Whether you are a small business owner or a CFO of a large corporation, you have the same basic goal in mind: profitability. You are constantly weighing expenses against earnings, and trying to minimize expenses without cutting corners whenever possible. Telecom is a necessary expense for any business. Understanding your telecom charges so that you know exactly what you are paying for can help to minimize these expenses. 

Telecom Invoice Analysis

Here is a breakdown of charges on a typical telecom invoice:

• NRC’s non-reoccurring charges
• MRC’s monthly recurring charges
• Usage fees
• Overage fees
• Taxes & Regulatory fees 

NRC’s are one time charges for services such as installation fees, set up fees, service calls, or other non-typical fees. If you request a service call or other one-time service, be sure to ask about the cost before you receive the service. Then, double check your invoice to make sure you are being charged the price you agreed to pay in advance. 

MRC’s are monthly recurring charges, such as the charge for long distance calling service. What creates confusion with MRC’s is the fact that there are often usage fees in addition to an MRC. For example, you may pay an MRC which allows you access to long distance calling, but then you are charged a usage fee when you actually use the service. Your usage fees are often a “by the minute” fee, with the price per minute varying based on call type. As if MRC’s and usage fees weren’t enough, if you go over your agreed upon usage, then that’s when overage fees come into play!  To complicate things further, there may be a different charge and a different allotted usage for outbound vs. inbound, and different charges for intrastate calls, interstate calls and international calls. 

The combination of MRC’s and usage fees are usually the most difficult fees to figure out. Do you know your contractual fee for an outbound intrastate call? If you do, then you are ahead of the curve! Were you able to keep track of the minutes you spent last month on outbound intrastate calls? Most of us don’t have a good system in place to track each specific type of call and its length, in which case the number on the monthly telecom bill can be an unpleasant surprise. 

Gone are the days when there was one phone per residence or small business. Now you will need to keep up with multiple lines and mobile devices. 

Just when you start to get a handle on the fees for making calls, it gets murky when you add in texting and data, and when you consider that the usage fees associated with a cellphone or other portable device will vary not just by what you are doing, but where you are doing it from…

Though it is complicated, you need to familiarize yourself with each type of fee, and, to avoid overages, you need to know the details regarding your agreed upon usage fees. Many small business owners or decision makers at larger companies choose PAG to spend time analyzing their telecom invoices because it is just too time consuming to unravel the complexities on their own. Having a telecom expert from PAG on your team may be the best way to understand your charges in order to uncover any errors and make the best telecom spending decisions. Contact PAG today to find out more about how we can help you analyze your charges and simplify your telecom.

[author_bio username=”Ken” name=”yes”]