Gas utility upgrading technology

Published 10:17 am Monday, August 11, 2014

Washington Parish Gas customers will soon have the option of paying their energy bills online.

Washington Parish Gas Office Manager Sarah Cook said the company is shooting for a Sept. 1 date for when customers have the ability to pay their bills from a computer.

Cook said the company has overhauled its entire operation.

“We have changed everything and went to a whole new billing system and a whole new payroll system,” Cook said. “We’re in the process of running our parallel billing to see if everything balances out and see if everything works correctly. We had to run the system to make sure everything balanced out for our customers’ bills.”

Cook said the company is in the process of building its web page. She said customers can go to the yet-to-be-named website by either Monday or Tuesday.

“We’re hoping by Sept. 1 customers can go online and pay their bills,“ Cook said. “It has been a long process. We started back in June on this new billing system. I believe we have all the bugs worked out. Next week we’re running payroll on the new system.”

Previously, Cook said customers’ only options of paying their bills were by check or cash.

“This has been a big ordeal,” Cook said. “We ran the old billing system on Aug. 1 and ran the new system today (Friday, Aug.8) to make sure everything balanced, and it did.”