AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — The city of Amarillo’s Utility Billing Department’s payment process has continued to be delayed because of “an unforeseen issue” in the process of an upgrade to the Tyler Technologies Munis software the city uses for the department.

According to previous reports by MyHIghPlains.com, this upgrade began on Dec. 1 and payment processing is not available online or by phone. Officials continued to stress that water bills are not due for payment until the system is back online.

City of Amarillo officials also said in a news release, released by the city on Wednesday, that there will be no late fees charged or interruptions in water services. Auto-draft payments will not be drafted until the issues are resolved.

“COA top-level management is actively working with the highest level of service support to resolve this software issue as soon as possible,” Wednesday’s release said.

Laura Storrs, the city of Amarillo’s assistant city manager and chief financial officer, said the city initially thought the upgrade would take a couple of days. Now, the city is on day six of the upgrade and does not have an idea of when the upgrade will be completed.

“All processes on our software are down at this point so that is from issuing bills to receiving payments. Everything is down because it was a full complete software package update,” Storrs said. “…The last thing we want to do is start receiving bills, drafting payments, any of those things and have issues that start impacting our customers from a financial standpoint. We don’t want to do that. We’d rather them hold on to their payments for now, wait until we’re up and fully functioning, and then get those payments.”

However, Storrs did stress that individuals are still able to pay their bills in person at City Hall or by mail at this time. Storrs also said that more information will be released once the upgrade is completed.

According to the release, if individuals have water maintenance issues, they are asked to call 806-378-6828. To start a new service, individuals are asked to call 806-378-3030.