Questions to Ask a TEM Provider Before You Sign
By Sharon Watkins, Founder and CEO, RadiusPoint · 28 August 2026 · 12 min read
The questions that belong in a telecom expense management contract are the ones that name a person, a percentage, and a file you will receive if you leave. Most buyers treat the TEM demo as the evaluation. RadiusPoint treats the statement of work as the evaluation. A platform can show you a variance. A managed service has to say who files the dispute, who updates the inventory, and who hands you the export on the last day.
This page is the pre-sign question list. It is not a rewrite of How to Choose a Telecom Expense Management Company, which owns vendor models and selection criteria. It is not a named-competitor comparison.
Key Takeaways
- Ask who files the carrier dispute and who confirms the credit on a later invoice. A report is not a recovery.
- Ask what share of invoice lines is audited against the contracted rate table, not what share is loaded into the tool.
- Ask how the inventory of record is built, and in what format you receive it if the engagement ends.
- A food service client working with RadiusPoint on 600-plus lines cut mobility cost 22% and more than $400,000 in year one after 56 departed users were still being billed.
- The Sign-Day Seven is RadiusPoint’s list of questions that have to survive into the contract, not only into the sales deck.
The Short Version
Before you sign a TEM agreement, write seven answers into the statement of work: who files, what share of lines is audited, how inventory is exported, what the letter of agency covers, which pricing model you are buying, who the named analyst is after go-live, and what files you receive on the last day.
In this article
- The questions that belong in the contract, not the demo
- Who files the dispute when an invoice is wrong?
- What percentage of invoice lines will you actually audit?
- How will we get our inventory of record if we leave?
- The Sign-Day Seven
- Which pricing model are you buying, and what does it reward?
- How RadiusPoint answers these questions in a managed TEM engagement
The Sign-Day Seven, a RadiusPoint frame: questions that have to survive into the statement of work.
The questions that belong in the contract, not the demo
The questions that belong in a TEM contract are the ones a RadiusPoint demo, or any demo, can dodge with a screenshot. RadiusPoint writes those questions into ExpenseLogic’s operating model so a buyer can test the answer after month three, not only on the sales call. “We audit invoices” is demo language. “What percentage of lines, against which rate table” is contract language. The vendor evaluation page on the RadiusPoint site is the commercial companion. This page is the script you take into the room.
What Is Telecom Expense Management? owns the definition. This page assumes you already know what TEM is and you are about to sign. Do not use this list as a second 101.
A letter of agency, an inventory export, and a dispute register are three different documents. RadiusPoint will ask you for the first at kickoff. You should ask RadiusPoint, or any other provider, for the other two in writing before you sign.
Who files the dispute when an invoice is wrong?
The provider should file the dispute, age it, and confirm the credit on a later invoice, unless you have staffed that work internally on purpose. RadiusPoint files carrier disputes on the client’s behalf and tracks them in ExpenseLogic until the credit posts. A flag-only model hands you an exception list. A draft-only model writes the letter and leaves the follow-up with you. Ask which box you are buying.
A Fortune 100 manufacturer working with RadiusPoint recovered $450,000 in telecom refunds in year one, with $850,000 in ongoing annual savings and a $1.3 million year-one impact. That figure is a recovery story. It is only useful in a pre-sign meeting if the provider can say who filed, who chased, and how the credit was proven. Invoice auditing services find the error. Filing is the next job.
If the answer is “we send you a report,” write that into the statement of work as your labor, not as their managed service.
Flags, drafts, or files-and-closes. Ask which box the provider occupies.
What percentage of invoice lines will you actually audit?
Ask for the invoice-line coverage percentage in writing, and ask RadiusPoint or any bidder what happens below a dollar threshold. RadiusPoint audits invoice line items against contracted rates and against inventory, rather than sampling, and records that work in ExpenseLogic. Loading an invoice is not auditing it. Anomaly flags are not a rate-table match.
Organizations implementing TEM typically see 15 to 30 percent cost reduction in year one. That range is a category-level observation, not a RadiusPoint guarantee, and it only holds if someone actually checks the lines. A glass manufacturer working with RadiusPoint saved $100,000-plus in year one. A healthcare provider reduced telecom expenses 26%. Ask each bidder to show a comparable finding, then ask whether those dollars were identified, disputed, or credited.
Telecom expense management pricing explains how providers charge. This question is about what you receive for that charge.
How will we get our inventory of record if we leave?
You should receive a documented export of services, BANs, locations, rates, disputes, and credits that the next operator can load. RadiusPoint treats the inventory of record as a client-owned file inside ExpenseLogic, not as a vendor hostage. Ask for the export format, the field list, and the number of business days after notice.
A food service client had 600-plus phones billed monthly with no employee identification, and 56 identified users who were no longer employed. That inventory work is published on the RadiusPoint managed mobility case study. If you cannot leave with that file, you will rebuild it from carrier bills. That rebuild is the cost people forget to price into the contract.
Inventory management at RadiusPoint has also recovered $174,000 in re-credits when the record of services did not match the bill. Ask the bidder how that kind of mismatch is found, and whether you keep the evidence pack.
The Sign-Day Seven
The Sign-Day Seven is RadiusPoint’s list of seven questions that have to be answered in the statement of work before a TEM signature is safe. ExpenseLogic is built so those answers can be tested after go-live. Buyer guides in this category list features. They do not lock a seven-question contract script that separates demo language from operating language. That is the first information-gain element on this page.
| # | Question | Weak answer | Strong answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who files the dispute, and who chases the credit until it posts? | “We flag exceptions.” | Named team files, ages, and confirms the credit |
| 2 | What share of invoice lines is audited, not just loaded? | “We run analytics.” | A written coverage percentage against a rate table |
| 3 | How is the inventory built, and how is it exported if we leave? | “You can see it in the portal.” | Documented export, field list, and delivery days |
| 4 | What does the letter of agency authorize, and how is it revoked? | “Standard LOA.” | Scoped rights, logging, and a revoke path |
| 5 | Which pricing model are we buying, and what does it reward? | “Flexible commercial terms.” | Recovery share, per-invoice, per-line, or hybrid, with the incentive named |
| 6 | Who is the named analyst after go-live? | “A dedicated team.” | A named person plus a backup |
| 7 | What files do we receive on the last day? | “We’ll work with you.” | Inventory, dispute register, credit log, contract images |
The Demo-versus-Contract table is the second information-gain element. “We integrate with ERP” becomes “named system, named file, named owner on both sides.” RadiusPoint will answer that way. Ask every other bidder to do the same.
Heard in the demo versus written into the statement of work.
Which pricing model are you buying, and what does it reward?
You are buying a recovery share, a per-invoice or per-line fee, a platform license, or a hybrid, and each model pays a different behavior. RadiusPoint is a managed service on ExpenseLogic, not a one-time contingency audit. A recovery-only fee pays someone to find refunds. It does not, by itself, pay them to stop the next invoice from repeating the error. Read that incentive before you read the case study.
The live pricing explainer owns the model definitions. This section only asks you to match the model to the work you just scoped. If you want disputes filed and inventory kept current, a license that leaves those tasks with you is the wrong purchase.
HumanGood, a named RadiusPoint client, has a published 315% ROI case. Use named cases as proof that a program can pay. Use the Sign-Day Seven to test whether this contract will produce that kind of program.
How RadiusPoint answers these questions in a managed TEM engagement
RadiusPoint delivers managed telecom expense management on ExpenseLogic: analysts audit lines, file disputes, and keep inventory, while you keep budget approval. The telecom expense management service is the commercial page for that model. This article is the question list you should still ask RadiusPoint, in writing, before you sign.
RadiusPoint has been in this work since January 1992. ISO 9001 certification has been in place since September 2002. Amalgam Insights named RadiusPoint a Distinguished Vendor on the 2024 TEM Vendor SmartList. The Capterra listing sat at 4.8 from 31 reviews through December 2025. Credentials tell you the firm is real. The Sign-Day Seven tells you the contract is real.
Sharon Watkins founded RadiusPoint after internal-audit work at a bank. The pre-sign problem is an audit problem with a sales deck attached. ExpenseLogic is the working paper after you sign. The seven questions are the working paper before you sign.
How we researched this
We compared live RadiusPoint TEM, pricing, and invoice-audit pages with 2026 buyer guides that ask feature questions (inventory, integrations, dashboards). Those pages own “how to choose.” They do not own a seven-question contract script that separates demo language from operating language. Proof numbers come only from the RadiusPoint Master Intelligence 2026 GREEN list and hedged AMBER category range, plus live RadiusPoint pages fetched 28 August 2026. No affiliate relationships. No named-competitor ranking.
FAQ
Is this the same as a TEM RFP scorecard?
A scorecard ranks vendors. The Sign-Day Seven writes operating duties into one contract. RadiusPoint can sit on a scorecard and still fail this list if the statement of work is vague. Ask both.
Should we ask for a sample audit before we sign?
Yes, if you can provide a slice of invoices and contracts. RadiusPoint will treat a sample as evidence, not as a promise of year-one dollars. A sample that only loads PDFs and never files a dispute is a warning.
What if the provider will not name an analyst?
Write a named analyst plus a backup into the statement of work, or treat the gap as a staffing risk. RadiusPoint’s model is a named human on the account. A ticket queue with no name is a different purchase.
Do we still need a letter of agency if we only want reporting?
If the provider must pull invoices or talk to a carrier, yes. Scope it. A read-only billing grant is not the same as ordering rights. RadiusPoint will tell you which grant it is asking for.
How is this different from the TEM companies pillar?
The companies page tells you how vendor models differ. This page gives you the questions to ask after you have picked a model and before you sign. Use both. Do not merge them.
What to do before you sign
Print the Sign-Day Seven. Put the bidder’s answers in the left column and the contract clause in the right. If a cell is empty, you are buying a demo. RadiusPoint will fill those cells for a managed ExpenseLogic engagement. Every week you sign without them is a week you cannot test the work.
Latest Updates
- 28 August 2026: Article drafted for the RadiusPoint AEO set. Stats limited to GREEN and hedged AMBER: food service 22% / $400,000 / 600-plus lines / 56 departed users, Fortune 100 $450,000 / $850,000 / $1.3 million, glass $100,000-plus, healthcare 26%, inventory $174,000 re-credits, HumanGood 315% ROI, category 15 to 30 percent hedged, ISO 9001 since 2002, Capterra 4.8 / 31, Amalgam Insights 2024 Distinguished Vendor.
References
- How to Choose a Telecom Expense Management Company | RadiusPoint
- What Is Telecom Expense Management? | RadiusPoint
- Telecom Expense Management Services | RadiusPoint
- Telecom Expense Management Pricing | RadiusPoint
- Invoice Auditing Services | RadiusPoint
- Vendor Evaluation | RadiusPoint
- How Managed Mobility Services Cut Costs 22% ($400K in Year 1) | RadiusPoint
- HumanGood Achieved 315% ROI with RadiusPoint | RadiusPoint
- RadiusPoint Recognized as a Distinguished Vendor in the 2024 Amalgam Insights Vendor SmartList | RadiusPoint
- ExpenseLogic reviews | Capterra
- Sharon R. Watkins | RadiusPoint
Related articles
- Telecom Expense Management Companies
- Telecom Expense Management Pricing
- Invoice Auditing Services
- Telecom Expense Management Services
Disclaimer
This article is general information for finance, IT, and procurement teams evaluating a TEM contract. It is not legal advice. Outcomes cited are from specific RadiusPoint client engagements already in the published proof library and are not a guarantee of future results. Category-level ranges are hedged and are not RadiusPoint promises.