What’s the only thing better for your company than an annual telecom audit? Vigilant bill and expense management each month. Monthly telecom expense management (TEM) provides such services and is the only way to ensure accounts are maintained and billed properly once the audit process is finished.
“IT departments make sure services are working but they don’t necessarily know about the costs or have the expertise to dig into the details when something’s wrong,” says Erin Fitch, director of operations at Ruby+Solberg. “Most companies simply look at the month-over-month dollar amount and just pay the bill.”
With Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Ruby+Solberg analysts review every single line of every single invoice to ensure companies don’t pay overcharges or incorrect fees. Even better yet, Ruby+Solberg pays the invoices.
“Most TEM firms analyze invoices and identify billing discrepancies but then push bills back onto their client’s lap to pay,” says Fitch. “Other firms don’t want to deal with the legality of handling money, but that’s really what sets Ruby+Solberg apart.”
Ruby+Solberg reviews, validates and then pays all telecom invoices on behalf of their TEM clients. Companies are provided customized general ledger reports that seamlessly integrate with their internal accounting systems. TEM clients then simply wire a single lump sum for the transaction, which eliminates an accounting department’s responsibilities and hurdles of tracking down multiple telecom payments — sometimes for hundreds of different locations.
“Ruby+Solberg founder David Solberg was a CPA and attorney who understood the legal ramifications and responsibility of handling our clients’ money,” says Fitch. “We take the entire process and burden off our clients. We identify issues, open payment investigations and settle billing disputes so our clients never have to see what goes on behind the curtain with each invoice.”
With TEM, companies receive an ROI of between 70–110%, while Ruby+Solberg:
- Receives and processes all telecom and datacom invoices
- Disputes incorrect charges and other billing errors
- Processes vendor refunds and credits
- Provides customized GL reports to sync with client accounting systems
- Pays approved and funded client invoices
- Monitors vendor application of client payments
- Reconciles payments on all accounts
- Builds and manages client telecom inventory
- Carries out approved moves, adds, changes and disconnects
- Coordinates with the client’s IT, accounting, cash management and AP departments
- Analyzes, manages and negotiates client-vendor contracts and relationships
Following a monthly review, TEM clients also receive monthly trend and ROI reports on telecom activities, disputed charges and expense trends. “Our custom reports include consolidated data from each of our client’s telecom contracts and services,” says Fitch. “Clients can then access all of their invoices in our secure TEM software and see the monthly ROI and savings we provide them.”