Offline for a reason nobody expected
A workplace site host rings: two chargers show offline in the app and drivers cannot start sessions. An engineer goes out and finds nothing wrong with the chargers. The data SIM contract for those units ended last month, when a bundle bought three years ago reached its term. Nobody was told, because the renewal notice went to someone who has since left.
Separately, accounts has been paying for back-office licences on chargers that were removed from another site a year ago.
Recurring costs with no owner
Each networked charger can carry several recurring costs: a data connection, a management platform licence, a payment or roaming service, a support plan. They are bought at install, often bundled, with start dates tied to install dates. The supplier invoices are aggregated or split in ways that do not match your sites, and the recharge to the site host is set in their contract.
- Renewal dates are in supplier emails, not in a list.
- SIM numbers are not linked to charger serials.
- Removed or replaced chargers keep their licences.
- Recharges to site hosts are calculated by hand, and some are missed.
- Supplier invoices cannot be checked against the chargers you actually have.
What lapses and leaks cost
A lapsed connection takes chargers offline, which looks like a fault to the site host and costs an engineer visit. Paying for services on chargers that no longer exist is money lost quietly each month. Missed recharges are income you were entitled to. And at contract renewal, nobody can give the site host a clear breakdown of what they are paying for.
Takeovers make it worse. When you inherit chargers from another installer or a failed operator, the subscriptions often come with them, half-documented, with renewal dates nobody on your side has seen. Those are the connections most likely to lapse without warning.
The subscription register we set up
- Every charger is linked to its subscriptions: SIM or connection, platform licence, payment or roaming service, support plan, with supplier, start date, term and cost.
- We load existing data from supplier invoices, SIM portals and platform exports, and list anything that cannot be matched for a person to resolve.
- Renewals raise tasks in good time, so your team decides whether to renew, change or cancel.
- When a charger is removed or replaced, the register prompts the cancellation or transfer of its subscriptions.
- Each month supplier invoices are checked against the register, and differences are listed.
- Recharges to site hosts are calculated from their contract terms and prepared as invoices in Xero or QuickBooks for approval.
| Item | Tracked now | Tracked in the register |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal dates | Supplier emails | Tasks ahead of each renewal |
| SIM to charger link | Unknown | Recorded per serial |
| Removed chargers | Services keep running | Cancellation prompted |
| Supplier invoices | Paid as received | Checked against the register |
| Site host recharges | Worked out by hand | Prepared from contract terms |
No surprises in the car park
Chargers stop going offline for administrative reasons. Accounts pays for what you actually have. Site hosts are billed correctly and can see what they are paying for. And when you take over maintenance of a site someone else installed, loading its subscriptions into the register is one of the first steps.
Renewals also become a commercial moment. When a bundle ends, you can review whether a different connection or platform plan suits the site better, instead of discovering the choice was made for you when the charger dropped offline.
Is this happening to you?
- Chargers have gone offline because a connection lapsed.
- You pay for services on chargers you no longer have.
- Renewal notices go to one person's inbox.
- Site host recharges are calculated by hand.
- You could not link each SIM to a charger serial today.