Utility and Telecom Audits:

What They Are, and Why you Need Them

80% of companies are overspending on their utility and telecom expenses.

Why be one of them?

Our utility and telecom audits find the savings opportunities you’re sitting on - for free.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• 4 reasons you’re a great candidate for an audit

• 4 hidden utility and telecom problems you likely have

• What a utility and telecom audit is

• How much you could save with a utility audit

We’ve distilled all of our industry knowledge into a few short sections for your convenience.

Short on time? Download all the information on this page for free!

There’s an 80% chance you’re sitting on utility and telecom savings if one or more of the following is true for you:

• You have multiple meters

• You have multiple telephone lines

• You have multiple locations

• You have inexplicable line items

The more meters, lines, or locations you have, the more likely that some are not used or have inefficiencies. For instance, as buildings change hands, or as additions are made, old meters can be forgotten by management. Your vendor, on the other hand, is far less likely to forget to bill for them.

Or suppose we find a $1.00 fee reduction for every telephone line in an office complex. If you have 100 phones, you would save $1000 a year with that one change!

If you have multiple locations, you can take advantage of standardized pricing. Suppose you have three different apartment complexes, but they’re all getting charged at different rates by the same electric company. We can ask the utility provider to provide standard pricing for all three.

The larger your portfolio, the more likely it is that you’re sitting on savings opportunities. Why not find out for free?

You Have Inexplicable Invoice Line Items

Line items are, unintentionally or otherwise, confusing. Their complicated names often successfully obscure the fact that these fees or not necessarily tied to the services you receive.

Take a look below at some of the most common fees.

Access Recovery Charge: This charge is not strictly associated with any real cost. It’s not a tax, and it’s not a government fee. Telecom companies most often charge it to make up for lost revenue. 

Universal Service Charge: This fee supports telecommunications services at affordable rates for people in high-cost or rural areas. Basically, they’re charging you at a higher rate because they can and ostensibly using the funds to make services accessible to others. This is a noble cause, but it’s something you should agree to opt-in for - not something that you should automatically be charged.

Minimum Monthly Charge: You incur this cost when you don’t make long distance calls. 

Depending on your provider and your location, not all of these need to appear on your bill. How can you tell which ones should and should not be there?

You’re likely overspending on your utilities because - through no fault of your own - you don’t know what you don’t know. You:

• Likely Need a Different Utility Rate Structure

• Have Invoices with Errors

• Could be Missing Out on Tax Exemptions  

• Likely are Paying for services or Meters that are not needed or not used

You can’t afford not to know whether you’re overspending in these ways.

You Likely Need a Different Utility Rate Structure

Utilities bills are different than other bills - like cable, for instance. You can usually pick your internet and cable provider, but you won’t typically get a choice with your electric company. 

For most areas of the country, utilities companies are, in effect, state-controlled monopolies. What they charge is carefully regulated and monitored. In other regions, utilities are deregulated and you can pick your vendor. In either case, using a third-party auditor like us can turn up substantial cost reduction opportunities.  

But while some utility prices are fixed, the rates you pay are not. You may be paying at an incorrect rate. How will you know?

We find the best rate structure that’s right for your locations and your geographical region. We know typical market rates so when we see above average charges, we see a savings opportunity for you. 

Your Invoices Have Errors

We find errors on 10% of utility and telecom invoices. Is your staff catching that many?

This can add up to thousands of dollars saved over time. Suppose your telecom provider makes a $100 rate error on one of your properties’ invoices in the first year of service. If they don’t catch their own mistake and correct it, this simple error can add up to over $2400 over the span of two years. And that’s if no other additional billing mistakes are made! What would happen if the same provider overbilled at 2 or even 5 of your locations? Can you afford not to find these discrepancies?

 You’re Missing Out On Tax Exemptions

How do you know you’re taking advantage of every tax exemption available to you? When it comes to tax exemptions, it’s ideal to have expert help. Different business can qualify for different statuses - depending on which state you’re in and which government regulations apply. 

Tax codes can be complicated and overwhelming, but the business that know how to use them to their advantage will find savings. For some businesses utilities can be tax deductible. Companies can include them on the “other deductions” line item on their tax return. Does your state allow you this exemption?

You’re Paying for Unnecessary Services or Meters

Over time, companies change. They get larger, and responsibilities change hands. In the process, some details can get overlooked. An audit can find services and meters that are no longer in use but are still being charged.

We’re experts in finding cost savings opportunities that are unique to you, your company, and your locations. Let’s take a closer look at why our audit process is so effective in finding those solutions.

A utility audit is an extensive analysis of all electric, gas, water, and sewer bills. A telecom audit reviews all aspects of your phone services.

These audits find every inefficiency and discrepancy in your portfolio. Audits make it impossible for problems to remain hidden. But they don’t only find problems. Any professional audit will also find the right solution for any concerns they find. When these solutions are implemented, they often result in immediate and/or long-term savings. Audits can also result in billing credits when discrepancies are found.

Let’s talk about the three key parts of an audit:

• Research: Gather and assess all pertinent data

• Review: Analyze information for inconsistencies and inefficiencies

• Recommendations: Present and implement cost-cutting solutions

Audits are the key to unlocking savings, so it’s critical to understand how they operate.

Part 1 of the Utility and Telecom Audit: Research

In order to assess the utility and telecom services in your portfolio, we need to review your primary vendor documents.

This data typically includes copies of recent invoices from your electric, gas, water or sewer, and telecom providers as well as a recent contract. (You can download the entire list of requisite documents here)

It typically takes most staff members just a few hours to assemble and email the necessary documents. We also ask for any log-on information you have on file for each of your providers. This allows us to view the invoice history for every location and every service provider.  

We have found that looking at the last years’ invoice history for every vendor provides the perfect window to look at trends and discrepancies. It allows us to track your rates, examine your meters, and analyze your usage. It makes errors apparent, and it makes inefficiencies clear.

Looking at 12 months of history also gives us the context we need to evaluate what your benchmark costs currently are. It shows us what your typical monthly costs are - and how much of those costs are necessary and fair.

We occasionally go beyond the last year, but most states in the US operate under a statute of limitations of 36 months. Meaning that if we found that you were due a credit on a bill that is more than 3 years old, you are not legally eligible to receive it.  

Get the utility solutions you can’t afford not to have.

Part 2 of the Utility and Telecom Audit: Review Documents

Once we have all necessary documents we begin our assessment. This assessment typically take 30-90 days, depending on the size of your portfolio.

We know that most clients save in three main ways, so we look carefully for the following:

1. The energy usage number vs. the current meter reading: Is there a discrepancy in these numbers? Is one much larger than the other? That would be the first indication that your rates are inaccurate. 

2. Billing errors: Did your rates or fees jump in the past year? Are there typos? Does everything add up like it should? Looking over the past year of expense trends makes price fluctuation much clearer. 

3. Rate Structures: We estimate that 50% of our clients have inefficient rate structures. There’s a one in two chance you’re one of them. If this is the case, you’re being overcharged every month. How would you know if a better rate structure is available to you?

4. Growth Trends: We also evaluate growth trends - and not just once. Price jumps may happen seasonally, as with electric bills. But there can be other reasons for utility price hikes. The utility supplier may have made a mistake, or you may have just renovated one of your buildings. We find out which charges are fair, and which are questionable. 

5. Tax Exemptions: You need to know your tax exemption options based on where you live. Different cities and states have different exemption opportunities in place, and we’re familiar with all of them.

Your current vendors aren’t likely to assess these areas for you. They’re not necessarily out to deceive you, but they are out to make a profit. Most vendors aren’t going to take initiative to find you savings if it means cutting into their profits. At the end of the day, your vendor is a service provider. Not an auditor.

We find that 80% of companies nationwide are overpaying for this exact reason. You need a third-party auditor to protect your bottom line. You don’t have the time or expertise to thoroughly evaluate your utility and telecom management process. Nor do you need to.

We take on all of this, find and implement solutions, and then continually audit to ensure your bottom line is protected.

We look at every incoming bill and ensure that any future mistakes are found and corrected. 

Communication Through the Audit Process

We stay in touch with you every two weeks throughout the initial audit process. We often ask clarifying questions about your vendor accounts or data, and we are intentional about keeping you in the loop as we progress.

As we near the end of our initial audit, we may reach out to site managers or staff to ask about specific needs and possible solutions. We find it that is critical to get on-site perspective when we are troubleshooting a certain issue or considering a vendor switch.

None of our recommendations are implemented without your full support and approval.

Part 3 of the Utility and Telecom Audit: Recommendations

After the audit is complete, we present our findings in a remote conference call. We explain0 what you are spending and what you could save, and the specific steps we’ll take to achieve those savings for you.

Based on your unique situation, we may show you some, or all, of the following:

• Different vendor recommendations

• Rate structure options

• Tax Exemption options

• Credits due 

Our audits are tailored to your unique needs, so they are effective.

Our audits find savings because they are:

• Strategic

• Savings-oriented

• Safeguarded

We’ve tailored our audit process to maximize cost reduction opportunities and minimize strain on your time and resources. 

WCI’s Strategic Utility Audit Program

WCI’s audits are carefully calibrated to yield the maximum amount of savings opportunities for you and your company. 

We are thorough, so you have the best chance of finding savings.

This client, an auto parts manufacturer in North Carolina, partnered with us about two years ago. We scoured three years of invoices - and secured a refund of $82,720.41

They were paying a tax that they were excluded from due to their NAICS classification. And they had no idea!  

On top of that, we removed this tax from their future bills which saved them between $1,500-$2,000 every single month. 

We are intentional: We find recommendations that make the most sense for you and your company by examining all the options available to you given the market you are in. 

We are practical: After we complete our review process, we provide recommendations to maximize your savings. We show you how to take advantage of cost-reduction opportunities - but we don’t stop there! After we get your go-ahead, we set them up on your behalf and ensure all implementation goes smoothly. After that, you can start collecting on the savings!

WCI is Savings-Oriented

Our audit recommendations are always guaranteed to be cash flow positive.  We wouldn’t offer audits if they didn’t benefit you - like a mattress manufacturer with whom we recently partnered. They had facilities in six states, and like the auto parts manufacturer above, they didn’t realize how much savings they were sitting on.

We audited their utility and telecom expenses and were able to uncover significant savings opportunities by disconnecting outdated and unused phone lines and by securing better pricing on their energy contracts.

Savings differ from client to client. But it’s pretty rare for us to complete the audit process and not find savings opportunities. (If that happens, by the way, you aren’t billed for our services. It’s our zero-risk proposition!) 

WCI Safeguards Your Utility Savings

We don’t stop at simply finding savings; we ensure that those savings are protected. 

After you’ve approved the recommended changes, we protect those changes through constant invoice auditing. After all, what’s the point of making cost-cutting changes to your utility management if those changes aren’t monitored? If your vendor agreed to standardized pricing, but then kept charging you at your old rate, that would quickly become a problem!

Our audit services are different from a lot of what’s out there because we monitor your utility and telecom invoices post-audit. When we find a discrepancy or error, we contact your provider, and have any overbilled charges credited to you. So you can always rest easy knowing that you’re billing is accurate - and your savings are secure. 

You deserve to know exactly what is and isn’t working in your utility and telecom disposal process. You deserve to know whether your services are operating at maximum efficiency. You deserve to have the relief of knowing that your savings are secure. 

A free consultation, or a Discovery Call, is the first step towards finding savings. It’s a quick, no-obligation consult where a WCI representative will ask you questions about your current utility and telecom management system. It’s easy and informal; a time for you to ask whatever questions are on your mind and for us to learn more about your unique needs.

We typically cover these questions in a Discovery Call:

• How much do you spend on utility and telecom?

• How many locations are in your portfolio?

• How many service providers do you currently have?

• What problems are you currently experiencing with any service providers?

• What are your growth plans over the next 1-3 years?

The purpose of these questions is to gauge how much value we can offer you. We are able to best service companies with substantial utility and telecom expenses and with at least several locations. If you have no interest in saving or in making your streams more efficient, we aren’t the company you’re looking for.

If there was a possibility that a 15-minute phone call could save you over $10,000 each year, would you make time for it?

Find out how much you could save for free. Schedule a utility and telecom audit today.