Data Management and Analysis

Data management refers to making sure you have at your disposal the information you need to:

• Understand how your customers are using water, how those patterns impact your revenue, and what’s changing over time
• Develop sound budgets and rate structures that address your system’s individual needs
• Justify proposed decisions to elected officials, water commissioners, and rate-payers
• Plan for the future

Guides:

The following guide provides best management practices for tracking and analyzing customer use and billing data to support financial planning and rate setting.

• Collecting, Managing, and Analyzing Water Usage Data

The following guide outlines useful metrics of customer use patterns to support financial planning and conservation.

• A guide to Customer Water-Use Indicators for Conservation and Financial Planning 

Resources

• What are the experiences of Massachusetts suppliers with rate setting?

  • Survey of 114 Massachusetts Water Suppliers –key successes and challenges in rate setting

• What are the important lessons learned about rate setting from MA water suppliers?
  • Summary of Key Lessons Learned from 7 Massachusetts Rate-Setting Case Studies
  • Full Report of Key lessons Learned from 7 Massachusetts Rate-Setting Case Studies 
• What Detailed Guidance is Available on Water Rate Setting?
  • The American Water Works Association’s Principles of Water Rates, Fees, and Charges (AWWA M1, most recent edition)
  • The American Water Works Association’s Developing Rates for Small Systems (AWWA M54, most recent edition)
  • Building Better Water Rates for an Uncertain World:  Balancing Revenue Management, Resource Efficiency, and Fiscal Sustainability.  Alliance for Water Efficiency (2014).
  • Water Conservation-Oriented Rates: Strategies to Extend Supply, Promote Equity, and Meet Minimum Flow Levels. Wang et al., American Water Works Association (2005).  
  • U.S. EPA Water and Wastewater Pricing Resources (manuals, tools, publications, case studies).
• What Rate-Setting Tools are Available to Help me with Rate Setting?
  • AWE Sales Forecasting and Rate Model
  • MA Water and Wastewater Rates Dashboard

More content for Water Suppliers and Municipal Officials:

Toolkit - Site Map  > Municipalities  > Suppliers and Water Commissioners