Whether you’re planning to conduct the audit yourself, empower your operating companies, or hire a consultancy, having a basic understanding of how to read your telecom invoice will help you feel in control of these outgoing expenses. Here are 4 things you’ll want to know how to identify before you perform an audit.
Monthly Recurring Charges (MRCs)
The MRCs determine the base rate on your standard telecom bill. These are what you spend every month for the services you need, or think you need, and have ordered whether you use them or not.
Since this portion of the bill often bundles several services together, it may take some investigation to determine what you’re paying for exactly.
Telecom Usage Charges
Usage charges are typically per minute charges for services like long distance (inbound or outbound calls) or for teleconferencing services. Some features are charged on a “per event” basis. Examples of these would be 411 directory assistance calls, call return, last number dialed, call back, auto call complete, or conferencing service items like event recording, per event playback, or transcription or archiving of a call.
Third Party Billing
Third party billing is when another agency uses the telecom provider as a billing agent to charge for separate services. These fees tend to be hidden, and often you’re not even using them. These bills can be explained and sometimes negated by a simple call to your provider to discuss the matter.
The only way to reduce these fees is to go over your telecom invoice each month and check for any discrepancies between the total bill, the individual portions of the telecom invoice, and your expectations as to what the service should be costing you.
Unused Features
Unused features are the added services that have been forgotten about. Most telecom providers encourage you to buy features at the beginning of a contract in order to maximize the standard offering of a particular product.
The best way to tell which features are used and which ones can be removed is to look at each phone line individually on the bill, make a note of any features associated with that line, identify the user of that line, and ask which of the features he or she is currently using. If an employee has not used a feature in 3 months, that’s a good indicator that it can be removed.
[author_bio username=”Ken” name=”yes”]
