How Eastern Municipal Water District Transformed Its Financial Planning with Synario

Map courtesy of Service Area | Eastern Municipal Water District – EMWD

Serving nearly one million people across Southern California, Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) faced complex financial challenges managing a $785 million capital improvement program alongside diverse water services. Relying on slow, error-prone spreadsheets, EMWD struggled with manual reporting, limited scenario analysis, and increasing complexity.

By partnering with Synario, EMWD adopted a tailored, dynamic financial modeling platform that unified planning for water, wastewater, and recycled water services. This shift enabled real-time scenario testing, automated rate analysis, and streamlined regulatory compliance, dramatically accelerating forecasting from a week or more to hours.

With greater transparency and agility, EMWD now confidently manages capital projects, aligns utility rates with legislation, and models labor costs with precision, empowering smarter decisions that support sustainable growth and infrastructure investment.

 

 

The Challenge: Outgrowing Spreadsheets in Complex Utility Finance

Serving nearly one million residents across 601 square miles in Southern California, EMWD manages a five-year capital improvement program (CIP) totaling $785 million. To plan effectively, the district needed accurate, agile financial modeling for utilities to evaluate funding strategies and rate structures with confidence.

But their legacy process, built on sprawling spreadsheets, was holding them back. Key challenges included:

• Slow, manual reporting: Generating forecasts and financial reports took up to a week, delaying critical decisions.
• High complexity and risk: Over 50 interconnected Excel tabs increased the likelihood of errors and made audits difficult.
• Limited scenario analysis: Comparing rate structures, supply costs, or funding approaches meant building new models from scratch every time.

“There is just always, with Excel, the possibility that a link broke or you didn’t tie it to the right cell. You can never fully sign off on anything.” – Donna Kiminki, Financial Manager at EMWD

To combat these inefficiencies, EMWD turned to Synario for a powerful, purpose-built forecasting and rate analysis software platform, one that could streamline planning, reduce risk, and support smarter, faster decision-making.

 

The Solution: Real-Time Modeling to Support Smarter Utility Decisions

Facing the limitations of spreadsheet-based forecasting, Synario collaborated with EMWD to create a tailored financial model that consolidated planning for water, wastewater, and recycled water services into a single, integrated system. This unified model streamlined financial oversight and improved alignment across departments.

“We went on the search for a long-term financial planning software…selected Synario, and began implementation in July 2024. We specifically liked the ability to have the different scenario versions of our model and the flexibility of showing it on the fly.” – Donna Kiminki, Financial Manager at EMWD

With real-time utility rate analysis, EMWD leadership can instantly evaluate rate structures, capital projects, and funding strategies, enabling faster, more flexible decision-making. The model also tracks the organization’s $785 million CIP, ensuring that long-term infrastructure investments are both strategic and financially sustainable.

To support regulatory transparency and Proposition 218 compliance, the system automates cost-of-service calculations, reducing manual work and increasing accuracy. This simplifies reporting while ensuring rate structures remain proportional to usage.

One of the model’s most powerful features is its ability to toggle assumptions dynamically. EMWD can quickly adjust for inflation, project delays, or cost fluctuations without rebuilding the model, empowering the district to stay responsive and confidently aligned with its strategic plan.

“[Our favorite feature is] definitely the sliders, the toggle buttons, and being able to manipulate those on the fly and really see the big impacts. I love the ‘Explain’ feature for us for validation.”  – Donna Kiminki, Financial Manager at EMWD

 

The Result: Future-Ready Financial Management for Utilities

Flexible Capital Planning for a $785 Million Infrastructure Program

One of the most impactful improvements for EMWD has been the ability to manage its $785 million CIP with agility and precision. Using Synario’s dynamic modeling capabilities, EMWD can break down and evaluate its CIP across multiple funding and rate structures.

The district’s CIP is organized into three key categories: system betterment, repairs and replacement (R&R), and system expansion, each with its own funding requirements and rate implications. System expansion, for example, is funded through a completely different set of rates than those that support system betterment and R&R, which are tied directly to utility rates. 

These distinct funding streams must not only be tracked separately but also modeled accurately to ensure regulatory compliance and long-term financial health.

Using Synario’s dynamic modeling capabilities, EMWD can:

• Evaluate multiple funding sources, including rate revenues, property taxes, and external debt, to identify the most strategic mix.
• Model the financial impact of capital projects in real time, gaining immediate insight into effects on reserves, debt requirements, and rate structures.
• Balance reserve use and debt issuance to support long-term infrastructure investments while maintaining financial health.

“We manage about 200 projects a year. Initially, we designed the model so we could toggle the top five—asking, ‘If we didn’t do this project, what would it look like?’ We also built the ability to analyze at the top level—by service and by construction type—which was instrumental in parsing results, knowing the board’s questions would focus on those CIP programs.” – Donna Kiminki, Financial Manager at EMWD

This level of insight was especially valuable when evaluating rate strategies. Synario’s model showed that a higher rate increase could reduce reserve usage by about $30 million per year, $60 million over two years. In contrast, scenarios without rate increases would have required two to three times more in reserve spending.

These findings gave EMWD’s board a clearer long-term financial outlook and greater confidence in their rate and debt decisions.

 

Rate Modeling That Meets Regulatory Demands

California’s Proposition 218 mandates that utility rates be directly tied to the actual cost of service, a requirement that adds layers of complexity to financial planning. For EMWD, staying compliant meant more than just meeting legal thresholds; it required the ability to transparently and accurately model how consumption patterns and rate structures interact.

Using Synario, EMWD created a model that reflects the district’s tiered and seasonal rates while ensuring full alignment with Proposition 218. The platform streamlined cost-of-service analysis, reducing manual effort and increasing confidence in the accuracy of rate projections.

With real-time modeling capabilities, EMWD can now present rate proposals that are both financially sound and demonstrably fair, bolstering transparency and regulatory compliance across the board.

“We’ve never been able to show the board this level of scenario analysis before. This time, we presented multiple rate paths and their impacts on reserves and capital funding. The board loved it.” – Donna Kiminki, Financial Manager at EMWD

 

Strategic Labor Cost Modeling for Long-Term Stability

Labor costs, shaped by union negotiations and inflation, play a central role in EMWD’s financial planning.

Synario’s modeling platform enables EMWD to isolate labor expenses from broader operational costs, giving leadership the clarity needed to forecast budgets with precision. With real-time scenario modeling, district leaders can quickly evaluate multiple salary adjustment proposals and understand their long-term impact on financial sustainability.

EMWD’s union agreements tie annual wage increases to the Consumer Price Index, adding complexity to labor planning. Synario accounts for this by allowing different inflation assumptions for labor, while separately modeling volatile inputs like chemicals, electricity, and fuel.

This level of detail allows EMWD to develop more accurate forecasts, align labor negotiations with fiscal strategy, and ensure rate-setting decisions reflect real-world cost pressures. By modeling workforce expenses dynamically, the district can proactively manage compensation while maintaining operational and financial resilience.

 

From Spreadsheets to Strategic Clarity

Eastern Municipal Water District’s implementation of Synario’s financial modeling platform has redefined its approach to utility financial planning. By automating rate analysis, integrating capital planning solutions, and enabling real-time forecasting, EMWD now operates with a new level of precision, agility, and confidence.

“You want it to be accurate, but you want it to be fast, and you don’t always get both things at the same time, but I feel like with Synario, we can.” – Donna Kiminki, Financial Manager at EMWD

As the district prepares for continued growth and evolving infrastructure needs, Synario remains a cornerstone of its financial strategy. With modern tools that support smarter planning and transparent rate-setting, EMWD is well-positioned to navigate future challenges while ensuring long-term stability for its customers and communities.