Billing System

WATER BILLING SYSTEM WITH SHORT MESSAGING SERVICES NOTIFICATION ——————————————————— A Special Problem Presented to the Faculty of The College of Information and Communication Technology LAGUNA COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ARTS City of Calamba ——————————————————— In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE ————————————— By MARPURI, MARK ANTHONY S. OCAMPO, JONATHAN M. October 2012 Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Introduction

The Laguna Water Company, Incorporated (Laguna Water) is a subsidiary of Manila Water that provides potable water at affordable rates to urban poor communities. This company supplies water in Laguna, betting the acquisition will help it serve more customers in one of the Philippines highly-developed provinces. The Laguna Water currently serves around 120,000 customers (out of around 600,000 populations which it expects to increase to around 1 million within fifteen years). Currently, all of their customer’s information including the water consumption was stored in the customers’ database using spreadsheet.

Since the Laguna Water Corporation is using a manual process, they are wasting a lot of time to store, manage, update and retrieve all the information of thousands of its customers. Also, there are possibilities of pending transactions for other work activities such as saving the important customer data, registering the new customer and retrieving the important files regarding to their previous water bills. The Laguna Water Company is one of the most helpful companies in Laguna province. In terms of billing process, the company’s meter consumption analyst (MCA) goes to the house of all customers to read the water consumption.

After five (5) days, the MCA delivers the water bills to the customers by riding through motorcycle. Sometimes, the home owner is out for work or sometimes is out of town. In that case, the MCA puts the notice somewhere in the parts of the house such as the door, window or gate. By then, the home owners don’t have any idea if their water bill for the current month is already given or not. Thus, the payment for their water bill will be delayed until it comes to its due date because the bill is misplaced. In addition, the company has many manual paper works in order to manage the important data of their customers.

Some customer wants to follow-up some documents regarding to the water billing, so the employee needs to retrieve those documents manually. In line with this, the proponents came up with an idea to design and develop a Water Billing System with Short Messaging Service Notification, a more convenient and economical mobile communication technology which is the easiest and fastest way for the consumers to remind them and to inquire their water bills. Sending SMS text messages is very convenient. This is very suitable way for sending the notification to consumer reminders.

It can also send the inquiry regarding to water billing consumption in a current month (Muhammad, 2007). Conceptual Framework According to Hunter et. al, (2009), the billing operations identify and calculate all the charges for a specific customer account, generate the actual bill and apply payments and credit against that bill. It is therefore needed to analyze and identify on what is the appropriate method to compute all of the customer’s charges the easiest way. The billing system gets whole information about the customer and the services. They get information about how and when the telecommunication provider delivers those services.

Within the billing environment, billing systems process large quantities of time and location – specific usage data into customer – specific usage information. They figure out how much to charge for the usage, as well as for other non-usage based services. They generate a readable bill format and print or electrically distribute the bill. Billing systems also get information on payments and apply those payments to customer accounts. They track delinquencies and flag accounts for “treatment” – collection activities including service suspension. They may generate letters to effect collection or give notice of discontinuance of service.

Figure 1 shows the conceptual paradigm of the proposed Water Billing System with Short Messaging Service Notification for the Laguna Water Corporation. The input includes consumer, water consumption reading and the bill inquiry syntax. The consumer is a person or group of people who avails the services and the primary users of water that supplied from Laguna Water Company. The residence in Cabuyao, Binan and Sta. Rosa is the first priority as consumers of Laguna Water Company. The water consumption reading is a meter that regards to water consumption in every period of time.

It is a data that gathered by Meter Consumption Analyst (MCA). The bill inquiry syntax is the syntax that should be sent by the customers through cell phone whenever they are about to inquire for monthly billing. For example, the customer wants to inquire their monthly bill. They should send their account number followed by registered name and the month that they wish to inquire. The process includes read and validate the syntax and querying the results from the bill database. The consumer’s consumption is the data which can be found on the meter billing database.

The amount of bill inquiry syntax is the data subjected to be read and validated. The outputs of this study are fast and effective response to bill inquiry, computerized record and keeping and printing the billing statement of consumers. The consumers will have a convenient way of inquiring their bill and faster response on the part of the Laguna Water Company. The importance of feedback in this study is that whenever some outputs are not expected by users, in that case, the users can go back to input to find errors. Figure 1 Conceptual Paradigm Statement of the Problem

The Laguna Water Company has many activities work, since the company has a thousand of customers, it is hard for employees to work easy and fast, particularly to computing the customer’s water consumption, deliver the notice in every end of month and the other is to retrieve some data regarding to customer’s water billing. The specific problems that encountered are the following; 1. What is the easy way to compute the amount of the customer’s bill? 2. What is the best way to inform or notify all customers regarding to their due date and also the amount of their bill? . What is the easiest way for the employee to retrieve and verify historical billing information of the customer? Objectives of the Study The general objective of the study is to design and develop a Water Billing System with Short Messaging Service Notification for Laguna Water Company. The specific objectives of the project are the following: 1. To provide an easiest way of computing the amount of the customer’s bill. 2. To give the best way of informing or notifying all customers regarding to their due date and also the amount of their bill anytime and anywhere. . To help employees for minimizing the time for retrieving the previous data of consumers regarding to their bills. Significance of the Study The proposed SMS (Short Message Services) Computerized system will be of great help to the management and employees of Laguna Water Company. It will lessen their manual work, speed up processing and produce accurate reports that will minimize the problem of the management and the employees. In addition, the study will be essential to the company for good decision-making. Good decision-making means high productivity.

To Laguna Water Company, the study will be beneficial to the corporation most likely by automating their water billing transactions, speeding up data processing and providing new avenue of distributing notifications to their customers. The study will surely transform the corporation into a more knowledgeable organization and will help them establish good relationship with the customer. To the Administrator and Employees, they are the common users of the proposed system who are able to manage, update and retrieve the customer’s information regarding to billing in a more efficient and effective manner.

This will lessen the inconsistency and redundancy of records and eliminate other human errors. Employees will be more productive and will surely help them to perform their work easily. To the Customers, through automation of water bill with integration of SMS application the customers will be updated with the status of their bills anytime and anywhere. To Future Researchers, the study will be able to contribute additional information when they want to conduct same study about the computerized water billing system with SMS notification.

To the Proponents, it gives them a chance to apply the knowledge they acquire in their years of studying. It also gives them opportunity to enhance and practice their ability and creativity. They will obtain guts and confidence to pursue and believe that they can make this study possible. Scope and Limitations The study focuses on the bill inquiry from the consumers of Laguna Water Company of Cabuyao, Laguna. It can only provide a service for all registered costumers. In addition, this study does not cover the signals of network and cannot be used as a replacement for the computerized notice for it only views the customer’s bill.

The Project and its background

This chapter discusses the introduction, background of the study, objectives, significance of the study and scope and limitation of the study. Introduction Automation plays an increasingly important role in the global economy and in daily experience. Engineers strive to combine automated devices with mathematical and organizational tools to create complex systems for a rapidly expanding range of applications and human activities. Many roles for humans in industrial processes presently lie beyond the scope of automation.

Human-level pattern recognition, language recognition, and language production ability are well beyond the capabilities of modern mechanical and computer systems. Tasks requiring subjective assessment or synthesis of complex sensory data, such as scents and sounds, as well as high-level tasks such as strategic planning, currently require human expertise. In many cases, the use of human power is more cost-effective than mechanical approaches even where automation of industrial tasks is possible. In our generation so many things are different. The advent of technology has changed the way we live, work and spends leisure time.

Computer was considered the lifeblood of society; they are everywhere. And the advancement in discoveries, both in hardware and software, keep coming, day in and day out. Technology changes and improves at a rapid pace and companies and institutions have cope with it. This is because as the latest knowledge of development in computer technology grows people’s standard increase. They seek and crave for better and more efficient ways to accomplish tedious task. At the present time, people behind large and small companies adopt modern technology in order to survive and compete with markets demands.

Also, through the use of this technology, different transactions and processing systems have become computerized for greater ease and accuracy. Likewise, through technology, information is easily obtained hence, people tend to rely less in manual operations.. Background of the Study Barangay Ilijan was the third barangay in Batangas which has a vast land area of 1007. 32 hectares Although it is located near the sea, plants and trees are growing well. The barangay is composed of seven Sitios; Sitio Silangan 1, Silangan 2, Hulong Silangan, Bayanan, Hulong Bayanan, Goot and Lilinggiwan. It has a total population of 3,380.

This place is known for its Power Plant KEPCO Ilijan Corporation which is located at Silangan 1, since 1997. There are lots of projects engaged in by the people of Barangay Ilijan, specially the Waterworks. Ilijan Community Development Foundations Inc. (ICDFI) is a non-stock, non profit and non-governmental organization carrying out sustainable development programs in Barangay Ilijan and nearby coastal communities in Batangas City. It was launched through a people’s assembly and was incorporated since December 11, 2001. They launched different activities that will help the residence of the said barangay.

The Ilijan Waterworks Association started its operation last August 2004 with the coordination and communication of the Barangay and the ICDF. Through the determination and effort of Mario Bool (General Manager), Nelda Godez (Secretary/Cashier), Norberto Landicho (Meter Reader), and Larry Balmes (Maintenance), the requirement was met. The other nine members who contributed their effort were Remo Magadia (President), Cely Leycano (Vice President), Facundo Acuna (Secretary), Benad Manguerra (Treasurer), Vivian Balmes, Mario Balmes, Lilia Lagrisola, Pedro Silang and Tony Bagsit.

The researchers also want to give their contribution through their study, Automated Water Billing System which is designed to provide and develop a billing and collection mechanism of water billing utility company. The project aims further to apply information technology in Ilijan Waterworks Association through the design and development of their billing system. The new system will lessen the time that is being consumed by the organization for computation, tabulation and issuance of receipts. It will improve the circulation service of the association for easier and faster transaction. The software is designed using Microsoft Visual Basic 6. . The researchers decided to use the said software, since it is considered as an object-oriented programming tool in developing the system. It will allow the creation of the different files and permit the entry of records into a database designed for the computation of water bills. The language had very powerful database management system, which is necessary in proposed system. Objectives of the study The main objective of the system is to design and develop an Automated Water Billing System for Ilijan Waterworks Association. More specifically, the study aims to achieve the following:

1. To design an Automated Water Billing System that will provide efficient services such as issuing of receipts, record keeping and retrieval.
2. To provide accurate records and other information about the individual customer.
3. To provide automatic monitoring record of the individual monthly consumption.
4. To test and evaluate the system in terms of efficiency and accuracy.

Significance of the Study Prior to the advent of computerization, data is processed manually. However, the past few decades, the computer and electronic technology has been incorporated into almost every aspect of our lives.

They now play a big role in our living process and assist us in taking care of files and documents. Today, there is probably no better indication of how technologically advanced our society than computerization process. Nowadays, in fact, computers have become the base technology that enables us to tap information resources. With the proposed system, great help will be provided for Barangay Ilijan in terms of trends in information management; thus, improving delivery of services to its client. For the association. This will lessen the time consumed in computation, tabulation and issuance of receipts.

It will improve the circulation service for easier and faster transaction. For the personnel, it will be highly beneficial for it will speed up processing and will help produce accurate reports. This could help the user gain knowledge and undertaking about the transactions in the billing system. For the customer, this will lessen the time that is being consumed in terms of payments. For the students or users this system may be used as a reference in studying different programming language such as the Visual Basic 6. 0. For future researchers, this will aid them in enriching their study and will serve as a source of their related literature.

This proposed system can produce and update information needed by the management and the customer. Scope and Limitation of the Study This study will focus on the water billing system of Ilijan Waterworks association and is intended to eliminate the common problems encountered in the existing system. The categories of data can be added to the database for the computation of water bills. It will make task easier because it will lessen one’s toil working with the preparation of reports, and it will also absolutely provides an easy way of keeping the records on file.

In paying the water bills, the system will automatically compute the total amount when information about the customer is supplied. Printing of water bills receipts and notice are also included in the proposed system. The system would provides reports that are accurate and more efficient including the customer’s list, list of customer’s paid and the unpaid customer’s list. The system also includes an automatic transfer function, enabling the addition of new customers to its database. It has also the command button that one can use in order to easily find existing records.

It also provides security. Often it is desirable to limit who can access the data and transaction. This can be used only by an authorized person who has an access to confidential data. The system is stand-alone based, that is why the files cannot be accessed automatically by any user. In accounting aspects, the system will not be able to provide a balance sheet and income statement about the water billing for specific time and date. The automatic generation of penalty cannot be provided as well. The users and programmers must find the system easy to learn and to use.

A system may be very good at performing a function but if users cannot understand how to use it, the system is a failure. Definition of Terms For better understanding of the terms used in this study, the conceptual and operational definitions are presented below: Arrears. This is a legal term for a type of debt which is overdue after missing an expected payment. It is also used for payments that occur at the end of a period. As used in the study, it is used as a term for debt which is overdue after the missing payment. Automated. To use techniques of automation in teaching are being automated.

As used in this study, this is the technique used in adopting the proposed system. Due Date. The date the payment should be made. As used in the study, it is the term used by the researcher for the payment of the water consumed by the customer. Due Date Interval. A number of days to be added to determine the due date. As used in the study, it is the term used to identify the date interval. Password. The term for easy accessing the system. As used in the study, it is the term for the keyword of the system. Penalty. A legal term for a type of punishment which is overdue after missing the due date of payment.

In this study, it is the term used when customer needs to pay an extra amount as fine for delayed payments. Present reading. A current meter reading. As used in the study, it is the present water consumption by the customer. Previous Reading. A former record of the water consumption per cubic meter by the customer. As used in the study, it is used as the reference for the previous water consumption by the customer. Reference Number. A term of reference for a certain reading for a customer. In this study, it is the number used by the researcher in a certain reading for a customer. Username. The username used to log in to the system.

As used in the study, it is the name of the user who can access the system. Water Consumption. It is the amount of water utilized by an individual consumer. As used in this study, it is the consumed water per cubic meter. CHAPTER II Review of Literature and studies This chapter discusses the related literature and studies used in the development of the project as well as the construction of the system. It also shows the concepts and principles involved in building the system. Conceptual Literature Though computers appear to be amazingly intelligent machines, they cannot yet think on their own.

They still need humans to give them directions, and these directions are called programs. The people in turn who write the programs are called programmers. This technology is considered to be a welcome change and a great help to the public. People play an important role as part of an information system. At same point; people interact with most systems, to either input information or use the output from the system. Most establishments and companies and even homes depend on computers because it enables us to be at the top. Computerization of all the important data, procedures and functions are becoming a topic of increasing public interest.

Almost all of the well known organizations and corporation, of different sizes, scopes and line of interests have been increasingly and prominently developing their own field of study on computers. Researchers, scientists, computer experts and developers found out that man’s quest for ease and comfort inside every offices ends here through the power of computers packed with interesting software technologies. Simple yet powerful software can manipulate every bit of data and information that is supposed to be a number of days work, but now can be done just in a few seconds. Because the computer, one of the foremost technological developments of our time, has often been used with little sensitivity to its impact on people, it has repelled many who could have helped add significantly to benefits computerization offers. ” (Korth and Silberschatz: 1990). Computerization and automation create jobs in the computer field. It also increases accuracy, having greater volume of output. It has the ability to perform operations that were not, or not could be performed before. It also increases sales and growth in industry. Computerization has its own cons.

Workers is non-computer fields are displaced and laid off as a result of computerization. “When someone speaks of an information system today, an automated system is implied. The elements of an information system are hardware, software, people, procedures and data. The automated elements (that is hardware and software) do not come into play in manual systems. People, procedures and data are combined to create manual systems. In terms of numbers, the overwhelming majority of systems in industry, government and education are still manual. This is true of large organizations with hundreds of computers and of two-person companies.

Ten of thousands of manual system have been targeted to be upgraded the computer-based information systems. ” (Larry Long: 1989). “A well designed computer-based system inevitably requires that major changes be made in procedures, in the form of the input, in the type of the output, and in the way the system interacts with users and other computer systems. One popular, but less than creative, approach to design is to computerize the existing system. That is, design upgraded systems that simply mirror the logic and procedures of the existing system. ” (Mcfadder: 1991). By making it possible for machines to replace people, automation has created what amounts to revolution in our way of doing things. It does away with much of the drudgery in work. Machines are taking over more and more of the repetitive, routine task that people find boring and unpleasant. ”(Sharlin: Book of Knowledge). Related Studies Billing is the system of identifying and stating services or goods rendered to the costumers. It incorporates the costumer’s or client’s personal information, costumer invoices or goods and services rendered with money.

As stated in “Computerized Billing and Monitoring System for Supreme Insurance Underwriters” by Kho, Davidson O. , et. al. Billing operations are processes to prepare costumer’s invoice and provide the accounting departments with records of changes to be made against costumer account. The concept of computerization and automation has been the subject of some previous studies. Abregunda, et. al. (1998) in their study entitled “Automated Employee File Builder” pointed out that the proposed system, in one way or another would smoothen the functions and operations of the personnel department.

Processing of the documents and keeping of the employee’s records would be done systematically and will be protected against unauthorized persons and prevents any data loss. Moreover, the development of an automated personnel management system will result in faster processing information. The study “Computerized Water Billing System for Tingga Itaas Rural Works and Sanitation Association” by Alcantara, Bienna Jeramie G. , et. al. designed a system that will provide a billing and collection mechanism for a water billing company.

It will improve and shorten the time consumed in different transactions and reports generation of the said organization. The project developed a database and designed a user application that will improved an effective and efficient system of recording, storing and retrieval of information as well as faster and more accurate system for water bill calculations. It seeks to offer an effective solution by creating and customizing the computerized system that will speed up its process. As stated in “Automated Inventory Control System for the Supply and Property of Department of PBMIT” by Caringal, et al. 1998), the application program will ease the work with regards to the records handling. It will speed up the process of determining the availability of property. It would eliminate a lot of paper works and there would be fast-updated records. There also are accurate results of computed value. The thesis entitled “A Development of an Automated Billing System for CHELEX Construction”, by Madlangbayan, Alex J. , et. Al. Both have the purpose of helping the company doing the task easily and minimizing the time and effort in the computation and generalization of reports that is similar to the function of our system.

Synthesis of the study After analyzing and reviewing the related literature and studies, different ideas and knowledge were obtained which presented possible and appropriate measures for the conceptualization of the study. Through those facts, the researchers determined the most plausible and appropriate solutions to the problem regarding the subject under study. The previous studies conducted by Abregunda, et. l (1998) and Caringal, et al (1998) have similarities to the present study in terms of storing and retrieving records needed by the system administrator while the works of Davidson, et. (2000) and Alcantara, et. l (2004) are with common to the system similar to the present study in terms of bill calculations. All researchers have the same idea with the present system. This is due to the fact that the proponents used the same software such as Visual Basic and Microsoft Access. Data were stored and organized in Microsoft access. Security was applied in all the studies for the time and effort that is being consume in the computation and records handling.

This study is different with the previous studies since this study provides monitoring of the monthly consumption of the water which is presented using chart. The advantage of the proposed system is in its ability to provide easier and efficient way of accessing the water billing system. Conceptual Framework In making the system, it is not enough to know the principles involved in building or developing a computer system. We must also learn concepts, techniques, and tools to help us design and develop quality programs. Software engineering provides the “total kit” we need for the success construction of quality software.

The construction of the system will start with the conceptualization of the company’s manual billing system, researches on related studies and other necessary preparations in designing the program. Studies were conducted in different libraries related to billing system and interviews with the personnel of Ilijan Waterworks Association to gather data and information such as billing and issuing of receipts. Knowledge and skills are very much needed to accomplish the project. This includes the basic knowledge in programming which helped us to accomplish this project study.

On the processing stage, designing, testing and modification of the program are done. Listed in the process are the procedures to be used on how to do the system. If the procedures on how to do the system will be followed, an efficient output which is the Automated Water Billing System will be produced. Epson LX-300 Printer Prints up to 337 characters per second (12 characters per inch) in high-speed draft mode LX-300 from Epson is designed to provide high volume, multipart printing with speed, reliability and ease of use in demanding work environments.

It delivers powerful performance, plus easy system integration with Parallel and Serial ports, as well as fast USB connectivity. The Epson LX-300 prints up to 337 characters per second (12 characters per inch) in high-speed draft mode and handles up to 5-part forms with ease. With its narrow format and powerful 9-pin technology, this printer handles inventory reports, spreadsheets, receipts, invoices, packing slips, check runs and customer shipping labels. Its compact size makes it optimal for busy workrooms with limited counter space. At 49dB, this compact, user-friendly unit is also quieter than most impact printers. Epson LX300 Printer Ribbon, Epson S015073 – New & Genuine| Security Consumer versions of Windows were originally designed for ease-of-use on a single-user PC without a network connection, and did not have security features built in from the outset Microsoft Access is used to create simple database solutions Microsoft Access also offers the ability for programmers to create solutions using the programming language Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is similar to Visual Basic 6. 0 (VB6) and used throughout the Microsoft Office programs such as Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Access stores all database tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, and modules in the Access Jet database as a single file. Protection Microsoft Access offers several ways to secure the application while allowing users to remain productive. The most basic is a database password. Once entered, the user has full control of all the database objects. This is a relatively weak form of protection which can be easily cracked. A higher level of protection is the use of workgroup security requiring a user name and password. Users and groups can be specified along with their rights at the object type or individual object level.

This can be used to specify people with readonly or data entry rights but may be challenging to specify. A separate workgroup security file contains the settings which can be used to manage multiple databases. Workgroup security is not supported in the Access 2007 ACCDB database format, although Access 2007 still supports it for MDB databases. Databases can also be encrypted. The ACCDB format offers significantly advanced encryption from previous versions. Additionally, if the database design needs to be secured to prevent changes, Access databases can be locked/protected (and the source code compiled) by converting the database to a MDE file. All changes to the VBA project (modules, forms, or reports) need to be made to the original MDB and then reconverted to MDE. In Access 2007, the ACCDB database is converted to an ACCDE file. Some tools are available for unlocking and “decompiling”, although certain elements including original VBA comments and formatting are normally irretrievable. Windows 2003 is a little bit better in that it allows you to more finely tune how the 2GB kernel memory space is used.

However, you still can’t escape the fact that the thousands of processes from hundreds of users will all have to share the common 2GB kernel space. A Manager is the person responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary. For many people, this is their first step into a management career. Managers may direct workers directly or they may direct several supervisors who direct the workers. The manager must be familiar with the work of all the groups he/she supervises, but does not need to be the best in any or all of the areas.

It is more important for the manager to know how to manage the workers than to know how to do their work well. A manager may have the power to hire or fire employees or to promote them. In larger companies, a manager may only recommends such action to the next level of management. The manager has the authority to change the work assignments of team members. Collector–A person employed to collect taxes, duties, or other payments Member–one of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organization).