I've been doing utility auditing for years but I'm new to the telecom side and feeling a bit overwhelmed. The billing structures are so much more complex than electric and gas. What are the key things I should be looking for in business telecom bills? I've got a potential client with Comcast Business that has monthly bills around $4,500 across three locations. Any tips on where to start or what red flags to watch for would be really appreciated.
Best practices for telecom bill auditing - what am I missing?
Vera, I'd start with the basics - make sure all the services listed are actually being used. With telecom bills, it's common to see charges for lines or features that were disconnected months ago but never removed from billing. Also check for duplicate charges where they might be billing for the same service under different line descriptions. Here in California, I see this a lot with Comcast where they'll have "Internet Service" and "Broadband Access" as separate line items for the same connection.
Don't forget to verify the tax calculations too. Telecom taxes are a nightmare - federal, state, local, plus all those regulatory fees. I've found billing errors in the tax calculations on probably 40% of the telecom bills I've audited. The companies often apply the wrong tax rates or calculate taxes on services that should be exempt. At $4,500/month, even a small tax error can add up to significant savings over time.
Thanks Iris and Donna, this is really helpful. I hadn't even thought about the tax calculation issues. Is there a good resource for understanding all these different telecom taxes and fees? The bills have like 8 different tax line items and I have no idea if they're correct. Also, should I be requesting detailed usage reports or are the summary bills usually sufficient for finding errors?
Vera, definitely request the detailed usage reports. Summary bills can hide a lot of problems, especially with long-distance charges, data overages, and premium features. For tax resources, the FCC has a good guide to federal telecom taxes, and most state PSCs publish guides to local telecom taxes. Here in Tennessee, we see a lot of errors where companies apply business tax rates to residential services or vice versa. With three locations at $4,500 monthly, I'd bet there's at least $200-300 in monthly savings to be found.