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Council weighs moving water invoicing to QuickBooks and staff-led SCADA upgrades
Summary
Council members debated streamlining billing by invoicing from QuickBooks to reduce manual reconciliation, and a town employee proposed a low-cost plan to restore SCADA alarms and migrate radios to Ethernet to improve meter reporting and alerts.
Council members at a Cornish town meeting pressed for faster, less error-prone water billing and meter-reconciliation practices and heard a staff proposal to modernize the town's SCADA and radio links.
S2, an unnamed council member, said the current process requires scanning checks on an aging computer and manually breaking each deposit into spreadsheet line items before importing into QuickBooks. "She's using that computer to scan the checks in to Ultibank," S2 said, describing frequent delays and errors. S2 added that invoicing directly from QuickBooks could let staff match deposits automatically and reduce tedious manual work.
Other council members stressed limits: S3 and S1 noted Core (the town's meter/billing system) holds meter-calculated, tiered rates that affect customer charges. "We need to use Core for that because that's how Jay gets all the meter readings into the system," S2 said, summarizing the concern that switching systems could lose correct tiered billing logic.
Staff member S4 outlined a proposal to restore SCADA alarms and replace 900 MHz radios with Ethernet radios, and to use a Modbus RTU-to-TCP converter so existing hardware can continue to talk to newer systems. "I can come in and put what we normally do on it and automation and controls would bill for the hardware," S4 said, adding hardware costs would likely be low and could fall at or under the local $1,500 bidding threshold.
Council members flagged procurement and conflict-of-interest risks if a town employee installs equipment the town buys. S2 said the town should solicit three on-line price quotes where required and be transparent about vendor choice. The council also discussed whether the town should buy parts directly and have S4 perform the installation as an employee or bid the work.
The council agreed to investigate integration options between Core and QuickBooks, reach out to neighboring cities for best practices, and asked S4 to provide a detailed parts list and cost estimate so members can determine whether the purchase triggers formal bidding rules. No formal vote was taken on changing invoicing software or on the SCADA proposal; both will return to council when procurement details are available.
