ate, well maintained reference database containing standard cost and inventory of circuits, equipment, facilities, and services. Defining the Problem Recall the earlier description of what is included in telephone service bills-they are highly summarized and comparing each charge in each invoice is very labor intensive. To put the problem and a poten- tial approach to solving it in perspective, it is helpful to diagram it out as shown in Figure 11-1. On the service provider side, it is easy to see that the billing sub- mitted is made up of many components. The basic service charges include a fixed monthly charge for local service and variable 11 MANAGING COST OF EQUIPMENT FACILITIES AND SERVICES Telephone Service Enterprise Local Service Provider Accounting System Long Distance Service Information Service Information Taxes Pricing Calculation Pricing Calculation Federal Taxes Taxes Department States Allocation Transfer Municipal Billing Summary Billing Summary Fixed and Variable Charges Fixed and Variable Charges Special Projects & Access Charges By Location and Number By Location and Number Chargebacks Universal Service FIGURE 11-1 End-to-End Billing and Cost Allocation Process charges for long distance service. In addition to basic service charges, there are a myriad of federal, state, and municipal taxes, FCC access charges, universal service fee, and others. (Note: More on the subject in Chapter 12 Budgeting.) FCC access charge funds do not get remitted to the FCC. They go into the RBOC Treasury. This has implications for the future as far as eliminating variable long distance charges. On the organizational side of the problem, we have two basic needs: keep track of taxes that may have an impact on corporate income or other taxes and fees that may be useful when dealing with community relations or investor information, and allocate total expenditures to all the departments in the accounting system. WORKING TOWARD A SOLUTION Obviously, the common-sense approach to this kind of problem is one or more computers 