Ayudar was invited to review telephone billing for a major company operating main offices in London and the Midlands with 590 High Street stores around the UK. The project was to review all line and equipment rental charges and ensure calls were being charged at contracted rates.

Fortunately all billing information was available in electronic format which allowed the project to be completed within 10 days. The analysis determined that telephone lines had been charged at the service provider’s standard rate and not the contracted rate, leading to an overcharge over a three year period of £33,000.

Analysis of telephone calls showed that a standard tariff was being applied to 36 of the 590 stores instead of the contracted rate, leading to an overcharge of £9,800 over a three year period.

Although the call charges were nearly correct at the remaining stores it was proven that national calls were being charged at a rate higher than the contract leading to an overcharge of £43,000 and in addition an incorrect minimum call charge was applied on all calls from all sites leading to an additional overcharge of £87,000.

In total Ayudar demonstrated that our client was overcharged to the sum of £172,800 over a three year period, a sum which was successfully reclaimed from the service provider.

In addition a new contract was negotiated with the same provider using benchmark information from similar companies resulting in an improved contract and a saving of £76,000 over the following year.

Sample project - audit for chartered surveyors in Central England

Sample project - small family run service company