More than 4,400 residential and business utility accounts will be setting up new payment options with the City of Seward starting Feb. 27.
In the coming months, the changes will provide residents and businesses with a historic view of their billing and options to pay via check, credit card, or electronic fund transfers from their banks.
For the city, the change comes with a switch to the more robust Caselle accounting and billing system that provides more data, analytics, and management functions than their current system offers.
This will streamline some management and budget functions beyond the utility billing, according to City Administrator Greg Butcher, noting that it replaces more manual data tracking and analysis.
The city administrator said current staff appreciated the base provided by previous city financial staff members Nick Wolfe and Marilyn Varner, which has made the data available more robust.
“We were a big fish in a small pond,” Butcher said of the city’s previous billing system. “Now, however, the city is “a medium-to-small fish in a really big pond.
“Slowly but surely we continue to direct ourselves into the 21st Century. It makes us so much more adept financially.”
City staff, including Finance Director Cydnee Golden, Utility Billing Clerk Kirsten Watson, and Administrative Assistant Mattie Hans, have been working throughout February to convert records and account information to the new system.
Utility customers who pay online now are using a Forte bill-paying system, but the transactions beginning Feb. 27 will utilize Xpress Bill Pay. All customers will receive a paper version of the February billing with a letter explaining the change.
The challenge, and opportunity, Butcher said, is that utility customers will need to register their preferences for how they are billed and how they pay their bill, including a login password.
Customers will see key changes with the Caselle-Xpress Bill Pay system:
• Customers who pay with a debit or credit card will have to set up their card online. To assure security, the city will no longer accept credit card payments over the phone.
• Emailed invoices will be available as soon as billing is done if customers sign up for the feature on Xpress Bill Pay – even if they now receive bills via email.
• Customers who sign up for the Xpress Bill Pay’s automatic payments can designate the day of the transaction.
• Online payments will operate on real time, no longer seeing a next-day grace period for late-day transactions. Any transaction completed after midnight on the 15th will be subject to a 10% late fee on the next month’s bill.
• Customers now using electronic transfer funds to pay from their bank account need not make changes unless they want paperless billing or a different date on which the bill is paid.
• An app is available for mobile payments.
The layout and appearance of the utility bills will remain as it is until customers build a history in Caselle. Over the coming 12 months, the billing document will be enhanced to reflect trends in their water, sewer, and electric usage.
“We strongly encourage everyone to sign up for Xpress Bill Pay,” Butcher said. “We just ask people to be patient with us. We will continue to provide the great customer service they are used to. We are still working out the kinks and nuances.”
The city saw delays in the delivery of mailed bills during the past holiday season when some customers had not received a bill before they received a late notice and fee.
Butcher said the mail delay was no fault of the Seward U.S. Postal Service, noting that all Seward mail goes to Omaha before being sorted and sent back here for delivery.
“We really appreciate the partnership and work Kay Hansen has offered,” Butcher said. “They cannot control what is going on up in Omaha.”
The city will embark on a social media campaign to assure all residents learn of the switch, in addition to the letters being mailed and information on the city’s website.
The more than 3,600 customers with an email address on file at the utility office will receive an email with the link to Xpress Bill Pay.
That email will show noreply@XpressBillPay as the sender and Butcher advised residents to check their junk or spam folders if they do not receive an email and think they should have. Recipients cannot reply to that email, but it will include a link through which they can reach out to the city.
Butcher said “City of Seward” will be included in the subject line of the email.
Once the utility conversion is completed, city staff are eyeing other implementations on the system, including the possibility to have fillable forms online so people can apply and pay for building permits or complete other city forms.
However, parks and recreation programs will remain on the registration and programming software being used with the new wellness center.
“That is a robust system as well,” Butcher said, noting that once a family has registered for one team or swimming class, returning for more is simplified.
