What to gather before a telecom review
Telecom bills grow by accretion. A line is added, a circuit is moved, a promotion ends, and the invoice keeps rising with nobody watching a single change. A telecom review rebuilds the picture: what you should be paying for, what you are billed for, and whether the two agree. These are the records that make it possible.
Start with an account list
Make a list of every carrier and every account number. This is harder than it sounds. Accounts get opened by branch managers, by former employees and by acquired businesses. Check accounts payable records for every telecom vendor you pay, then ask each carrier for an account summary to catch any you missed.
Record for each account: carrier, account number, billing address, service type and internal owner.
Invoices
Collect invoices from every carrier and account for a continuous period. A published guide to telecom audits suggests gathering a long run of invoices, in whatever form each carrier provides, because patterns show over time. Accept PDFs, electronic files and portal exports. Do not reformat them. Carriers accept disputes only within limited windows, so recent invoices matter most. [VERIFY: dispute windows in each carrier contract and applicable tariff]
Contracts
Gather the paper that sets price and terms:
- Master agreements and service schedules
- Rate sheets and discount plans
- Amendments, renewals and extension letters
- Early termination terms
- Minimum commitments and any shortfall charges
- Pricing quotes or emails that changed an agreement
If a carrier sent a new agreement and nobody signed it, say so. Terms that your team believes apply may not be the terms that were loaded into the carrier's billing system.
Service inventory
This is the document most businesses lack. An inventory lists what should be active: lines, circuits, data services, equipment and features, by location and by user where relevant. Build one from what you have:
- Site lists and building closures
- Employee lists, to find lines for people who left
- Device lists
- Network diagrams
- Carrier inventory reports, which you can request
Compare it with the invoices. Charges for services nobody can identify are a classic finding. Those are sometimes called ghost services, and they can continue for a long time after a site closes.
Wireless detail
If mobile is in scope, collect the device and line list, plan details, and usage reports. For wireless as a standalone cost, see Wireless. Add information on shared data pools and any device payment plans.
Past disputes and known problems
Gather records of earlier billing disputes, credits and disconnect requests. Include written disconnect confirmations if you have them. Note outages and any service credits you were promised. Ask your IT lead and facilities team for charges they have long suspected were wrong.
People and process
Name a telecom owner, an invoice approver and someone from IT who knows the network. Describe in a paragraph how new services are ordered and how disconnects are requested. If different teams do this, say so. That gap between ordering and disconnecting is where charges drift.
You remain involved while the firm gathers data and presents findings. See How it works for the sequence.
Checklist before you submit
- List all carriers and accounts.
- Gather invoices for a continuous period.
- Collect contracts, schedules and amendments.
- Build a rough service inventory by site.
- Request carrier inventory reports.
- Collect past disputes and disconnect confirmations.
- Name your contacts.
Next steps
Read Telecom for the scope of this service, and Common telecom billing errors for what reviewers look for. Then send a request through Request a professional. Fairview connects you with a partner firm. The firm performs the review, and any fees are agreed between you and the firm.
Sources
Tell us what you need reviewed. We match you by hand with an independent partner firm. You keep your existing vendors.Find out what you are overpaying.