Why a TEM
Why a TEM? Telecom expense management for offices of every size
Your accounting software records what you paid the carrier. It can't tell you whether you should have paid it. A telecom expense management (TEM) tool reads every line of every bill, knows what each line is for, and catches the charges that shouldn't be there. That matters at any size, because a billing error repeats every month until someone notices.
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The gap between paying a bill and checking it
In QuickBooks Online or Xero, a 30-page carrier bill usually becomes one line: Telephone, $1,284.17. That's the right answer for your books, and it's all your accounting software is built to know. It doesn't know which phone lines, internet circuits and numbers are behind that total, who uses each one, what your contract says they should cost, or whether last month's bill was any different.
Carrier bills change quietly. A new charge appears, a promotional rate ends, a line stays on the bill after the employee who used it has left, a one-time fee shows up that nobody ordered. None of these makes the total look strange on its own, so they get paid, and paid again next month.
A TEM closes that gap. It reads the bill line by line, keeps an inventory of everything you pay for, compares each bill with the ones before it and with your contracts, and turns anything that looks wrong into a finding you can act on.
TEM compared with the tools you already have
Most businesses handle telecom bills with some mix of accounting software, a spreadsheet and the carrier's online portal. Each does part of the job.
| Accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero) | Spreadsheet | Carrier portal | Conduit TEM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Records what you paid | Yes | If someone types it in | For that carrier | Yes, and exports coded bills to QuickBooks Online and Xero |
| Reads every line of the bill | No, usually the total | By hand | Shows its own lines | Yes, Conduit AI reads every line |
| Knows every line, who uses it and where | No | Until it goes out of date | Its own services only | Built from your bills and kept current |
| All your carriers in one place | As totals | If you build it | One carrier | Yes |
| Compares each bill with earlier bills | No | If someone does it every month | Not what it's for | Every posted bill, automatically |
| Checks charges against your contract | No | By hand | Not what it's for | Yes, with the contract rate check |
| Follows a dispute until the credit arrives | No | If someone remembers | You open a ticket | Tracks it, and the next bill confirms the credit |
You keep your accounting software: Conduit TEM sits in front of it. Bills are read and checked first, then coded to your chart of accounts and exported to QuickBooks Online or Xero, so what lands in your books has already been checked.
Not just for large companies
TEM has a reputation as enterprise software, sold with long contracts to companies with thousands of lines. The problem it solves doesn't start at a thousand lines, though. It starts with the first bill nobody reads closely.
- A small office (up to 25 lines). One line nobody uses, or one third-party charge, is easy to miss and repeats every month. For example, a $45-a-month line that should have been cancelled costs $540 a year. Conduit TEM's Free plan covers up to 25 lines and services, one location and three users.
- A growing business with a few sites. Several carriers, several accounts and a mix of mobile, internet and phone lines. Bills arrive at different times in different formats, and nobody has the full picture. Conduit TEM puts every carrier in one inventory, by location.
- A multi-site organization. Hundreds of lines, approvals before payment, costs split across locations and cost centres, and contracts with negotiated rates. This is where approval flows, GL coding, budgets and the contract rate check earn their keep.
Every paid plan includes every feature; plans differ only in how many lines, locations and users they cover. See pricing.
What a TEM does every month
- Collects the bills. Forward them to your bill inbox or upload them: PDFs, photos of paper bills or carrier portal spreadsheets.
- Reads them. Conduit AI reads every line, usually in under two minutes, and places each line, seat, trunk and circuit in your inventory at the right location.
- Checks them. Fifteen checks run on every posted bill. See common telecom billing errors for what they look for.
- Gets money back. Open a dispute from a finding, raise it with the carrier, and the next bill confirms the credit by itself. See how to dispute a telecom billing error.
- Hands off to accounting. Approval flows route bills to the right people, GL coding codes every line, and coded bills export to QuickBooks Online or Xero.
When you probably don't need one
If you have one phone line and one internet connection from a single carrier, and you read the bill every month, a TEM won't find much you couldn't find yourself. Our monthly bill audit checklist is enough.
Once there are more lines than you can keep in your head, more than one carrier, or bills that someone pays without reading, a TEM starts paying for itself. The quickest way to find out is to check one of your bills for free.
FAQ
Common questions
- Do I need a TEM if I already use QuickBooks or Xero?
- Accounting software records what you paid; it doesn't check whether each charge on the bill was right. A TEM reads every line, compares it with earlier bills and your contracts, and flags the errors. Conduit TEM then exports coded bills to QuickBooks Online or Xero, so the two work together.
- Is telecom expense management only for large companies?
- No. Billing errors repeat every month at any size, and a single unused line can cost hundreds of dollars a year. Conduit TEM has a Free plan for small offices (up to 25 lines and services) and paid plans up to 2,000 lines, all with the same features.
- Can't I just use my carrier's online portal?
- A carrier portal shows that carrier's own services and bills. It won't put your other carriers beside it, check its charges against your contract or follow a dispute through to the credit. A TEM does all of that across every carrier.
- Does a TEM contact the carrier for me?
- Conduit TEM doesn't contact carriers on your behalf. It gives you the evidence for each finding, a plain-language explanation from Conduit AI, and a dispute record that closes by itself when the credit appears on a later bill.
See what we'd find on your bill. Free.
Upload one carrier bill. Conduit AI reads it, Conduit TEM's checks go over every charge, and we email you a link to what we found. No account needed.