New Law Enhances Role of Mobile Expense Management

Businesses now free to gain better control of corporate data, call activity, and total telecom costs.

Santa Clara, CA (October 2010) - Prior to the passage of the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010, complicated tax regulations regarding depreciation and substantiating deductions faced every business that provided its employees with cell phones.

As of the 2010 tax year, this new law repeals these regulations regarding cell phones. Section 2043 of the recently-passed and signed-into-law Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010 removes cell phones from the “listed property” category of the IRS code.

Enhanced Need for Mobile Expense Management

This new law, therefore, eliminates the uncertain threat of tax liability that had been forcing many businesses to adopt what is called the “individual-liable” model of employee cell phone adoption. In this model, the employee bought and owned the phone, chose the calling plan, paid for it, and then expensed the appropriate business costs. All tax liability thus resided with the employee.

Under the “individual-liable” model, the need for corporate-wide mobile expense management systems seemed less important. But the business created for itself other issues such as individual-liable phones having access to company data, inability to report on these phones for security and compliance issues, and customers having the personal cell phone number of key executives or sales people.

According to Pankaj (PJ) Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Amtel, "With the tax liability issue being eliminated, smart companies are moving back to the 'corporate-liable' model for better control of corporate data, call activity, and a truer picture of total telecom costs. This move back to the corporate-liable model enhances the need for a cost-saving, efficiency-producing mobile expense management solution like Amtel’s TIMS."

The Mobile Expense Management Solution: Taking Advantage of the New Tax Situation

Using a corporate-wide mobile expense management solution allows businesses to centralize Order Workflow in a hierarchical process from order initiation through approval and automated carrier submission to completion and automated updating of Inventory. In addition, such a solution creates and maintains this dynamic Inventory, centralized and updated automatically from Orders.

For a business taking advantage of this new advantageous tax situation by using a mobile expense management solution, complete wireless Invoice processing automates invoice management, charge backs across groups or locations, and auditing that allows accurate validation of charges against inventory and contracts.

The best mobile expense management solutions also enforce a business’ mobile policies regarding procurement and usage. The business can automatically monitor its cell phone policy, flag outliers, and send audit reports to managers responsible for the appropriate cost centers.

About Amtel

Amtel is the leading provider of total telecom cost management services for wireline and wireless services in the growing, ever-changing telecommunications industry. Amtel's complete solution for managing and optimizing telecom assets helps companies to simplify telecom management and reduce their costs. TIMS software platform and professional services help organizations in telecom financial management, auditing, infrastructure analysis, chargeback accounting, consolidation, contract management, and technology assessment.