Water Utilities

Turn Water Infrastructure Investment into Financial Clarity

AI-powered tax and accounting solutions that help water utilities manage growing asset complexity, tighten capital controls, and maintain compliance—so your finance team can focus on what matters most.

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200+ Asset Intensive Customers Trust PowerPlan

Built for the Financial Complexity of Water Utilities

Water Utilities Face Unprecedented Infrastructure Pressure

Water utilities are some of the most asset-intensive organizations in the country — pipelines, treatment plants, pumping stations, and distribution, networks, built over generations. With drinking water infrastructure requiring $2.1 to $2.4 trillion in upgrades through 2050, and infrastructure renewal now ranked the #1 concern in the 2026 AWWA State of the Water Industry report, finance and tax teams are under more pressure than ever to account for capital accurately, manage depreciation precisely, and make every dollar defensible. Legacy ERP systems and spreadsheet-based processes can’t keep up. The PowerPlan NXT platform delivers the asset-level visibility, tax fixed asset management, and proactive compliance tools your team needs to meet regulatory requirements without slowing down capital programs.

Replace Manual Workarounds with a Software Built for Water Finance

Water utilities managing complex capital programs, lead service line replacement, PFAS compliance, and aging asset retirements can’t afford gaps between their ERP, tax system, and financial reporting. The PowerPlan NXT platform connects your asset data, automates book-to-tax tracking, automates the calculation of tax repair expensing, and eliminates the manual reconciliation that creates audit risk and slows close cycles. From tax fixed asset depreciation and tax provision to asset retirement obligations and regulatory reporting, PowerPlan NXT gives water finance and tax teams a unified platform that keeps pace with infrastructure investment—without costly ERP customizations or consultant-dependent processes. More than 30 water utilities trust PowerPlan’s AI-powered platform, built on decades of utility asset accounting expertise, to turn billions in utility plant into faster cash flow, stronger audit trails, and rates their regulators and stakeholders can stand behind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Water utilities are navigating a perfect storm of cost pressures. Infrastructure renewal has returned to the #1 concern in the 2026 AWWA State of the Water Industry report, while access to capital has declined seven percentage points year-over-year. Less than half of utility executives say they can fully cover operating costs through rates and fees, and 57% are now funding capital investment through rate increases—up sharply from the prior year. For finance and tax teams, this means tighter scrutiny on every capital dollar and an urgent need for tools that produce accurate, defensible financial data.

PowerPlan’s tax solutions are purpose-built for asset-intensive regulated businesses, including water utilities. Tax Fixed Assets automates book-to-tax depreciation tracking, supports complex state-specific rules, and flags and tracks costs that qualify to be expensed as repairs under IRC Section 162—a significant opportunity for water utilities executing large-scale infrastructure replacement programs. For utilities managing property tax compliance across distributed infrastructure, PowerPlan solutions also streamline property tax accounting to reduce manual effort and improve accuracy across jurisdictions. With a complete, auditable record of every asset across its lifecycle, water utility tax teams can close faster, reduce manual reconciliation, and stay compliant.

Yes. Water utilities operate under strict regulatory frameworks, including NARUC uniform system of accounts and rate case requirements. PowerPlan’s Regulatory solution automates the tracking of regulatory assets and liabilities, manage rate base calculations, and produce the detailed reports needed to support rate cases and commission filings. With the PowerPlan NXT platform, regulatory data is integrated directly with your asset accounting and tax systems—so your numbers are consistent, traceable, and audit-ready across every reporting requirement.

Water utilities manage thousands of individual assets across treatment plants, distribution networks, pumping stations, and service lines—many built decades ago and now being replaced or upgraded under aggressive capital programs. This creates accounting complexity at every stage: correctly capitalizing construction costs, tracking assets from work order through close, calculating depreciation across mixed vintage pools, and retiring assets accurately when infrastructure is replaced. Generic ERP accounting modules aren’t built to handle this volume and granularity, which leads to manual workarounds, reconciliation gaps, and audit exposure. PowerPlan’s Project & Asset Accounting solution centralizes fixed asset lifecycle management—from tracking construction work in progress (CWIP) through capitalization, classification, and depreciation. The result is a complete, auditable asset record that supports both financial reporting and rate base calculations.

Water utility assets span a wide range of useful lives and depreciation methodologies, from short-lived meters and valves to long-lived mains and treatment structures. PowerPlan solutions support multiple depreciation methods, group and unit accounting, and the complex vintage calculations that regulated water utilities require. Our Depreciation Studies solution also helps utilities estimate remaining useful life, salvage values, and net removal costs—giving finance and regulatory teams the data they need to set depreciation rates, support rate cases, and comply with NARUC accounting requirements.

Water utilities carry significant asset retirement obligations tied to aging infrastructure, including mains, service lines, treatment equipment, and storage facilities. The PowerPlan ARO feature within the Project and Asset Accounting solution automates the full lifecycle of obligation accounting under ASC 410: initial recognition, accretion expense, liability revisions as cost estimates change, and settlement. This replaces manual spreadsheet processes that are difficult to audit and prone to error, giving finance teams a defensible, system-of-record approach to ARO management that holds up under regulatory and external audit scrutiny.

Yes. Lead service line replacement is one of the largest capital programs many water utilities are currently executing, and it creates specific accounting complexity: costs may be partially funded through federal programs or customer contributions, assets being retired must be removed from the fixed asset register, and new assets need to be properly capitalized and placed into service. The PowerPlan Project & Asset Accounting, retirement processing, and refunds and reimbursables capabilities work together to give utilities a clean, accurate accounting record throughout the replacement program—reducing the risk of misstatement and supporting the rate recovery documentation regulators require.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) fundamentally changed how water and wastewater utilities account for Contributions in Aid of Construction (CIAC). Prior to TCJA, CIAC was treated as a nontaxable contribution to capital. Under the new law, CIAC received from non-governmental developers is now taxable income. This creates ongoing complexity at the intersection of project accounting, tax, and rate recovery that many utilities are still managing manually. PowerPlan helps water utilities track contributed assets from receipt through the tax lifecycle, supporting accurate CIAC income recognition, gross-up calculations, and the rate base treatment that regulators require—giving tax and regulatory teams a defensible, system-of-record approach to one of the most water-utility-specific tax challenges created by TCJA.