Recently, members of our company’s reservations team were discussing the time and difficulty that is experienced when auditing our monthly phone bills.  In looking for an answer, we ran across companies which either electronically or manually audit phone bills.

These companies detail the complete routing, rating and exact cost of all calls into the switch, and compare this information to telecom bills.  This results in the creation of a variance report. The company then contacts the telecom provider(s) to negotiate for refunds, not only on the current billings, but for 
36 months of credit. 

The fee for this service is based upon the savings obtained from the audit.  The average charge is 50 percent of the savings.  In addition to the savings on tariff billing errors, there is also potential to recoup the leisure tax charged to most companies. 

Companies which process manually require copies of the bills (either electronically or manually, depending upon the company), and your company’s rate tariffs.  For those that process electronically, hardware is installed at the host site.  The hardware is installed and located between the switch and the ACD in the CRO phone room.  This hardware obtains information to measure the actual duration (down to 4 digits behind the decimal point) of the calls.  All parameters in the tariff are loaded into the software which then prices each call to the 1000/penny.  The call and variance reports are available and viewable the second the phone call is terminated. 

Some of the companies provide staff who negotiate with the phone companies for the refunds that are due.  Some also negotiate for a leisure tax refund as well as a refund for usage over the prior 36-month period.  In addition to telecom auditing, a majority of the companies reviewed also audit power and utility bills utilizing a similar method.  Several of the companies audit data and/or web traffic. 

Levels of auditing support vary substantially between companies, and not all companies reviewed offered all of the services noted above.   Just go into your web search function, and select function, and type: audit AND telephone, and view the many options available.

Kate Wolfe is the Director of Planning and Analysis for REZsolutions. Her role includes research into technology to make the call center more productive and cost effective. She  currently is Vice President/President Elect of IARE.