How much does a business phone system cost?

What goes on a business phone bill

A cloud phone system (also called a cloud PBX, hosted PBX or VoIP phone system) is billed every month, and the plan is only one line on the bill. These are the lines to expect, and what each one is on PBXflex.

Essentials, Business and Enterprise are in the plan cards below. Every plan, including Text & Fax, is on the pricing page.

Per user or per line: what a business phone line costs

A business phone line used to mean a physical line from the phone company. Many cloud systems are priced per user instead. A user is a person, with an extension and a phone number.

On PBXflex, Essentials and Business are priced per user. Each user gets an extension that works on a desk phone, the web app and mobile, and one local number.

Some phones ring for a place, not a person. A lobby phone, a warehouse phone, a paging speaker or an analogue fax machine is a shared-device line on PBXflex, at $10 a month each. You don't pay for a full user to keep one.

Text & Fax, for teams that keep their current phone system, is priced per account. Enterprise, for 50 or more users or several sites, is quoted.

What a plan includes and what is metered

Some VoIP pricing advertises unlimited calling. Other plans include an allowance and charge for usage beyond it. PBXflex does the second, with published call, toll-free, text and fax rates. The app shows each international rate before you call.

Essentials includes 500 telecom credits per user each month, and Business includes 1,000. Credits are pooled across your account, so a quiet user covers a busy one. One credit is one cent. Calls, texts and faxes all draw from the same balance.

Each row is an alternative, not a separate allowance. Received calls, texts and faxes use credits at the same rates as sent ones, and a long text is split into segments.

When your balance falls below 100 credits, auto-reload adds a pack of 2,500 credits for $25. You can switch it off and top up yourself. Credits you buy never expire. Included credits reset each month.

Numbers, toll-free and other monthly add-ons

These are the monthly add-ons on Essentials and Business.

Essentials includes one IVR, ring group or shared voicemail. Each further call-flow feature, such as a call queue, is an add-on. Business includes every call-flow feature, unlimited messaging channels and a toll-free number. A messaging channel is a shared SMS or fax inbox.

Business texts from a local number run on a registered 10DLC campaign. Every plan includes a low-volume campaign. A standard one is for marketing and higher volumes. The 10DLC registration guide explains the process.

One-time costs: desk phones, setup and installation

With a cloud system, there is no phone system box to buy. The one-time costs are desk phones, setup and sometimes the office network.

You don't need desk phones to start. Every extension works in the web app and on mobile.

Setup comes in three forms:

• Self setup is $0. You sign up and build your call flows in the app.
• Guided setup is $299 for up to 10 users, then $15 a user. PBXflex builds your IVR, queues and ring groups, ports your numbers, registers your texting campaign and trains your team for 30 minutes. For 14 users, that is $299 plus 4 × $15, or $359.
• On-site installation is quoted per site. It is guided setup plus phones and network installed at your office. The quote is built from the phones above and these items: a phone installed and provisioned for $50, a VoIP-ready firewall for $449 configured or $25 a month managed, and a Cat6 data drop for $225.

Number porting is free on every plan. To have on-site work quoted, talk to sales.

Taxes and government fees on a VoIP bill

Every PBXflex price excludes taxes and government fees. These are lines you may see on any VoIP bill. Which ones appear, and how much they are, depend on the provider and on where you are.

Universal Service Fund

Interconnected VoIP providers must contribute to the federal Universal Service Fund. The FCC sets the contribution factor every quarter. A provider may pass its contribution on to you as a line item. If it does, that line may not be more than the interstate telecom portion of your bill times the contribution factor. So this line can change even when nothing else on your bill does.

911 fees

Federal law requires VoIP providers whose service connects to the public phone network to offer 911 and enhanced 911 service. It also lets states, local governments and tribes charge a fee on that service to pay for 911. The fee cannot be higher than the one they charge the same kind of customer for other phone service, and it must be spent on 911.

State and local taxes

State and local taxes can apply on top. Washington's utility regulator, for example, says phone companies collect federal, state, municipal utility and sales taxes on a landline bill.

What a regulatory recovery fee is

A regulatory recovery fee is a charge a phone provider adds to recover its own costs. The name sounds official. It is not a tax, and no government sets the amount.

In a 2005 order on telephone bills, the FCC sorted the charges carriers add to recover the cost of government rules into three kinds:

1. Taxes and fees the carrier is required to collect from you.
2. Fees the carrier may pass on to you but does not have to. Universal service is the FCC's example.
3. The carrier's own administrative costs, and its costs of complying with regulations.

A fee a carrier adds to cover its own costs of compliance belongs to the third kind, whatever it is called. The FCC said it is misleading for a carrier to state or imply that a charge is required by the government when the carrier itself decides whether, and how much, to recover through a separate line item. The same order said line items are allowed as long as they are not misleading. The FCC's truth-in-billing rules also require carriers to describe each charge in brief, clear, non-misleading, plain language. These rules were written for phone carriers.

With any provider, ask whether each fee is in the price you were quoted, how it is worked out, and whether the provider can raise it.

PBXflex does not charge an administrative or "regulatory recovery" fee. Your bill shows your plan, the add-ons you chose, any credit packs or one-time purchases, and taxes and government fees.

Contracts and cancellation

Ask whether a quoted price needs a term of a year or more, and what leaving early costs.

Every PBXflex plan is month to month, with no contract, no yearly commitment and no cancellation fee. You can cancel, or add and remove users, any time.

You can take your number with you. Under FCC rules, a VoIP provider that connects to the public phone network must help you port a number to or from it. It may not make an agreement that stops you porting.

How to estimate your monthly cost

Work it out in five steps:

1. Start with the plan: your users times the Essentials or Business price in the plan cards below.
2. Add the monthly add-ons you need, such as a toll-free number or a shared-device line.
3. Estimate your usage in credits, from the usage table above. Packs of 2,500 credits for $25 cover usage beyond your pooled allowance.
4. Add taxes and government fees.
5. Separately, add one-time costs: phones you buy, guided setup and any on-site work.

An example, with made-up usage: five people on Essentials share 2,500 credits a month. In one month they make and take 1,800 minutes of US calls, send and receive 200 text segments, and handle 60 fax pages. That is 1,800 + 400 + 120 = 2,320 credits, inside the allowance.

Now add a toll-free number, at $5 a month, and 100 minutes of toll-free calls. Those minutes use 300 credits, so the month comes to 2,620 credits. Auto-reload adds one $25 pack when the balance drops below 100. Credits you buy never expire, so what is left of the pack carries into next month.

The same office pays $445 one time to buy five standard desk phones, or $25 a month to rent them. Self setup is $0, and guided setup is $299.

Questions to ask any provider before you sign

Ask every provider the same questions, in writing, and ask for a sample bill with every line filled in.

If you also need fax, check that it is part of the plan and not a separate service. On PBXflex, fax and business texting are included on every plan.