

The Utility Authority Package is utility management software with billing at its core, built as billing software for utility companies and authorities: meter-to-cash, customer service, the resident portal and AMI in one system. Add-on processes, such as automated meter turn off and turn on, carry a one-time implementation fee, and billing services are quoted to your organization. The full breakdown is on the pricing page, and a custom demo shows what your own properties would cost.

Utility billing solutions run by our team

Some offices prefer to hand billing off altogether. Our Managed Services group produces some 8 million utility and tax bills a year for its clients, from meter import and exception reports through bill print and mail, lockbox payments, late and shutoff notices, and toll-free customer service.

You can outsource the whole billing function or only the parts stretching your staff, on a permanent or temporary basis. The same utility billing system runs behind both, so moving between the software and the service keeps your data where it is. Details are on the billing services page.

Everything is connected

As part of the Citizen Action Center infrastructure, Diversified Billing AI can use these modules:

• Smart Forms collect precise information from customers.
• The Move In / Move Out module keeps you on top of customer location changes.
• The Asset Management and Preventative Maintenance modules keep track of assets and keep them in top operating condition.
• The Citizen Service Request module manages customer issues.

Questions municipalities ask about utility billing software