Buyer's guide
How to compare water utility billing software.
Seven questions worth asking every vendor on your list — including us. Written for the small water systems, districts and associations that have to make this decision once a decade and live with it.
Who you'll run into
Utility billing is an old, crowded category. Shortlists for a small water system usually include some mix of these vendors:
- CUSI
- Banyon Data
- Tyler Technologies / Incode
- Harris
- Black Mountain Software
- Quikwater
- MuniBilling
- CORE Utilities
- The Utility Biller
- Rural Billing
- Edmunds
- Cogsdale
- BasicBMS Water
We're not going to tell you what any of those products do, what they charge, or how good they are. We don't run them, their pricing isn't public, and a comparison chart built on guesses would be worth exactly nothing to you. What we can give you is the list of questions that actually separate these systems — and our own answers, in writing, so you can hold us to them.
Ask every vendor the same seven questions. Ask us too.
The seven questions
Is this billing only, or does it run the rest of the utility?
Billing is one job. You also have work orders, scheduling for reads and shut-offs, payables, a general ledger, and a service area that probably lives on a paper map. If the billing system only bills, you're buying and reconciling two or three more systems around it.
BasicBMS Water: one system. Metered and flat-rate billing, customers and accounts, invoices, Stripe payments, notifications, work orders, scheduling, payables, general ledger and geo-spatial mapping of your service area — all included, not sold as add-ons.
What is the real number, with everything switched on?
Ask for the total: base fee, per-user seats, per-module charges, the annual support or maintenance contract, and the payment-processing cut. The headline price and the invoice are frequently different documents.
BasicBMS Water: $3 per hookup, per month, $100/month minimum. Every feature included, users unlimited, no per-seat fee and no module unlocks. A 65-connection system is $195/month. A 150-connection system is $450/month. Over 250 connections we'll quote volume pricing.
Who does the data migration, and what does it cost?
This is the question that decides whether the project succeeds. Every small system has years of history in a spreadsheet or an aging program. "You can import a CSV" is not a migration plan — it's your clerk's next six weekends.
BasicBMS Water: we do it. Every account, meter, balance and rate structure comes across as a scoped one-time implementation, and your monthly billing doesn't start until you're live.
Can customers pay online without calling the office?
Every card your office keys in by hand is a phone call, a transcription risk, and a PCI question you don't want to answer.
BasicBMS Water: customers pay by card through a secure Stripe portal and payments post to the account automatically. Card data is tokenized by Stripe and never touches the utility's records. Customers manage their own card on file.
What happens when the person who knows the system retires?
More than 60% of rural water operators are eligible to retire within ten years, and 45% of small systems have no full-time certified operator. If the billing procedure lives in one person's head and one person's spreadsheet, you have a succession problem disguised as a software problem.
BasicBMS Water: the procedure lives in the system. Rates, cycles, schedules, service history and documents sit on the account where the next person finds them. Users are unlimited, so there's no reason to share one login or to keep a second set of books.
If we leave in five years, do we get our data?
Ask it plainly and ask for the answer in writing. Data you can't export is a renewal you can't refuse.
BasicBMS Water: your records are stored and exportable. The principle the whole platform is built on is that functional units move in and out — the door swings both ways.
Can I call a utility my size that runs it today?
Not a case study PDF. A phone number. A system with your connection count, your billing structure, and a clerk who will tell you what went wrong during the switch.
BasicBMS Water: Pomona Artesian Irrigation Company, a water utility in the Yakima area, runs its accounts, invoicing, scheduling, mapping and online payments on BasicBMS today. Call us and we'll set up the conversation.
When we're not the right answer
A buyer's guide that concludes "buy ours" every time isn't a buyer's guide. Here's where you should look at someone else, or at least ask us hard questions first:
- You're a large system. Our pricing calculator runs to 250 connections. Past that we can still talk, but the vendors built for city-scale utilities have been doing it a long time and you should include them.
- You bill electric or gas alongside water. BasicBMS Water is configured for water-style billing. Multi-utility billing is a conversation to have with us before you shortlist us, not after.
- Your state association or funding agency requires a specific integration or reporting format. Bring us the requirement first. If we can't meet it, we'll tell you before you spend time on a demo.
- You're happy with your accounting package and want to keep it. A general ledger and payables are included here. If you're keeping something else, you'd be paying for overlap — worth weighing honestly.
- Nothing is actually broken. If your billing works and your clerk isn't retiring, the strongest argument for switching is one you don't have yet. Boards that switch reactively — after a computer dies or a vendor drops support — pay more and enjoy it less, but that doesn't make "now" automatically right.
Our number, in public
Most vendors in this category quote privately. Ours is on the site, so you can put it in the comparison column before you ever call:
$3 per hookup, per month — $100/month minimum
Every feature, every user, included. Plus a scoped one-time implementation that migrates your accounts and meters and stands the utility up live — monthly billing starts when you do.
That's about a dime a day per connection. Whether it beats the other quotes on your desk depends on what those quotes actually include, which is exactly what question two is for.
Common questions
Do you have a feature-by-feature comparison chart?
No, deliberately. We'd have to guess at other vendors' current feature sets and pricing, and those change. Guesses in a comparison chart help nobody make a real decision. The seven questions above get you accurate answers from every vendor, including us.
We're on an older system now. How hard is switching?
The conversion is our job: accounts, meters, balances and rate structures come across as part of a scoped one-time implementation, and your monthly billing doesn't begin until your utility is live on it.
How much should a small water utility expect to pay?
For BasicBMS Water: $3 per hookup per month with a $100/month minimum, so a 65-connection system is $195/month and a 150-connection system is $450/month, plus a one-time implementation. Other vendors price differently — ask each one for the all-in number including seats, modules and support.
Are you a fit for a water association or irrigation company?
Yes. Districts, associations, irrigation companies and small municipal systems all bill on the same shape: connections, meters, rates and a cycle. The live reference we point people to is an irrigation company.
Can we see it running before we commit?
Yes — there's a three-minute tour of the actual billing workflow, and we'll walk you through the live setup on a call.
Bring us the seven questions.
We'll answer all of them on one call, with your connection count and your billing structure in front of us.
See billing software for small water utilities · or the full BasicBMS Water overview with the pricing calculator.
Company and product names on this page are the trademarks of their respective owners and are listed only to describe the vendor landscape. BasicBMS is not affiliated with them, and nothing here is a statement about their products, pricing or capabilities — ask each vendor directly.
