Track collections and arrears every week

Use a simple dashboard or weekly report to track how much has been billed, collected, and left outstanding by ward, payment channel, or taxpayer segment. Visibility changes behaviour inside the administration and makes it easier to target follow-up intelligently.

• Managers currently learn too late that collection is off track.

• Performance varies across wards or teams and needs to be compared.

• The city has basic digital or spreadsheet capacity.

• Routine access to billing and payment data, even if only through spreadsheets.

• One named person to refresh the dashboard and circulate it.

• Do not build a dashboard before source data are at least reasonably reliable.

• This is not the first move where basic billing and payment records are still chaotic.

Most compliance reforms rise or fall on consistency. Taxpayers quickly notice whether the city applies the rule across the roll or only in selected cases.

The full card would help the city plan the weekly indicators, data sources, accountability meetings, and the practical way managers will use the dashboard to target follow-up rather than just admire the numbers.

• Tighten cash handling and daily reconciliation; Visit major defaulters in person.

• Escalation and enforcement

• These cards move from softer follow-up into stronger compliance tools. They work best once billing, delivery, and payment basics already function reasonably well.

Collection performance improves when managers can see it in time to act. A weekly dashboard or standing performance report makes it harder for arrears to accumulate quietly and easier to compare wards, teams, or channels. It also helps focus scarce enforcement effort on the cases that matter most. This is therefore less a technology card than a management-discipline card: the value comes from using the numbers to drive decisions.

• Managers currently discover shortfalls too late in the cycle.

• Collection performance varies by ward, payment channel, or team and needs to be compared openly.

• The city has at least basic spreadsheet or digital capacity and wants more structured management follow-up.

• Keep the first dashboard simple and decision-oriented; managers need a few reliable indicators more than a complex visual product.

• If source data are still messy, start with a manual weekly report on core indicators while the city cleans up the feed.

• Decide in advance who will receive the report and what meeting or action it should trigger, otherwise the dashboard becomes passive reporting.

• Which indicators matter most in the first year: billed, collected, outstanding, recovery by channel, top debtors, or ward-by-ward performance.

• Whether the city wants one citywide report plus annexes, or separate views for different management levels.

• How the report will distinguish current-year slippage from older arrears so the city does not mix two different problems.

First 90 days

• Identify the smallest set of indicators that would help managers make better weekly decisions.

• Map where each number will come from and test whether it can be produced regularly without heroic manual effort.

• Assign one named analyst or officer to refresh and circulate the report every week.

6 to 12 months

• Run the report through several weekly cycles and use it in management meetings, even if the first versions are simple.

• Check which indicators lead to action and which merely decorate the page, then simplify the product accordingly.

• Introduce basic comparison by ward, team, or channel so lagging areas become visible.

12 to 24 months and beyond

• Link the weekly report to overdue workflows, field visits, and channel management so it becomes part of operational discipline.

• Improve automation gradually only after managers are already using the report consistently.

• Review periodically whether the dashboard should widen to include installation plans, lien cases, or large-debtor actions.

• No major legal change is normally needed, but the city should clarify who may see different levels of taxpayer detail and how aggregated information can be circulated safely.

• If the report will be used for staff performance management, set that expectation clearly rather than letting it emerge informally.

• Confirm how arrears definitions will be applied so different offices are comparing the same thing.

• The city needs routine access to billing and payment data, even if through weekly extracts rather than a live system.

• Someone must own the indicator definitions, otherwise different teams will calculate the same figure differently.

• Managers need a fixed review rhythm; the dashboard will not matter if nobody is expected to respond to it.

• If source data are unreliable, a polished dashboard can create false confidence; improve reliability first or keep the first version simple and caveated.

• Too many indicators can hide the few that actually matter.

• If the city publishes comparisons internally without support or follow-through, staff may game the numbers rather than improve performance.

• Timeliness of the weekly report.

• Share of indicators produced without manual correction.

• Management actions triggered by the report, such as targeted follow-up or field visits.

• Change over time in collection performance for wards or channels highlighted as lagging.

• Tighten cash handling and daily reconciliation.

• Visit major defaulters in person.

• Use a clear overdue notice ladder.

• Which three to five indicators would most change management behaviour right now?

• Who will refresh the report every week, and what happens if it is late?

• What meeting or action will follow the report each cycle?

• How will the city separate current-year collection problems from older arrears?

• C. Escalate fairly and credibly