The key to saving money on your telecom invoice is to first discover what fees and charges your company accrues each month. To do so, you must understand what’s on your telecom invoice and what each section of your telecom invoice entails.
Telecom invoices are not easy to understand, but that should not stop you from getting a firm understanding of what your company is charged each month. Not pinpointing where charges stem from can cause your company to lose money due to telecom invoicing errors.
Telecom Invoice MRC’s
A staple to your telecom invoice will be telecom MRC’s, or Monthly Recurring Charges. MRC’s can be viewed as the base of your telecom invoice that you can expect to see month to month. These charges reflect any monthly fees for the services your company utilizes, such as phone or internet.
You may think that this section of your telecom invoice will not need further examination, but unfortunately that is not the case. For instance, services like local phone, internet, and data are fixed with MRC’s, but within the MRC’s is often a cost for access (connection to your carrier’s network), and also a cost for the size or quantity of your lines or circuits. Some local invoices only have an MRC for the actual number of lines and features you use.
If your company has services, such as Long Distance or Teleconferencing, which are typically usage based, expect to see a base MRC, with additional costs per minute. Within the cost per minute, there is also a wide variety of additional charges: outbound calls, inbound calls (for 1-800 type toll free service), and international calls. Within each of these types, there are IntraState, InterState, IntraLATA, and Toll calls. Confused? That is the way that telecom carriers want it.
Telecom Invoice NRC’s
Typically on a telecom invoice you will see the acronym, NRC, which stands for ‘Non-Recurring Charge’. These charges are often one-time fees that can be attributed to installations, set-up fees, service calls, and other non-typical fees. Thankfully, you will have an easier time spotting erroneous charges on this section of your telecom invoice than anywhere else.
Telecom Regulatory Fees & Taxes
You may be tempted to skim over the section of your telecom invoice that contains regulatory taxes & fees. Don’t, this is an area we suggest you examine closely. This is a common area for suspect charges to be hidden and a golden opportunity for charges to appear on services that your company does not even utilize!
Telecom Overage Charges
Telecom carriers will charge you when you exceed set usage agreements or plans. This section of your telecom invoice will outline any applicable overage charges, including per minute, per MB, and per message for texts. If this recurring charge happens often, take the time to speak with your telecom carrier about another option that will help your company avoid these costly charges.
Thirty Party Billing
One of the most frustrating portions of your telecom invoice is Third Party Billing. This is where fees are charged by a third party that uses your telecom carrier as the billing agent for their services.
These fees are usually for services that your company may not even realize you’ve signed up to use and are commonly referred to as “slamming” or “cramming” fees. Normally, a call to your carrier’s customer service can help you with any questions you may have regarding these fees.
The key to really understanding your telecom invoice and to ensure that your company is being billed fairly and equitably, is to pay attention to each line of your telecom invoice. While some areas of your company telecom invoice are more straightforward, several areas are deceptively harder to decipher such as, overages, regulatory fees & taxes, and Third Party Billing. Remain vigilant to safeguard your company from shelling out unnecessary cash that can affect your company’s bottom-line each month.
[author_bio username=”Ken” name=”yes”]
