Rate Setting & Financial Management
- Formulate Great Rates Guidebook
RCAP’s step-by-step guide on setting rates for your water system that cover expenses, are fair and equitable, and are easy to administer.
- Formulate Great Rates: A Webcast on Setting Rates in Small-Community Utilities (Part 1)
A recorded webcast that is a companion to RCAP’s Formulate Great Rates: The Guide to Conducting a Rate Study for a Water System.
- Formulate Great Rates: A Webcast on Setting Rates in Small-Community Utilities (Part 2)
A recorded webcast that is a companion to RCAP’s Formulate Great Rates: The Guide to Conducting a Rate Study for a Water System.
- Rate Guide Supplemental Materials (Excel)
Excel workbook supplement to the Formulate Great Rates guidebook.
- Basics of Financial Management Guidebook
RCAP’s guidebook for small communities on financial policies and controls, budgeting, and monitoring of financial performance.
- The Basics of Financial Management for Small-community Utilities: A Webcast on Financial Management (Part 1)
A recorded webcast that is a companion to RCAP’s The Basics of Financial Management for Small-community Utilities
- The Basics of Financial Management for Small-community Utilities: A Webcast on Financial Management (Part 2)
A recorded webcast that is a companion to RCAP’s The Basics of Financial Management for Small-community Utilities
- Checking Your System – for Free
This eBulletin explains what capacity development is and how it can help your water system. It also identifies the agencies that can help with your capacity development needs.
- Budget How-Tos
This document includes tips on creating a budget for a water board.
- Capital ideas
This eBulletin borrows some tips from RCAP on developing capital projects, including how best to find the right engineers, how best to take care of the preliminaries and what financing options are available.
- Budget Worksheet for Water Systems
A worksheet in Microsoft Excel format that provides a general overview of the annual budget. Calculations are performed automatically within the Excel program.
- RCAP Blog: Three Things to Do Before a Rate Change
A blog post outlining three steps to take before a rate change.
- RCAC: Financial Planning: A Guide for Water and Wastewater Systems
These guidebooks address core issues regarding water system sustainability: auditing water use to reduce water losses and increase system efficiency, financial planning and management to ensure sufficient revenues to sustain operations, and asset management to allow the system to provide a sustained level of service at the lowest life cycle cost.
- EPA: Water Utility COVID-19 Financial Impact Tool
A tool that can help drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities assess the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the utility’s cashflow.
- UNC Environmental Finance Center: Tools To Assist Water Utilities With Financial Decision Making
The EFC at UNC has created several free tools to assist water utilities in addressing the challenges commonly seen in communities.
- UNC Environmental Finance Center: Finance Dashboards
Rates Dashboards are designed to assist utility managers and local officials to compare and analyze water and wastewater rates against multiple characteristics, including utility finances, system characteristics, customer base socioeconomic conditions, geography, and history.