Learn the Business of Auditing Telephone Bills and Correcting Billing Errors – Here’s HowWritten by Barbara Clements
Orlando, Florida – If you think you are overwhelmed by telephone bills and contracts as a consumer, how do you think Corporations keep track of their phone bills? If you can’t be certain all your telephone calls on your bills are correct, just imagine having tens of thousands of bills paid monthly with out anyone reviewing them or analyzing them! Most Fortune 500 Companies don’t have a dedicated telecom auditor on staff and they rely on information they obtain from their carriers. During past 14 years we’ve seen only a handful of Corporations with an accurate inventory of all their phone and data lines. Do you think Corporations and mid sized companies have time to check their advertised lines monthly, or even annually? I’ve disclosed several opportunities above, but I think you may still be skeptical so here are further details. Most companies have late fees, but having late fees might mean that an AP Dept. is extremely busy and can't pay all bills prior to due date. Some bills may be set aside for review, and others may be held while AP Rep. is trying to determine a bill's accuracy. An Accounts Payable employee doesn’t have tariff training to identify tariff billing errors (through no fault of their own). Most corporations have a telecom department concentrating on keeping their services online and working properly. These service technicians aren’t billing experts and most don’t understand contract and billing review to determine if they are getting rates their company should be receiving. Without them telecom equipment failure and service outages would play havoc on entire company. Auditel has found that many large corporations have a telecom service department, but almost none have a telecom billing department. Having a complete audit is like having a car washed versus having car totally detailed. While corner gas station can wash outside of your car, to thoroughly clean it way you would like it done, you either need to do it yourself, or consult a car detail professional. The same is true of an audit. While it may be more convenient to scan “top” of bills, devil is in details. Most companies don’t take extra time to do a complete and total audit, eliminating all wastes. It is time consuming to consolidate bills, and to correct every billing error and tariff, but to do a thorough audit entire process needs to be completed. Every mistake needs to be corrected. In our experience there have been very few firms with tariff trained auditors reviewing telecom bills on a monthly basis. We recommend that every company have a telecom bill audit to review their telecom services and ensure each vendor’s accuracy. An audit can be primarily based on telephone bills, or expanded to include entire telecom department’s billings, including frame relay, data, and wireless, etc. Don’t forget your contracts need to be reviewed as well. If you have never had a telecom audit performed, or if you thought that all telecom audits were centered on long distance, you need to re-consider a tariff based analysis of all your telecom bills. Every company can benefit from having all their telecom contracts reviewed on an annual basis. Here is a question for those of you with more than one phone line on your telephone bill: Does your telephone company provide you with an updated inventory of all your phone lines? The detailed information outlining your existing services is given to you by your phone company through a Customer Service Record (CSR). Some of these CSRs look like hieroglyphics. With a large corporation gaining information from all phone companies is time consuming and can be a headache. If you need a detailed inventory which will encompass all of your locations this can be provided by full service auditing firm. Why need for a detailed inventory? Your company needs to know what fees are associated with each line you own, and pay for monthly. Most importantly your customers need to be able to reach you! How often have you had each line tested for accuracy? Have you ever had your advertised lines tested to verify correct forwarding is in place? Checking where your lines are routing is very important since your customers can't reach you if your lines aren't working, or if your lines are forwarding to wrong place.
| | What Is The "Right" Mortgage For Your Needs?Written by Janine Monik
Are you thinking of buying a home? If so, then there are many things that you need to research first. For example, do you know what a mortgage is and do you know all details of getting a mortgage? The more you know before you get into it, easier whole process will be for you.If you've never owned a home before, you know that securing a mortgage loan can be more nerve wracking than you might realize. After all, just like you would need to prove your expertise to secure a job, you need to prove your credit worthiness to secure a mortgage. The problem is, if you've never owned a home, how can you possibly convince a lender that your credit is good enough to qualify you for a home mortgage loan? This means that first-time buyers often face higher than standard interest rates and other unfavorable terms on their mortgages such mortgagee insurance. Yet many, many first-time homebuyers or event people with poor credit history enter market each day, so there are lenders out there that are willing to take risk. There are lots of mortgages designed specifically for first-time borrowers, with terms and rates that are flexible and not exorbitant. The trick is finding one of these lenders.
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