The word “Audit” strikes fear into every business owners’ heart, whether you’re just having an internal team look at your books or hiring someone from the outside. Even a telecom audit is scary. However, here are a few steps you can take to prepare for whatever kind of audit you’re facing. These steps will make your auditor’s job (and thus, your life) much easier.
Step 1: Use your brain. You work here – you’re going to know a few things that outside auditors (or even possibly inside auditors) won’t. If you think something may be amiss, write it down to bring up with the auditors. Of course you’re not a telecom auditor yourself, so you won’t have the experience and knowledge the auditors will come with, but your common sense can still go a long way in helping your company save money in the telecommunications area.
Step 2: Define the scope. The scope of your audit is important to define early on. Your scope is how deep you want these auditors to dig into your telecom information. If you have a large company, maybe you want them to visit every location and do an analysis of every phone and internet contract. If your company is smaller, maybe you can just give them some receipts in a shoe box. Regardless of what you want, it’s best to decide early and tell them right when they arrive, so that everyone is on the same page from the start.
Step 3: Prioritize. The auditor’s time will be money spent for you, so after you’ve decided how in-depth you want the audit to go and have pinpointed some areas that may need extra work, you need to list out everything in priority order. If your internet is your biggest telecom expense, maybe you think that’s the most important. If your pretty sure there are issues with your phone contract, then maybe that’s where you want the auditors to start. If you’re not clear with your priorities, you can’t very well complain when the auditors don’t start with what you think is important.
Step 4: Gather the documents. Your auditor’s greatest tool will be the documents (receipts, contracts, bills, invoices, etc.) that you give to him or her. If you already know what you want audited, then you’ll easily be able to gather the relevant documents. And if you’ve already gathered the relevant documents when the auditor arrives, you won’t have to pay for him or her to sit and watch you do so. Your auditor will also be more efficient in finding errors this way because he or she won’t have to waste a lot of energy asking for your information, because you will have already provided it.
When you take the time to really look at it, you may discover that your telecommunications costs are one of the biggest you have. An auditor can help you look at this cost, make sure you’re paying for things you really need, and find ways to save you money. Your auditor will also be able to tell you if you’re not using all the technology you’re paying for. Either way, a telecom expert is usually worth their weight in gold… so long as you don’t hire one who’s too heavy 
