Run the whole service: what utilities can do with mWater
MWATER FOR UTILITIES · FROM RECORDS TO RESULTS
One free platform for your network, your customer accounts, and your repairs.
A customer calls about low pressure. Your team has to find the connection, check what has happened nearby, send someone out, and confirm the service is back. Meanwhile, meter readings are due, unpaid bills need follow-up, and the board wants to know which investment comes next.
Each of these tasks produces records. They are most useful when the next person who needs them can find them.
mWater brings asset management, water quality monitoring, customer records, billing, accounting, workflows, and reporting into one platform. A utility can start by mapping what it operates and build up to managing the service customers receive.
Start with the network
Many teams first use mWater for mapping. A source, pump, tank, pipe, valve, or customer connection becomes a record with a location and a place in the system. Inspection surveys and other data can be recorded against those assets.
Things get more useful once records are linked. A customer account can be tied to a physical connection, and a repair to the asset that failed. A dashboard can then show a manager what needs attention today.
Our January 2026 article on utility asset management reported more than 290,000 connections and 100,000 pipes recorded on the platform.
"Building sustainable water services is less about the initial construction and more about the quiet work that happens every day to keep systems running."
Fahmi Faridz, How Water Utilities Are Scaling Asset Management with mWater, January 2026
Follow one customer through the system
Take a typical metered household. The connection is the infrastructure. The customer is the person or organization responsible for paying. The account holds the billing relationship. We keep these as separate records so the system still works when a tenant moves out or one customer has several properties. Our guide to utility records explains how that chain is designed.
A meter reader enters the current reading in the app. The system then calculates consumption and the charge from the account's tariff. Tariffs can include fixed fees, volumetric rates, and consumption bands, so they match how the utility actually charges. Monthly bills show what is due, and recorded payments update the account balance. Customers pay through whatever channel the utility already uses; mWater records the payment.
The Customer Overview shows a map, outstanding balances, the collection rate, and recent meter-reading coverage. Managers can see where follow-up is needed. When a customer questions a bill, staff can pull up the record behind it instead of re-entering data from several lists.
Give every repair a next step
With Workflows, a utility defines the steps a case goes through, such as report, assessment, assignment, repair, verification, and closure. Each step collects the information it needs and assigns the work to a role. Alerts flag work that has stalled.
Say a leak is reported on a mapped pipe. The case moves through the repair process the utility has set up. The technician records the work and a supervisor verifies it. The utility keeps the full history, which helps when deciding whether a pipe that keeps failing should be replaced. That history also stays with the organization when staff leave.
In our post Nine months of Workflows in mWater, we described teams using Workflows for maintenance, new connections, procurement, installation tracking, quality monitoring, and public health case notification. We recommend starting with one real process that has a clear owner and a clear point where the job counts as done.
One possible process, configured to match your team
Use your records to plan investment
Daily records can support investment decisions. A history of repeated failures makes the case for replacing an asset. Reading coverage explains gaps in billing. When water quality results are linked to assets, a team knows where to investigate and can document what it did.
Utilities that turn on the full accounting module can also manage a chart of accounts, vendors, and payables. They can produce profit and loss statements and balance sheets. Customer, meter, and accounting data can all feed custom charts and tables in the system.
The software works best when people have set roles. Someone needs to review exceptions, reconcile payments, and follow up on open cases. mWater gives them one shared record to work from and shows which questions are still open.
The same approach works beyond drinking water
A vacuum truck, containment facility, sewer, or treatment plant needs an asset record. So does the work done on it.
mWater's Sanitation Asset Standard covers both sewered and on-site sanitation. Its asset data can be linked to surveys and workflows. An emptying service, for example, could set up a process to log a request, assign the job, and record completion against the right assets. The provider decides the steps and who is responsible for each.
The pattern fits any organization that looks after sites or equipment and needs a record of the work. A facilities team could use it for inspections and repairs at schools or clinics. Through Solstice, the platform also supports other development sectors. Teams that learn mapping, forms, permissions, workflows, and dashboards for one service can reuse those skills as they take on more.
Learn by running a practice utility
Our Training Center has two utility courses.
Water Utility Management Basics: map three assets in the Kalondo demo utility, review an AI dashboard, and plan an inspection. It takes about two hours.
Water Utility Management: build your own utility, or a private copy of Kalondo, and work through assets, water quality, commercial management, customer relations, maintenance, planning, reporting, finance, and integration.
The full course has hands-on lessons on a meter reading round, an arrears list, complaint workflows, overdue alerts, repair-time dashboards, payment reconciliation, and financial reports. Short quizzes check your progress. You receive a certificate when you complete the course requirements.
Start with one change
You do not need to digitize the whole utility at once. Pick one scheme and one team, and choose a result to improve. That could be a reliable customer register, a billing round you can reconcile, or a repair process that ends with verified completion.
mWater's core utility features are free. Your organization owns its data and controls who can see it. If your team wants help setting things up, we offer optional implementation and technical assistance.
A good first step is the Basics course. Follow one customer from connection to bill, or take one repair through to verification, and see what your team can track that it could not before.
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