Bill Auditing Service

Companies spend a lot of money on gas, electricity, water, sewer, telephone, insurance, freight, and a wide variety of other goods and services they purchase from other businesses. The bills they receive are often difficult to understand, especially utility bills because they are among the most complicated. Nevertheless, most companies simply pay these bills without verifying their accuracy. But sometimes meters are misread, miscalibrated, broken, or the data have been entered or calculated incorrectly; decimal points can be misplaced; discounts overlooked; and alternative services or rates not known. Often lots of money can be recouped by carefully checking utility bills or by switching phone services. And that's what a bill-auditing service does.

Also called an overcharge collection service, an auditing service verifies bills against purchase orders; checks to see that goods have been delivered; compares charges against what the laws, tariffs, or contracts allow; and checks the math, the billing rate, and other classifications to make sure their clients have not been overcharged. When overcharging is found, the auditor negotiates a refund covering the period in error, then splits the savings of past overcharges with the client. In some cases, auditors may also have as part of their contract that if they can save the client money in the future by getting a better rate or switching services, they will be entitled to one half of those savings as well for anywhere from one to two years.

Auditors can also save their clients money by figuring out more economical ways to obtain service. For example, a company that has multiple water meters that are being separately billed might save hundreds or thousands of dollars by something as simple as combining these meters so that the readings are reflected in one bill. A savings of $300 a month over twelve months for three years comes to $10,800 and represents a $5,400 fee for the auditor.

Bill auditing is growing especially fast because many companies are simply not able to keep up with their bill paying and just pay bills without double-checking them. Many auditors therefore focus their services on commercial and industrial clients who have utility or other bills amounting to at least $2,000 to $3,000 each month, where the profit potential is greatest. And with over five million business establishments in the United States, there is an abundant number of prospective clients among schools, colleges, government agencies, churches, hospitals, retail stores, hotels and motels, grocery stores that stay open all night, nursing homes, auto dealers, and even cities and towns that use a lot of electricity, water, or phone service. One auditor saved a city over $6 million dollars in utility bills and profited nicely from his diligence. In addition, the 1992 Energy Policy Act requires that new homes be rated for energy efficiency, and this means that a residential market will also be opening up to rate the utility usage of new homes. In Colorado and California, for example, the state governments are licensing people to do energy ratings.

Another big area for auditing is telephone systems helping clients choose the specific equipment and the calling plans that best suit their needs and budget. Many who choose this specialty work closely with the phone companies and are aware of programs with lower rates. Other areas offering opportunities for auditing are freight services, insurance, credit card charges, and workers' compensation.

Follow-up

http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/article.cfm?articleid=50220 Telecom Bill Auditinghttp://www.pidynamics.com/about.html
http://www.healthserve.com/training/training.htm

Example websites:
http://www.communicationadvisor.com/billauditing.htm
http://www.unitedreviewservices.com/provider.html
http://www.adcco.com/leaf2.htm
http://www.makesense-inc.com/services.htm

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