What resources do you use?

In my last blog post, I referenced a listserv that I subscribe to. A reader inquired about the listserv, so I thought a post dedicated to resources might be a good idea.

For those who are unfamiliar, a listserv is an electronic mailing list that you subscribe to. Listserv users can ask other subscribers a question by sending an email to a central email address. Likewise, replies to a listserv email are distributed to all subscribers. Essentially, it allows you to subscribe to an email list without disclosing your email address to all the others on the list.

Listservs are a great way to ask questions of your peers without having to reach out to them individually.

Listservs I follow

I follow listservs that deal with utility billing issues for two reasons. One is to provide answers to questions where I have knowledge and expertise. The other, as I mentioned above, is that they often provide a good source of ideas for my newsletter. After all, this is issue 355 and, after almost 15 years, fresh ideas aren’t always easy to come by!

Here is a list of the listservs I follow:

NC Water listserv – this listserv is sponsored by the Environmental Finance Center at UNC and deals with topics related to drinking water and wastewater utilities management and operations.

NC Finance Connect – this listserv is sponsored by the School of Government Finance Faculty at UNC and addresses topics related to local government finance, occasionally including utility billing topics.

SCUBA listserv – this listserv is sponsored by the South Carolina Utility Billing Association (SCUBA), an affiliate association of the Municipal Association of South Carolina.

I’m based in North Carolina and, as you can see, these are all geographically close to me. Do you know of listservs in other states that I should follow? If you do, please send me an email.

Rates dashboards

Another great resource, if you are interested in comparing your water and sewer rates with other utilities, is the rates dashboards, also from the Environmental Finance Center at UNC. The EFC has a series of water and sewer rates dashboards for 24 states and stormwater rates dashboards for three states. Here is a list of the water and sewer rates dashboards by state:

Tools on my website

The Tools page of my website also has some excellent resources. Let’s take a look at each of them.

Days of Exposure

Comparing rates with other utilities is one thing, but comparing security deposits is a big no-no, as I described in this blog post. If you’re wondering if your security deposit is adequate, calculating your Days of Exposure will tell you.

Cut-Off Fee Calculator

Fees should recover the full cost of providing the service for which the fee is assessed, and cut-off fees are no different. If you’re interested in knowing what your cut-off fee should be, the Cut-Off Fee Calculator is a great tool.

Staffing Level Calculator

Use the Staffing Level Calculator if you would like to calculate your utility’s Annual Accounts Billed per Office Employee value to compare to results from past Utility Fee Surveys.

Outsourcing Calculator

Have you ever wondered if you could move to outsource billing and have it pay for itself by offering ebilling? Use the Outsourcing Calculator to calculate the required ebilling adoption rate for this to happen.

Cashier and Mail Payment Calculators

We all know there is a cost to processing credit card payments, but how about cashier and mail payments? They aren’t free, you know! To calculate how much it costs to accept either, use the Cashier Payment Calculator or Mail Payment Calculator.

Are there resources you use that I’m not familiar with, especially listservs in other states? Please let me know by emailing me at gary@utilityinformationpipeline.com.

Utility Information Pipeline