The City of Brownwood continues to face significant operational issues, citizen complaints, and reconciliation challenges due to persistent shortcomings with the current Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) provider, Nuvei. After a full year of live use, City staff has determined that the platform lacks the maturity, integration capabilities, and customer-focused functionality needed to support Brownwood’s operational goals. These limitations have created hidden costs – both in staff time and resident frustration – that hinder the City’s ability to efficiently manage payments, billing, and reconciliation.
InvoiceCloud offers a modern, real-time, fully integrated payment platform currently used by more than 3,200 local governments and over 300 Tyler Technologies customers.
Key benefits include:
• Real-time integration across all payment channels (POS, online, IVR, mobile, text).
• Live balance visibility for residents, even seconds after payment.
• Seamless payment posting to Tyler InCode.
• Guest checkout with the ability to enroll in paperless billing, autopay, and text-to-pay.
• Enhanced communications, including up to three reminders per billing cycle with secure, actionable links and real-time tracking.
• Comprehensive reporting and reconciliation tools through a single, user-friendly portal with robust search capabilities.
• Significant cost savings, passing only a 3.25% fee to residents and eliminating all other processing fees currently absorbed by the City.
• Configurable POS devices and itemized digital receipts.
• Cross-department scalability for future expansion.
Transitioning to InvoiceCloud represents a substantial improvement for both internal operations and customer experience. While City staff recognizes that making another change so soon after the previous implementation may raise concerns, the volume of citizen complaints and the operational difficulties encountered with Nuvei make this transition necessary.
The time of transition from Nuvei to InvoiceCloud is anticipated to be 120 days.
The City Council on Tuesday also approved a resolution establishing cash payment rounding accommodations due to limited coin availability.
Brownwood, like many municipalities nationwide, has experienced periods of limited coin availability, including shortages of pennies. These shortages can make it difficult for City departments to consistently provide exact change for in-person cash transactions.
While many City services utilize recurring billing accounts, such as utilities, other services – permits, Health Department services, and some landfill fees – are assessed as one-time or transaction-based charges with no ongoing billing account. Without clear policy guidance, handling small cash discrepancies creates operational and audit challenges.
The proposed resolution establishes a uniform, transparent framework for handling cash payments when exact change is unavailable.
Key components include:
• No change to fees or rates: All City fees and charges continue to be calculated and assessed to the exact cent.
• Ongoing billing accounts: Customers may voluntarily round cash payments up or down, with small differences posted as credits or balances on their accounts.
• One-time or transaction-based fees: Cash payments may be rounded to the nearest nickel ($0.05) using federal cash-rounding guidelines when no ongoing billing account exists.
• Cash-only application: Rounding applies only to cash payments; checks and electronic payments allow payment of the exact amount.
• Strong accounting controls: Transactions are recorded based on the amount tendered, with no end-of-day register adjustments.
This approach aligns with generally accepted accounting principles, Texas municipal audit standards, and constitutional restrictions on the waiver or gifting of public funds. The resolution avoids permanently reducing or forgiving any charges and maintains accurate billing and accounting records, supporting audit compliance.
Council also on Tuesday approved a resolution adopting the City of Brownwood Purchasing Policy.
The City has operated under an internal Purchasing Policy for many years. Although the policy has been followed in practice, it has not previously been formally adopted by City Council. Recent state and federal grant applications now require a governing body resolution confirming adoption of purchasing policies.
The Purchasing Policy has been updated to:
• Reflect revised purchasing threshold amounts approved by the Texas Legislature.
• Add a new section addressing federal purchasing requirements to ensure compliance with federal grant and funding standards.
• Include provisions for disciplinary action related to violations of the City’s Code of Ethics, reinforcing accountability in purchasing and contracting activities.
The updates clarify compliance requirements and do not materially change established purchasing practices.
Council also approved a resolution re-adopting the City of Brownwood Investment Policy.
The Public Funds Investment Act requires a review and re-adoption of the City’s Investment Policy at least once per calendar year. The City’s current investment policy was amended on Jan. 10, 2023, and no changes were recommended.
City Secretary Christi Wynn was also recognized at the City Council meeting for receiving the 2025 Texas Municipal Clerks Association Distinguished Service Award. This honor recognizes her dedication, professionalism, and years of service.