At RAM Communications, nothing makes us happier than helping a client successfully manage their telecommunications. There are so many different aspects of telecom these days and having an experienced team of professionals to help navigate this complex world can save your company time, money, and resources and, most importantly, give you peace of mind. In this blog post, we’re going to focus on:
- How to spot the most common telecom billing errors on your invoices
- What the most common telecom billing errors are
- What to do to correct them and stop overpaying for telecom services
How to Review Your Business Telecom Invoice(s) for Billing Errors
It’s very important to know and understand your service agreement, for starters. Before our team does any type of invoice review, we must confirm a few items. First, we identify the services in place and the agreed-upon pricing for those items. A billing audit is not worth anything unless you have a reference point that resides in the details of your current service agreement.
Often when we hear from a client they tell us: “I looked at the invoice and I don’t know what I’m looking at”. This is a totally understandable comment because most telecom invoices can be intimidating to the untrained eye. The reality is there can be technical and contractual parts that can impact your billing.
Most accounting departments only start looking into their telecom invoices when the accounts payable see a spike in rates. However, that kind of monitoring may not uncover other billing issues.
To do a good job, you’ll need to gather some information . . .
What Does Know Your Telecom Service Agreement Mean?
- Where’s the Service Agreement? Find the contract so you can identify the term length, rate plans and conditions of the contract. Like other business contracts, you may need your legal counsel to review the agreement. Remember, your legal team is there to help ensure you get the best possible terms for your business.
- What service did you sign up for? Identify the service type and find its corresponding monthly cost.
- Did you make any changes to your plan? Any changes made during a service agreement can potentially affect discount plans and unintentionally extend a service agreement
- How many minutes and how much data are you allowed on your mobile plan? Maybe you paid extra because you went above their threshold. If you don’t know that you won’t know if the carrier is making a mistake or if they are billing the overage properly. From our experience – 9 times out of 10 – clients don’t know what they signed up for and/or what the financial and/or usage parameters are.
Areas in the Telecom Invoices to Look at for Billing Errors – While items may vary with each carrier, every invoice has common elements. Here are the more universal elements you should see on your invoice.
Monthly recurring charges (MRC) – this is the charge you are invoiced for a particular product every month; the going rate. In the summary page, there will be a line item that talks about your total MRCs. They should be consistent from month to month.
Non-recurring charges (NRC) – these are one-time charges, it’s a line item that’s common on every bill. In the lifecycle of a contract, most of the time that number should be $0. If there’s any kind of number next to an NRC, that’s something that needs to be investigated. That doesn’t mean the carrier overcharged you because there are legitimate one-time charges. For example, there was a move or change on the agreement or you added an extra service for a new office. There would be an installation charge and that would be appropriate.
Taxes and Access Fees – this is the most challenging part of a telecom invoice because there isn’t a standard. Every carrier applies taxes and access fees differently. It’s hard to fight these but companies like RAM Communications can compare those taxes and access fees for the same type of service in the same locale (city of Chicago, for example), for an apples-to-apples comparison.
What should you do if you think your telecom bill has errors?
Speak with your carrier
Is there a dedicated representative for your account? Pursue that person with your billing questions. They should have a vested interest in helping you. If there’s no specific rep to contact then be prepared to spend some time with customer service. Sometimes the only thing to do is to call the carrier’s 800 number and ask customer service for billing assistance.
Talk to an agent like RAM
Because we are dedicated, focused, and experienced we know what to look for and how to help. First, we have inhouse expertise. Our team has reviewed dozens of carrier invoices and thousands of contracts. Along the way we have learned how to interpret contracts and rate plans. Once we know the baseline of a service agreement we can then determine where a client invoice is working and where there are errors. From there it’s a matter of working with key personnel to recover credits and fix issues.
How Often Should I Check My Telecom Invoice for Billing Errors?
If you decide you don’t want to hire an agency (such as RAM Communications) and you’re going at it alone – the very least you should do is check your invoices on a quarterly basis. Telecom carriers add fees, make changes and raise some rates on a regular basis. Legally, carriers are required to inform you of changes in writing. However, those notices are often buried on the back page of your invoice. So, consistent monitoring is required in order to keep your services on the correct budget.
Call to Action
If you think your telecom invoice has billing errors, you’re paying too much, or if you want to better understand how you can save time and money – call RAM Communications. We will conduct a thorough audit and let you know what the issue is and how to resolve it. The audit is not free – but it’s well worth the money! Often, we can lower enterprise billing costs by 20-30% – easily justifying our service fees.
Contact RAM to learn more at 847-241-1665.