Common Telecom Billing Issues & Fixes

Whether we meet companies at an expo or they find us online, we hear from many service providers who are looking to fix their billing problems. In fact, that's why most of them contact us.

Here are the top billing issues we hear about and how our software can help make things easier.

#1 Simplifying the Billing Process

Let's face it, billing for telecommunications services can be complicated. Most of the issues we hear about are related to managing client data, processing credit card payments, automating manual processes, managing bill presentation and invoicing, and maintaining a flexible product catalog.

TimelyBill has you covered. Our system was purpose-built to bill telecom-related subscriptions. We enable you to create and sell bundled services, email invoices, and accept payment via our free customer portal... You get "timely" subscription management!

#2 Charging Communications Taxes

Another pain point for service providers is dealing with taxation and tax procedures, especially related to VoIP or telecom services. We speak with many MSPs looking to enter the voice market, and figuring out how telecom taxes work is no small feat.

Our system includes tax rate lookups at no additional cost. It automatically calculates sales tax, state gross receipts tax, local tax, federal universal fund fees, state universal service fund fees, and 911 fees. We also have great relationships with some of the leading tax compliance companies.

#3 Improving the Customer Experience

This is becoming more important in the competitive UCaaS market. A crucial part of telecommunications services is ensuring a seamless customer experience through efficient customer relationship management (CRM) systems. This involves providing customer-facing payment portals for convenient transactions, handling ticketing systems for issue resolution, and generating reports for performance analysis.

The TimelyBill platform is a CRM at its core. It helps you manage customers from lead to quote to cash and everything in between. We can also support your customers with multiple locations—that's been a built-in feature from day one!

#4 Streamlining Service Delivery

Ensuring operational efficiency involves streamlining account creation and onboarding processes, including service creation and fulfillment workflows.

Our low-code workflow tools are the most powerful in our space. Use our drag-and-drop visual designer to build workflow packages that trigger emails, send REST calls, provision devices, and more.

#5 Connecting with External Systems

Companies must almost always integrate with external systems for seamless operations and support. This usually includes upstream accounting packages, downstream network-connected devices, etc.

Using a RESTful API, we can easily push and pull your data. We also have "REST actions" that allow extensibility without requiring changes to the underlying software code. This capability opens up endless connectivity and integration possibilities!

#6 Handling Telecom Specific Scenarios

Service providers have specific telecom needs and requirements, such as phone numbers and provisioning services. This often includes billing for IoT connectivity, addressing portability issues, and usage rating. This is one area where Quickbooks and other accounting packages fall flat!

Our founders came from the CLEC world, so we are well-versed in telecom and the unique billing challenges. TimelyBill can rate usage from any source, including calls, bandwidth, seats, etc. We also have three levels of address validation to ensure E911 accuracy: USPS, FCC geocoding, and Bandwidth.

#7 Supporting their Channel Sales

On the channel side, handling commissions and paying partners is another concern. Many companies are still doing this via spreadsheet, which is time-consuming and fraught with potential errors.

TimelyBill has multi-level partner management capabilities, allowing you to manage partners, distributors, and agent commissioning plans. We also include a web portal for your partners to track commissions and spiffs.

By solving these problems you can focus more on sales growth and less on back-office headaches.