Being in an industry that handles thousands of documents every month, extracting data manually, double-checking the collected data, fixing errors, and finalizing operations is challenging and time-consuming. What if we told you it is possible to automate data extraction from bills so that your staff focuses on strategic tasks and overlooks the extraction with humans in the loop workflow?
That's where utility bill management systems (UBM) come into play. With utility bill management systems, extract data using automation and improve efficiency in your business by handing over repetitive and routine tasks to automation.
Here, we list the top utility bill management systems available in the market with their features, pros, and cons, and help you decide the right fit for your business.
What are utility bill management systems and why do organizations use them?
A utility bill management system is a software solution that helps businesses accurately store digitized bills, extract relevant data from utility bills, and gain insights from sourced data. Mainly, it acts as a partner that supports billing operations.
The benefits of utility bill management systems include:
- Minimize manual errors: As compared to manual data extraction which is time-consuming and erroneous, automated utility billing solutions extract accurate data within minutes.
- Saves time: Reduce your staff’s time to deal with utility bills, such as scanning bills, data entry, and fixing errors, and help them concentrate on strategic tasks.
- Source data from different bill formats: Extract data from structured and unstructured documents and different bill formats.
- Reduce costs: Reduce labor costs and boost operational efficiency with the help of an automated utility bill management system.
10 Best Utility Bill Management Systems for 2024
Docsumo
Docsumo helps businesses transform the way they handle documents. Docsumo's intelligent utility bill data automation uses vectorized position references to extract data from a wide range of unstructured utility bills - water, gas, electricity, and more.
Document-heavy industries that process data from thousands of bills every month use Docsumo’s APIs to source data from bills such as customer name and address, due date, and billing period quickly and easily.
The best part? Docsumo processes different types of utility bill formats with little to no human intervention. Going a step further, validate the extracted data and derive insights using Excel-like formulas within utility bills.
Features
- Readymade or customizable APIs to extract data from unstructured utility bills
- Integrations with your systems like Salesforce and Yardi
- Validate data using the formula within your utility bills
- Personalize utility bill insights and extract specific data depending on your business needs
Pros
- More than 99% accuracy of the data extracted
- Source data from different types of documents and formats
- Intuitive and user-friendly UI
- Pay-as-you-go pricing model, making it a budget-friendly option for mid-level businesses
Cons
Pricing
- Growth: $500+/month
- Business: Custom pricing
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
2. Urjanet
Urjanet’s utility data platform collects data directly from global utility providers and provides access to this data to utility businesses. Collected data is simplified and presented according to your needs.
Urjanet eliminates chasing of information. Instead, get access to utility bills directly and process payments easily by feeding them into various payment applications.
This utility bill management system is best suited for private and public companies looking to improve payment processes to cut costs, save time, and operate efficiently.
Features
- Link online utility accounts to the data platform using APIs
- Integrations to process payments by feeding utility bills to your payment applications
- Delivers data directly from the utility provider via CSV or SQL
Pros
- Saves time as utility bills get delivered directly to the application you're choosing
- Payment processing is easier with reduced turnaround time
- Derive data in your desired format from utility bills
Cons
- Not suitable for smaller organizations
Pricing
Custom pricing
3. Muni Billing
Muni Billing is a utility billing software solution that allows governments, higher education entities, and property management companies to create customized bills and accept payments securely.
The cloud-based utility management system improves the operational efficiency of your billing process, flexibly accommodates your billing requirements, and gives intelligent insights to improve business outcomes.
Features
- Make informed decisions with reports showing accurate information about billing, meters, and payments
- Self-serve customer portal allows you to independently manage your accounts
- With accounting software data feeds generate access points for your business accounting
Pros
- Create customized bills
- Beginner-friendly utility management software
- Offers flexible billing operations to suit your requirements
Cons
- The user manual is not detailed enough for first-time users
- Requiring human intervention in certain places
Pricing
Custom pricing
4. Diversified Technology
Diversified Technology is a utility billing software solution mainly serving governments, municipalities, and private utilities that offer customers water, sewer, trash, gas, and electric services.
With Diversified Billing, get organized information about your customers by searching for their accounts using name, address, or account number. Diversified Billing's customer web portal allows customers to access and view their account information from usage to payment history with charts and graphs.
Features
- The customer web portal allows customers to access their entire account history 24/7
- An executive dashboard that shows the status of every work in your billing cycle
- Automated processes to guide existing and new staff through routine billing tasks
Pros
- Email bills to your customers directly from the software
- Locate customer accounts easily with the available information
- Receipting is easier because of the barcode printed on each bill
Cons
- No way to generate customized reports according to the information you need
- Lacks software manual to get started
Pricing
Custom pricing
5. Flux
Flux is a billing tool that empowers innovative energy businesses with billing and market operations. Simply put, Flux helps non-traditional energy organizations put together new charging solutions without any complexity to maximize profit for their businesses.
So how does it help? Flux can launch any type of tariff, like load-based pricing, sub-tariffs, demand charges, and more. Also, Flux supports creating flexible bills like bundled and unbundled ones according to the necessity and reliability of residential and commercial customers.
Flux is the best option because it works alongside your energy business, understands your business and specific needs, and takes a customized route to every migration.
Features
- Automate calculations and configure broker commissions accurately
- Supports all types of Power Purchase Agreements
- Group and manage multi-connection accounts on a single page to send relevant billing information
Pros
- Delivering even large-scale migration successfully
- Multi-party billing that enables you to bill multiple recipients
Cons
Pricing
Custom pricing
6. OpenGov Financials
Local governments' finances are managed efficiently when they opt for a cloud utility billing software like OpenGov Financials that caters to their specialized needs instead of relying on the same old technology.
From tracking data to reporting on a budget, checking payment status, civic services, budgeting, permitting, and licensing to asset management, OpenGov comes as a reliable solution to manage governments' financial processes. Integration into the Ledger stores every financial data accurately without requiring your employees to enter data manually.
Features
- Print scannable barcode labels to facilitate asset inventory
- Purchase cards allow you to carry out paperless transactions without submitting invoices separately
- Create customized finance reports based on your needs
Pros
- Ability to view data in different graphical formats
- Flexibility to customize dashboards
- User-friendly and accessible anywhere
Cons
- Certain areas of the platform are difficult to navigate
- Restrictions on visualizing performance measures
Pricing
Custom pricing
7. Oracle Utilities
Oracle Utilities offers various products like analytics, customer experience, meter data management, and billing to water, natural gas, and energy utility businesses. This cloud-based utility bill management system calculates and creates new rates using pre-built calculation rules for different scenarios, from volume-based and time-based pricing to unbundling charges.
Oracle's flexible billing solutions pave the way for you to serve commercial and industrial customers with billing processes catering to their business needs. Manage data such as customer accounts, service agreements, and registration points to handle your billing process smoothly.
Features
- Multi-account support to your customers, helping them to pay all their accounts easily
- Pre-built rate calculations assist in coming up with the precise rating
- API-based integration with ERP and other financial systems
Pros
- Assigning tasks to the suppliers within the platform
- Flexibility to integrate with any new system
- Manage and access customer data easily
Cons
- Lacks an onboarding training program
Pricing
Custom pricing
8. Muni-Link
Muni-Link is a billing software that municipalities and local governments in the U.S. use to bill residents and collect payments for their water, sewer, and natural gas services.
This billing tool serves the Customer Information System (CIS), where municipalities safely manage customers' information, from their name and address to the services they use with security protocols to protect the data.
Additionally, send advance notifications to your customers reminding them about their payments, and communicate any information instantly improving customer service and experience.
Features
- Automate tasks like sending follow-ups to customers about their payments
- Integrate with other systems like GIS, accounting, and meter-reading software
- Account Central to access a customer's entire account information on a single page
Pros
- Tracks and bills payments accurately to all the customer accounts
- Address queries of the residents within the platform
- Access the whole information about individual customers on a single page
Cons
- Printing receipts is not easy
- Users cannot customize reports
Pricing
Custom pricing
9. Utility Trackr
Utility Trackr is an all-in-one billing management software that handles metering, billing, payments, and customer service for water, natural gas, electricity, and renewable energy utility businesses. This cloud-based bill management software fits into your business without changing your current business operations and can be accessed from anywhere and anytime.
With Utility Trackr, store data, identify incorrect information the moment it has been entered into the system, and use data-driven insights to scale your business and improve efficiency.
Features
- Customize rate schedules automatically when a new supplier is added to your business
- Customizable dashboards to share specific information with your customers
- Automate the billing process for your clients
Pros
- Easy integration of the application with customers
- User-friendly interface
- Customized billing reports to track billing and usage history
Cons
Pricing
Custom pricing
10. Cimpl
Cimpl's telecom expense management optimization helps telecom, mobility, and cloud businesses manage their invoices, inventory, orders, and track costs to find opportunities to save money. This bill management system automates invoice processing and optimizes your business with the insights derived from powerful reports and analytics.
Features
- Automate routine processes to save time and improve accuracy
- Create contracts for all your telecom, cloud, and mobility services
- Complete visibility of your telecom inventory including circuits, numbers, and location
Pros
- Manage inventory easily and accurately
- Automate tasks and gain insights from reports
Cons
Pricing
Custom pricing
Extract Data Efficiently and Accurately with Docsumo
With so many utility bill management systems available today, choosing the platform that works for your data extraction needs is daunting. We recommend starting with Docsumo – a comprehensive automated billing management system for all industries. The best part, if you’re looking for a trial, start by dropping your PDF and image files here, and the free software processes documents up to 200 pages or 50 MB and 3 tasks per hour.
Start your 14-day free trial to extract utility bill data with 99.9% accuracy.