Down To Earth - FAQ

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 Water Management

New neighborhoods, Water rights, Payment options, customer Inquiries, and special Billing situations all come up now and again. Find out information for these and other topics covered in FAQ for Water Management.

Or visit other Down To Earth Application FAQ links:

Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable

General Ledger
Inventory
Payroll

Purchase Order
Sales Order Entry

I have two parcels that are being split up into three new parcels. Can I do that?

Yes, it is called Segregation of property.  The Segregation routine groups acreage of  "From" Parcels and allocates it as required to the "To" parcels.

Same type of Segregation transaction.  In this case the "From" parcels are many and the "To" parcel is now only one piece of land.

All the same options are available to split or share a new owner, water right, and if need be, the outstanding invoices.

I need to transfer part of a water right allotment to another parcel. How do I do that and how do I cancel this for next year? 

There is a special process just for that situation.  You can choose to enter all or part, and by acres or allotment values for any land.

I have a huge payment for many parcels from a Mortgage company. Is there an easier way to enter these than one at a time?

Yes. Choose to import the payment data electronically or to record mulitple payments within a single transaction.

If the mortgage company has been approved for electronic receipt of funds, there is an import process for the entire payment.  In addition, if from a payment service corporation, you can process a single mortgage company within many.

If the Mortgagee is not approved for electronic processing, you can also opt to use the  "Multiple" type of payment for the entire amount and apply to the different parcels, owners, and invoices.

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What's the best way to make several changes within a neighborhood? 

Changes can be entered at one time for a group of continuous Land (Parcel) IDs.  Several types of changes can be applied to a sequential Parcel number range,frequently done for new construction or neighborhood LID improvements:

• add Water Right/Billing codes
• change a Turnout and/or Gate
• change a Water Right or Class code
• change the Addition coding or
• add LID Notes to a range of Parcels

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What can I do to track water use in a drought year?

This is easily monitored by assigning each parcel to a "Zone."  Define different drought zones for watering only on specific days of the week, times within the day, and cycles within those times.

Then associate the zone with the respective neighborhoods in a simple one step import process.  Restructuing again next year is also easy with a new import file.

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I need to research address and billing issues for several parcels.  What options do I have for inquiries?

There are two main inquiries to start then link to the details you need.  You can look up information from a partial or full alphabetical Name searchor by Parcel number.  That brings you to the main inquiry window that details the parcel owner, address, and most recent billing information.

From that display, link to detailed information on the Land/Parcel itself, the billing history, invoice, payment, land segragations, water rights, owners, water zones, and/or repair work orders.  Summary information is displayed first with optional detail links.

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How are Condominium Associations billed?

Each Condo parcel number is assigned  to the association for billing a combined parcel total.  Any Parcel grouped together with other (contiguous) parcels for billing are considered to be "Consolidations."

Consolidations can be any grouping of multiple parcels such as Condominimums or several contiguous agricultural parcels owned by a single person.  The combined parcels then are billed only under the 'primary' parcel but include the group total.

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How are billings handled differently when the Mortgage company pays the assessment?

Parcels are linked to their Mortgage company code and billed separately.  Each Mortgagee is assigned a Name/Address code and in turn, assigned to the respective parcel.

The Mortgage company receives a statement billing that includes all parcels that they pay the assessment for.  Payments are usually also grouped together from the Mortgagee and optionally a payment file provided to upload into Down To Earth.

Refer to the Water Billing User's Reference manual for more information.  Additional assistance is also available from our Technical Support department.