AWWA's Free Water Audit Software

Version 4.2

The AWWA Water Loss Control Committee is pleased to offer Version 4.2 (June 2010 release) of its own Free Water Audit Software, available to all users. This page provides a gateway for water utility personnel and any other interested parties to download and use the software and provide feedback to the Water Loss Control Committee. The committee hopes you will find this software, in Microsoft Excel format, to be a useful and easy way to compile a basic audit of water supply and billing operations.

The Free Water Audit Software is not intended to provide a full and detailed water audit. For guidance on comprehensive auditing procedures see AWWA’s M36 publication Water Audits and Loss Control Programs.  However, the software allows water utilities to quickly compile a preliminary audit in the standardized and transparent manner advocated by AWWA.

How the Water Audit Software Works

The Free Water Audit Software includes ten worksheets in a spreadsheet file. The first worksheet provides instructions on the use of the software. The majority of data is entered on the second worksheet – The Reporting Worksheet – which prompts the user to enter standard water supply information such as the volume of water supplied, customer consumption, distribution system attributes and quantities of losses.

Knowing that many water utilities don't typically tabulate all of this data, the software allows the user to enter either known (measured) or estimated (quantities that must be approximated) values. The software then calculates a variety of performance indicators which are useful in making performance comparisons among water utilities.

Data Grading Capability

The most important new functionality upgrade in Version 4.2 is the data grading capability. This feature provides a basic validation of the results from the Reporting Worksheet. Each of the data inputs on the Reporting Worksheet has an input box to accept a grading value ranging from 1 to 10.  A grading of 10 represents highly reliable, well validated data, while a grade of 1 reflects very crude data such as rough estimates. Each grading is identified by specific criteria listed on the Grading Matrix Worksheet, or the auditor may simply hover over the data grading input cell to display the criteria.

Once all the grading cells have been entered, a composite grading score is calculated and displayed at the bottom of the Reporting Worksheet. The composite grading is based upon a scale of 100; this score can then be used to assess a basic validation for the audit. The auditor can determine the status of the utility’s data quality by reviewing the Loss Control Planning Worksheet. This worksheet provides planning guidance to the water utility. Utilities with a lower composite grading should focus program efforts on data collection and validation until the overall data quality becomes more reliable. Utilities with higher composite gradings can trust their data to serve as the basis for budgetary decisions on major loss control initiatives such as leakage management controls or wholesale customer meter replacement. Reliable data can also be benchmarked against data from other utilities with reliable data.

An additional function on the Reporting Worksheet includes a priority listing of the most important three variables to target to improve the validity of the water audit data.

Learn more about and download the Free Water Audit Software, in English or French, upon accepting the User Agreement:

ENGLISH	FRANÇAIS

Please note that software is in Microsoft Excel format.

Need to See an Example?

Examples which show two completed water audits are embedded into the body of the spreadsheet. The City of Philadelphia (US) audit shows units of million gallons (US). The Region of Peel (Canada) shows metric units of thousand cubic meters.

Questions or Comments?

Water Loss Control Committee members provide support for the software and are eager to answer your questions regarding the use or function of the software and appreciate any user feedback. Please forward your questions or comments regarding the software. Would you like to be notified directly about updates to the software and related developments? If so, provide your contact information. Please provide your name, telephone number, email address, your organization, and (for utilities) the number of billed customer accounts served.

The Committee maintains a listing of Free Water Audit Software users in order to provide updates and track the extent of use of the software. Submitting this information is entirely voluntary.