🔥 EPR FireWorks Billing Module
Master Your Department's Finances with Seamless Billing Management
Effective billing is crucial for fire and rescue agencies dedicated to public safety. Yet, managing financial processes with manual spreadsheets, outdated software, or disconnected systems often turns this critical task into an administrative nightmare. These inefficient methods waste valuable staff hours, introduce errors, and can hinder financial accuracy and reporting.
EPR FireWorks Billing module transforms how fire chiefs manage financial operations, ensuring precision, compliance, and efficiency.
Why Choose Our Billing Module?
Simplify Billing, Amplify Financial Control
As a fire chief, your mission is to lead a team that’s always compliant, prepared, and ready to protect lives. But navigating complex billing processes can pull your focus from strategic leadership and operational readiness.
Many departments face similar billing hurdles, hindering their ability to effectively manage revenue and track financial data.
Here are some common billing challenges that EPR FireWorks is designed to solve:
• Time-Consuming Manual Invoice Creation: Manual processes burden staff with repetitive tasks.
• Lack of Convenient Online Payment Options: Departments often lack streamlined and convenient ways for property owners to pay assessed fees.
• Difficulty Tracking Recurring False Alarms: It’s cumbersome to determine which locations have exceeded predefined billing thresholds.
• Inefficient Calculation of Inspection and Permit Fees: Manual calculation based on varying criteria is prone to errors and is time-consuming.
• Lack of Centralized, Accessible Billing History: It’s challenging to get a quick, centralized overview of a property’s complete billing history and payment status.
• Manual Processing of In-Office and Partial Payments: Handling cash, check, or manual credit card input requires significant data entry and batch updates.
• Challenges in Financial Reconciliation & General Ledger Integration: Ensuring revenue is properly registered in finance systems can be a complex, manual batch process.
• Ineffective Communication Regarding Outstanding Debts: Manually tracking and notifying property owners about unpaid bills is inefficient.
• Tracking Bills for Multi-Property Owners: Managing billing for multiple properties owned by one entity can be complex.
• Inconsistent Management and Billing for Plan Reviews and Permits: Departments often use custom fields and manual processes for these distinct fees.
How It Works: A Smarter Approach to Billing
Automate, Organize, and Track with Precision
The EPR FireWorks Billing module, a comprehensive fire department software solution, transforms how fire chiefs and department administrators manage billing by replacing outdated, error-prone methods with a powerful, cloud-based platform.
Designed specifically for the unique demands of fire departments, it automates complex processes, organizes billing data, and provides real-time insights to enhance financial efficiency.
What You Get: Features Built for Fire Chiefs
Everything You Need to Lead with Confidence
The EPR FireWorks Billing module is engineered specifically for fire departments and their chiefs who demand precision, compliance, and efficiency in managing the department’s finances.
Built by a team with deep fire service expertise, FireWorks delivers a tailored suite of tools to streamline billing, manage revenue, and empower your team—all within a secure, cloud-based platform.
Key Features
Automated Invoice Creation: Inspectors can automatically create invoices directly on-scene after an inspection, reducing manual office work and saving staff time.
- Smart False Alarm Tracking: The system automatically tracks billable false alarms (e.g., “700 type calls”) and allows for creating $0 bills for initial occurrences to track “strikes.” Charges are applied only when predefined thresholds are met (e.g., after the 6th occurrence in 12 months), and the counter can be reset for new occupants.
Automated Fee Calculation: Fees are automatically calculated based on pre-configured fee schedules, eliminating manual calculations. Fees can be set by square footage ranges or as “additional fees” for specific systems, and reinspection charges can be automatically configured (e.g., 200% of the initial visit’s cost).
Centralized Billing History: A dedicated “Bills” tab under property activities provides a comprehensive history of all invoices, their payment status (paid/unpaid), outstanding balances, and payment details in one place. Inspectors can also view bill status from the visit history.
Streamlined Payment Processing: The system allows for detailed registration of all payment methods (cash, check, credit card), including partial payments, automatically tracking the remaining balance. Manual payments are directly linked to the bill, updating its status to “paid”.
Seamless Financial Reconciliation: EPR FireWorks can generate scheduled reports with budgetary account numbers and charge codes. This allows direct export to your finance system (e.g., via Excel or CSV), ensuring proper registration of revenue and maintaining a coherent financial workflow.
- Automated Communication for Outstanding Debts: The system automatically communicates outstanding balances on every new bill and offers the ability to send bulk email reminders for unpaid invoices. These reminders can be tracked by reminder number and can include specific legal language in the bill’s footer.
Integrated Plan Review and Permit Management: Plan reviews can be seamlessly integrated as a specific “inspection type,” allowing for a structured workflow. This enables linking to violations and direct billing for review and associated permit fees, documenting them as an inspection type even for non-physical structures. The system can also facilitate issuing permits.
User-Friendly Interface: The system is designed to provide quick and easy access to all billing-related information, helping you maintain a clear, trustworthy financial picture.
See the Impact: Transform Your Department
Real Results for Fire Chiefs
The EPR FireWorks Billing module empowers fire chiefs and their administrators to take full control of their department’s financial reporting, eliminating the chaos of manual processes and ensuring financial excellence.
Say goodbye to compliance headaches, wasted hours on paperwork, and the stress of audit risks.
EPR FireWorks delivers a seamless, automated platform that ensures every bill is tracked, reconciled, and aligned with your department’s financial needs.
By streamlining billing management, FireWorks frees you to focus on leading a responsive, compliant, and high-performing team ready for any challenge.
Fire Department Billing: FAQ for EPR Fireworks
What are the main challenges fire departments face with their current billing processes?
Fire departments commonly encounter several billing challenges. These include time-consuming manual invoice creation, a lack of convenient online payment options, difficulty tracking recurring false alarms for billing purposes, inefficient calculation of inspection and permit fees, and the absence of a centralized but accessible billing history. Handling in-office and partial payments manually, facing obstacles with financial reconciliation and general ledger integration, poor communication about unpaid debts, and challenges in monitoring bills for owners of multiple properties are all major issues. Additionally, inconsistent management and billing for plan reviews and permits present an ongoing challenge.
How does EPR Fireworks automate invoice creation for fire departments?
A key innovation is the ability to combine inventory and maintenance checks into a single workflow on one screen, eliminating the need to navigate between different sections for daily apparatus inspections. It also automates the creation of work orders directly from failed checks, and provides centralized, customizable digital records, moving away from manual spreadsheets and disjointed systems.
What online payment options does EPR Fireworks offer, and how are service fees handled?
EPR Fireworks provides a secure online payment portal through Elevon. Customers can access this portal directly from their invoice via a unique link or QR code, eliminating the need for manual credit card input or physical visits to the office. Payments are credited directly to the fire department’s bank account on a daily basis, with EPR Fireworks not managing the revenue flow. The system also offers the flexibility to roll over credit card service fees (typically 2.5% to 3% of the transaction) to the customer, aligning with common practices in many jurisdictions. This means the customer pays the service fee in addition to the billed amount, so the department receives the full invoice amount.
How does EPR Fireworks simplify the calculation of inspection and permit fees?
EPR Fireworks automates the calculation of fees based on pre-configured fee schedules, eliminating manual errors and saving time for field staff. For inspections, fees can be set up based on square footage ranges (e.g., $60 for properties under 5,000 sq ft, plus $10 for every additional 5,000 sq ft). For specific systems like sprinklers or other automatic extinguishing systems, fees can be configured as “additional fees” based on quantity (e.g., $50 per standpipe, $1 per sprinkler head). Reinspections can also be set to automatically charge a percentage (e.g., 200%) of the initial visit’s cost. This ensures consistent and accurate billing without requiring inspectors to perform complex calculations in the field.
How does EPR Fireworks help track recurring false alarms for billing?
EPR Fireworks automatically tracks billable false alarms (e.g., “700 type calls”) and can be configured to apply charges only after a predefined threshold is met, such as after the sixth occurrence within a 12-month period. To ensure accurate tracking from the first incident, the system allows for the creation of $0 bills for initial occurrences. This “zero-dollar bill” serves as an internal record without generating a charge, enabling the system to correctly count subsequent alarms. Furthermore, if a business changes ownership, the system offers an option to reset the false alarm counter for the new occupant, preventing them from being held responsible for issues caused by previous owners. The system continuously calculates occurrences by looking back 12 months from the date of the false alarm.
Where can users access a property's full billing history within EPR Fireworks?
EPR Fireworks provides a centralized and accessible billing history for each property. Users can find a dedicated “Bills” tab under the property’s “Activities” section. This tab offers a comprehensive overview of all invoices associated with that property, including their payment status (paid or unpaid), outstanding balances, and detailed payment information. Additionally, inspectors can quickly view the bill status directly from the visit history, allowing them to do their “homework” before an inspection.
How does EPR Fireworks manage in-office and partial payments, and what about financial reconciliation?
The system efficiently handles in-office payments (cash, check, or manual credit card input) by allowing detailed registration of all payment methods. It supports partial payments, automatically tracking the remaining balance on an invoice. Once a payment is registered, the bill’s status is automatically updated (e.g., to “paid” if the full amount is received). For financial reconciliation, EPR Fireworks can generate scheduled reports that include budgetary account numbers and charge codes. These reports translate fire-related billing data into fiscal terminology (e.g., via Excel or CSV export), ensuring that all collected revenue is properly registered and reconciled with the finance system’s general ledger. This maintains a coherent financial workflow and streamlines the batch update process that many agencies currently use.
How does EPR Fireworks improve communication regarding outstanding debts and permit management?
EPR Fireworks enhances communication by automatically including outstanding balances on every new bill sent to a property owner. It also offers the capability to send bulk email reminders for unpaid invoices, which can be tracked by their reminder number (e.g., Reminder #1, Reminder #2, etc.). These automated reminders have proven effective in increasing online payments. For permits, the system links specific permit types to corresponding bill types, automatically calculating prices. It allows for the integration of permit letters (documents) and automatically updates a permit’s status to “paid” once its associated bill is fully paid. This ensures that staff are aware when a permit is ready to be officially issued. While the system can search for bills by property name, specific reports can also be run based on the bill recipient to track bills for owners of multi-properties. Plan reviews can be managed as an “inspection type” within the system, allowing for structured workflows, linking to violations (pass/fail), and direct billing for plan review and permit fees.
Ready to Revolutionize Your Billing?
Take the Next Step with FireWorks
Equip your department with the ultimate fire department billing software.
Streamline financial processes, enhance accountability, and lead with confidence.
📞 Contact us today for more information and a personalized demo!