Online Water Bill
Keep Your Payments Flowing
We simplify billing for water associations
Our story
Built from real association experience
Built by people who understand your world
Zack Andrews joined the board of Deer Community Water Association in Newton County, Arkansas after years of paying his water bill by check while every other bill in his life was online. Steven Sparks, the association president, asked a simple question: do you want to help?
What they found was bigger than payments. Billing took hands-on time at every step: calculations, paper meter routes, manual invoices, and envelope-stuffing parties. Customers were frustrated. The president was fielding complaint calls every evening.
Online Water Bill was created to simplify operations without making associations completely change how they work. You can still mail bills. You can still take cash and checks at the office. The goal is to bring billing, meter reading, payments, and customer communication into one practical system designed for rural water associations.
After implementing Online Water Bill at Deer, the association president reported no complaint calls in months. The phone had been ringing five to ten times every night.
Today, Deer Community Water Association runs billing and customer access on Online Water Bill. Steven Sparks, association president, is the first point of contact for associations exploring the platform. Zack Andrews serves on the Deer board; in a separate role, he spent about seven months reading meters and processing billing through the same system your staff would use.
Common challenges we help simplify
Most associations we speak with are not failing. They are doing hard work with tools that were never designed to work together. We frame the conversation around simplifying what you already do:
- Collecting payments (checks, trips to the bank, tracking who paid)
- Mailing bills (paper, postage, stuffing envelopes; postcard mailers customers often report as lost)
- Meter reading workflows (paper routes, rekeying reads)
- Customer notifications and follow-up calls
- Reporting and usage history
- Tracking delinquencies
- Office workload during billing season
- Multiple disconnected systems that do not share the same numbers
Key features
What your staff and customers see in the system:
Customer homepage
Each association gets a branded website. Create an account, pay online, view news and other association information. This page is completely customizable.
Online & Offline Payments
Online bill pay. Customer pays via card or ACH.
Bookkeepers record offline check, cash, and money order payments.
Customer portal
Customers view balance, usage, and pay from any device
Meter reading
Invoicing & Mailing
One-click invoicing from meter reads
One-click automated mailing for customer bills
Customers receive professional bills by mail or email. Notice the accent color from your online portal carries over to the paper bills, building cohesiveness and trust.
Reporting & office tools
Create and manage work orders for water operators
Usage, payments, and delinquency tracking
Email notifications and payment confirmations
Switching systems does not have to be stressful
Most associations are afraid of losing data, downtime, confusing staff, angry customers, or changing systems after decades. That is completely normal. We help guide the process step by step:
- Initial setup and configuration (about 1–2 hours in the system)
- Data import assistance for current customers, accounts, and meters
- Staff onboarding and training
- 24/7 support forever through phone, email, or our built-in ticketing system
- Customer transition support (portal announcement, pay-online option)
Typical path to go-live
- Board approves exploring or adopting Online Water Bill
- Short call: how you bill today, connection count, meter reading method
- Quote for setup and onboarding based on connection count
- Import current customer and account data; spot-check addresses and meters
- Train bookkeeper(s) and meter reader(s)
- Next reading cycle in Online Water Bill → one-button billing → one-button mailing
Why associations choose Online Water Bill
| Online Water Bill | Traditional / disconnected approach |
|---|---|
| Modern cloud access from office or field | Often office-only software on one PC |
| Online payments plus in-office cash and check | Manual collections and bank trips |
| Mobile meter reading with GPS and offline sync | Paper routes and rekeying reads |
| All-in-one platform | Multiple tools that do not share data |
| Built for water associations | Generic billing or municipal software |
| Guided onboarding and 24/7 support | Limited transition help |
Security & reliability
Boards care about this. Here is what we tell them, in plain language, not a technical audit:
- Secure payment processing: Card and bank payments are processed by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. Online Water Bill does not store full card numbers.
- Cloud infrastructure: No billing server to maintain in your office. Access from anywhere with role-based permissions.
- Data backups: Included with setup and onboarding.
- Encryption: Industry-standard TLS (HTTPS) for data in transit.
- Support: 24/7 support forever through phone, email, or our built-in ticketing system.
Your association should keep archival copies of historical billing from prior systems if you need old invoices for audits. Online Water Bill focuses migration on what you need to run day to day going forward.
Straightforward pricing
Nobody likes surprise fees, hidden contracts, and confusing pricing. Our model is simple:
| Who pays | What |
|---|---|
| Water association | One-time setup and onboarding fee (quoted by number of connections). Includes hosting, backups, data import help, training, and 24/7 support forever through phone, email, or our built-in ticketing system. |
| Automated mailing (optional): $1.50 per bill mailed. Entirely optional, but it really takes care of your customers’ bills and boosts trust in your process. Cost reduces over time by about one-third as customers pay online and opt out of mailing. | |
| Customers | Small service fee when they choose to pay online. No fees for cash, check, or money orders. |
Contact us for numbers that apply to your association. We will walk through your connection count and current process: transparent onboarding, no hidden costs, flexible implementation.
Frequently asked questions
“We already have a billing system.”
That is completely normal. Most associations we speak with are transitioning from an existing process. Our goal is to make the transition smooth and manageable, not to criticize what you have today.
“What if our staff is not comfortable with technology?”
We provide onboarding, training, and ongoing support designed specifically for water association offices. The interface is built customer first with empathy and understanding by people who used it daily for months before we brought the system live.
“What happens if the internet goes down?”
Critical workflows like meter reading can continue offline and sync later when service returns. Your association data is stored in the cloud with redundancy, so billing records and customer accounts stay protected and available when your office comes back online.
“Will our customers actually use online payments?”
Most associations see adoption immediately by customers who want an easy way to pay online. Online payment and accounts are optional. Cash and check continue to be received the way they always have.
“Do we have to stop mailing bills?”
No. Online Water Bill can continue supporting traditional mailed bills alongside online payments. Our bills are professional, tri-folded, mailed automatically, and include return envelopes to help keep your traditional customers happy.
“Will we lose our data?”
We help you import current customer, account, and meter information for go-live. Keep archival copies of historical billing from your prior system if you need old invoices for audits.
“Why should we trust you?”
The platform runs today at Deer Community Water Association in Newton County, Arkansas. You can browse their live customer portal at deer.onlinewaterbill.com before you decide.
Built from real association experience
Deer Community Water Association, a rural community water system in Newton County, Arkansas, uses Online Water Bill for billing, meter reading, mailing, online pay, and customer portal.
“Thank you so much for what you do. I was so tired of having to remember and write a check every month for my water bill. I now have it set up on autopay and no longer worry about missing a payment.”
“I really like that online payments are deposited once a week instead of daily. That makes reconciling bank statements way easier than in another system I’ve used before, where deposits came in daily and were split between cards and bank accounts.”
Results at Deer
- Recovered roughly $5,000–$7,000 in previously lost revenue each month
- 80 meters that were not accounted for are now mapped in the system and billed accurately
- Complaint calls dropped to zero for the association president
- Bills generated automatically from meter input
- Mailing handled with one button
- Postcard mailers no longer reported as lost; bills are sent in a first-class envelope
- Customers view balances and pay online from any device
See how Online Water Bill works
Schedule a walkthrough and see how Online Water Bill can simplify billing, payments, meter reading, and customer communication for your association.
