Personal calls on business mobiles - getting your money back (Part 1)

01 October 2007

It has recently been estimated that the cost of personal calls made on mobile telephones provided primarily for business use accounts for up to 25% of the total cost of ownership. In this article we examine the different mechanisms that exist to help with the recovery of these costs, and in future articles we will look at some of the pros and cons of each of them.

So what are the options available to help you manage the cost of personal calls made by your employees on mobile phones that you provide primarily for business use?

• Adopt a policy of NO personal calls;
• Tagging and segregation of either personal or business calls using network provided tools;
• Applying personal telephone directories and/or "time of day" rules to all calls (network provided tools);
• Having two separate numbers associated with each handset; one for personal calls and one for business calls;
• Using off the shelf call management software; and,
• Using web-based call management services.

A policy of no personal calls

This solution may seem a bit draconian, but by implementing such a policy you ensure that there are no direct costs to your organisation, and hardly any indirect costs. It also completely avoids the need to deal with repayment of VAT on personal calls to HM Revenues and Customs. You will obviously need to police such a scheme, but you probably won't need to check users every month - a well publicised "spot check" system will probably suffice.

Tagging and segregation of calls

This is a very simple system where either personal OR business calls are tagged by adding digits/symbols to the end of the number being dialled. For example, if I wanted to call my home whilst away on a business trip (a personal call) I might dial 01952123456*01, but if I wanted to make the same call as a business call I would omit the *01 suffix. At the end of the month all tagged calls can be segregated and the cost recovered easily from payroll. Using this system, if I forget to tag a personal call it would be classed as a business call and I would not be charged for it. If you use the opposite system and ask employees tag all business calls, when they forget the cost will be added to their personal "bill".

Applying personal telephone directories and/or time of day rules

Some mobile networks allow mobile phone users to create an online directory of personal telephone numbers. Some will also allow users to set up "working hours" rules - so for example, all calls made on weekdays after say 6pm and before 8am, and at all times at weekends might automatically be classed as personal calls. Some mobile networks will automatically apply personal directories to all calls made on a handset during the month, whilst other networks require the user to visit their website to apply the directory to the calls made.

Two separate numbers on one handset

At least one network will allow you to have two numbers associated with one mobile telephone. When the user wants to make a personal call they switch to their personal number, and at the end of the month the bill for the personal calls is sent to their home address.

Using off-the-shelf call management software

There are a number of call management software packages that enable managers to set up both personal and business directories, manager working hours rules for each handset and monitor handset usage to automatically identify likely personal calls. Software licensing can make these packages expensive, especially for organisations with less than 1,500 to 2,000 handsets in their mobile fleet.

Using Web-based call management services

These have similar features to those where you are required to buy software licences, but costs are kept lower.

In the next article in this series I will discuss the pros and cons of each of the systems in some detail.