Debt collection software for water companies
Household or non-household, water collections runs on engagement, not enforcement. There is no disconnection lever for households, business retail margins leave no room for bad debt, and the sector's incoming regulator will judge outcomes. Flexys gives water collections teams one system to engage customers well and prove it, account by account.
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A regulatory reset, and rules that already bind
Ofwat is being replaced by a single supervisory regulator with company-specific oversight, and customers get a Water Ombudsman with legally binding powers. The successor regulator inherits the whole sector, so no water company sits outside it.
The rules that govern water debt today are already binding. Ofwat's customer-focused licence condition and the Paying Fair guidelines set expectations across the whole payment and debt journey, from proactive contact through ability-to-pay arrangements to the same standard of care when an account sits with an agent. CCW has already begun piloting debt audits. Under supervision, self-certification ends: the question stops being whether you have a policy and becomes whether you can show, account by account, what happened.
Two audiences, one system
Household collections
No disconnection means engagement quality is the whole mechanism. Arrears build quietly, often for years, and more than four million households are already in debt to their water company. Early behavioural signals, sustainable arrangements and income maximisation matter more here than anywhere else.
Non-household collections
Retailers bill and chase their own business customers and carry the bad debt, while wholesale charges fall due whether or not the customer pays. Thin margins make every day of ageing debt expensive, and business customers need segmentation by value, payment behaviour and sector risk.
How Flexys is configured for water
Find the debt before it finds you
A cancelled Direct Debit, a first missed instalment, a broken arrangement. Each triggers immediate, low-friction outreach rather than a place in next quarter's cycle, with the evidence recorded.
Arrangements that hold
Affordability first, terms the customer can sustain, and adjustment when income changes. Payment methods that flex with the customer, so a fixed date and amount is not the reason a plan fails.
Income maximisation built in
Benefit entitlement and social tariff checks inside the collections journey through our Inbest partnership, turning the conversation from what can you pay into what should you be receiving.
Evidence on demand
Every communication, arrangement, action and decision in one auditable record, including activity with recovery agents. When the supervisor asks, the answer is a lookup, not a manual trawl.
Proven at water scale
Water Plus, the largest non-household water retailer in England, manages more than 500,000 customers in Flexys. Across two financial years in which its average tariff rose by around 30%, engagement-led collections moved the numbers the other way.
"It's totally transformed the way we work and the way we're managing our collections processes."Water Plus
Water collections software: common questions
Can one system handle household and non-household collections?
Yes. Both run on the same instance with their own workflows, communications and segmentation, so a company operating in both markets keeps one auditable record rather than two systems.
What does the regulatory transition mean for debt collection?
Ofwat's customer-focused licence condition and Paying Fair guidelines apply today, and the incoming supervisory regulator is expected to assess outcomes continuously rather than accept self-certification. This is a plain-English summary, not legal or compliance advice. Speak to a qualified adviser about your obligations.
Does Flexys replace our billing system?
No. Flexys holds the complete record of collections activity and integrates with your billing system, which remains the source of balances and payments.
See how Flexys handles water collections
Walk through the system with someone who knows water collections, and see how it would fit your operation.
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