Seasoned expert Gary Sanders has partnered together with MuniBilling to help give readers an in-depth look into the world of Utility Billing Systems.
For today's Ask The Expert blog we'll be focusing on whether or not your security deposit is sufficient. Learn how you can discover if your security deposit is sufficient or not, and what's actually considered sufficient.
So Gary, what exactly is considered a sufficient security deposit?
In a worst-case scenario, customers who are disconnected for non-payment and skip out without paying end up being written off.
That is, unless your security deposit is sufficient to cover the unpaid bill they were cut off for and any additional usage up until the time they were disconnected.
Then how can I know if my security deposit is sufficient or not?
This is where the Days of Exposure you calculated during the first webinar comes into play. By converting your Days of Exposure into Months of Exposure and applying this value to your average residential utility bill, we can calculate what an average customer will end up owing when they are cut off for non-payment.
If your deposit isn’t at least this amount, and the customer never pays their final bill, you will end up writing off bad debt. A sufficient security deposit will fully cover the customer’s final bill, avoiding a possible bad debt write-off.
This topic is a portion of a webinar you're hosting with MuniBilling this winter. What else will this webinar cover?
In addition to calculating if your security deposit is sufficient, Gary will present a number of best practices for security deposits. The webinar will wrap up with Gary answering your questions about security deposits, so come prepared with your questions!
Operational Analysis
Gary's 40+ years of experience in the industry has granted him valuable knowledge for any billing entity. With the wealth of his knowledge you can request an Operational Analysis for your organization from him!
You may be wondering, what exactly is an Operational Analysis? Well, it essentially is when Gary looks through ALL of your systems, and interviews your team, to figure out how best you can improve your billing operations.
Here are a few of your organization's systems that Gary will assess:
- Billing System
- Accounting System
- Metering System
- Service Delivery System
The end goal with this analysis is to figure out how to best save your organization time and money. This could also mean suggesting another company's platform if it's the better fit for YOU.
Gary has hosted his own blog for the past ten years. Some of his more notable credentials is that he has designed, built, implemented, and supported both ERPs and Utility Billing Systems. Thankfully, he's only a hop, skip, and jump away.
