Messages

31

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Explaination of Views --> Live

« on: June 02, 2005, 02:15:42 AM »

The are quite a few possible reasons that could prevent CAM from showing data in the online views, most probably are 2 following:
- lost connection to the PBX and no new data is coming to the system anymore
- accidental data deletion (e.g. using Administration/Clear System page)
- security system is not set for accounts belonging to Users role (as it is descibed in Security restrictions for Users group in this FAQ)

Finally i would suggest you to send us extended request for support using CAM interface. This is actually fastes way to find out the exact reason of the problem, cause sending the request willl provide us all necessary debuggig information.
To send the request:
- open Support/Send Log Files page
- fill all the fields on the page and specify description of the problem in the Comments field
- select Extended Request for Support in the Request type field
- press Submit Request button to issue the request

32

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Scheduling Top N Calls Reports

« on: May 25, 2005, 10:19:25 AM »

CAM has 2 sets of reports: flexible and easy. All summary reports belong to easy reports group and for most detailed reports they are explicitly marked as either flexible or easy. The Top N calls report is summary report and thus belongs to easy reports group.

Among other differences between these reports groups there are two biggest:
- flexible reports can be scheduled for autogeneration and easy can't
- flexible reports reflects changes made in users lookup table immediately while easy reports require data to be reparsed to apply changes made in lookup tables

As it follows from the listed above Top N report can't be scheduled for autogeneration.
We're working contstantly on adding 'flexible' clones of 'easy' reports and summary reports will be released in a near future release.

33

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Calls without country/region code misinterpret as a region

« on: May 25, 2005, 10:09:51 AM »

Most probably reason of the problem is that tariff/numbering plan defined on Settings/Operators/Rates page does not correspond to the numbering plan of your country. To fix the problem please load correct default tariff/numbering plan for your country using Template button on Settings/Operators/Rates page.

After changing the tariff/numbering plan you need to reparse existing calls data to fix them. Reparsing can be done using Administration/SMDR Reparser page.

34

Asterisk Integration / Determining Call Direction for Asterisk

« on: May 12, 2005, 04:03:02 AM »

By default CAM uses fuzzy rules to determine direction of a call.
To allow the CAM exactly determine the direction from SMDR record you need configure Asterisk in a special way.

You should mark every Asterisk section entry that can make call with account code set to "OUTCOMING" and section that can accept call with account code set to "INCOMING".

Generally add following line

accountcode=OUTCOMING

to entries of type 'user' of 'friend' in sip.conf and iax.conf and add following line

accountcode=INCOMING

to entries of type 'peer' in sip.conf and iax.conf files and to channels in zapata.conf file.

For example, sif.conf:

[sip-phone]
type=user
;type=friend
accountcode=OUTCOMING
...

[sip-provider]
type=peer
accountcode=INCOMING
...


But in some cases for incoming calls Asterisk does not use accountcode from configuration file. You must set accountcode in your dial plan. For example, you have such entry for incoming calls (the calls is routed to 'router' context):

[sip-provider]
type=peer
accountcode=INCOMING
context=router
...

To adopt such dialplan for CAM make new intermediate context for the 'router':

[router-intermediate]
exten => _X.,1,SetAccount(INCOMING)
exten => _X.,2,Goto(router,${EXTEN},1)

[router]
exten => 2001,1,Dial(SIP/2001,20)
exten => 2001,2,Hangup
.....

and change context for 'sip-provider' from 'router' to 'router-intermediate'

[sip-provider]
type=peer
accountcode=INCOMING
context=router-intermediate
...

In intermidiate context first line force accountcode to be 'INCOMING' and the second line jump to original context as if there is no additional context exists.

35

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Exten Expriry Period

« on: April 26, 2005, 05:39:45 AM »

Yes, in most cases it is possible. For an instructions please send us request to support@callaccounting.ws.

36

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Call Rate Configuration

« on: April 21, 2005, 02:16:01 PM »

- CAM doesn't support automatic tariff plan (rates) importing from a web site, because web sites have arbitrary structure and usually require additional navigation to explore all the data and, thus, there is no reliable approach to do it in a way that would be acceptable for every customer

- CAM uses SQL scripts to copy tariff plans between systems; we can create tariff plan template for your needs and send you the import script for it along with description so you will import it into system and extend as needed

- please feel free to mail us detailed description of the tariff plan you need to support@callaccounting.ws
Basic information that we need to create a tariff plan template are listed below:
- your country name
- IDD and NDD prefixes used in your country
- rates information
- any additional tariffing information you need to be encoded into the plan structure

37

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Security restrictions for Users group

« on: April 13, 2005, 01:33:52 PM »

Security accounts, belonging  to Users role, such as predefined User account have limited access to calls data. By default these accounts can't browse any data and you need to explicitly enable users accounts to be able to view calls data. View data restrictions for User role are defined at department level.

To set up security settings please use Settings/Departments/Users page as described below:
- open Settings/Departments/Users page
- mark some department in the list; please note that you have to mark exactly one department to change it's security settings
- press Security button on page's bottom toolbar to invoke setup privileges dialog box
- in the dialog box mark security accounts that you want to be able to browse departments data in Avaliable Accounts list and press > button to add them to permitted accounts group for this department
- press Ok button to apply the changes
- repeat the steps above for every department which data must be viewable for certain security account(s)

38

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Destination in report too general

« on: March 29, 2005, 10:35:38 AM »

Dialed number parsing depends not only on presence of region code in regions lookup table, but also on presence and structure of tariff plan. In Call Accounting Mate tariff plan is also numbering plan at the same time, i.e. it defines rules for numbers parsing.

By default Call Accounting Mate is supplied with default tariff plan for USA activated. In case when you need to load tariff plan for other country please refer to 'Are rates tables customizable for my country' topic in Call Accounting Mate FAQ.

Call Accounting Mate allows tariff plan to be exported/imported to a tariff plan import script (*.tpl) file. In case you need our assistance in creation of tariff plan please mail detailed tariff plan description to support@callaccounting.ws and we'll create tariff plan template and send an import script via mail, so you can use it in your system.

To speed up solving the problem you also may consider possibility of sending us your data for analysis. To send us your log files and data please use Support/Send Log files page and specify Extended Request for Support in Request Type field on the page.

39

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Importing departments and users - Format of import file

« on: March 29, 2005, 10:14:17 AM »

Call Accounting Mate V 2.6.1.83 and above have a feature to allow external text files to be imported into the built in departments and users tables. This way, it is possible to import large number of users/departments without having to key them in.

The format of the text file is as follows:
FieldName1,FieldName2, ... ,FieldNameN
data11,data12, ... ,data1N
...
dataM1,dataM2, ... ,dataMN

The file is ASCII file, containing data records, each record is placed on separate line. Comma is default data delimiter. In case you use other delimiter of data values you must specify it in Value Delimiter field on import form of Settings/Departments/Users page while importing users data. Data values, containing delimiters (e.g. comma or semicolon) inside them, must be quoted strings. Very first line of the file must contain list of fileld names to be imported. Field names, containing delimiters (e.g. comma or semicolon) inside them,  also must be quoted strings.
Below is list of valid field names:
 - "Department" or "Dept" denotes department name
 - "User" or "Name" denotes user name
 - "Ext" or "Extension" or "Station" denotes user extension
 - "Code" or "Password" or "Account Code" denotes account code
Code is optional field, it can be omitted both in fields list and in some of data rows.

An example of the import file:
User, Ext, Department, Code
"Huygens, Christian", 119, 01 - Business Development Unit, 8001
"Boyle, Robert", 107, 01 - Business Development Unit, 1221
"Oresme, Nicolas", 105, 03 - Head Office, 6311
"Hooke, Robert", 124, 03 - Head Office, 9673
"Snell, Willebrord", 102, 03 - Head Office, 2231
"Gilbert, William", 128, 03 - Head Office, 4221
"Franklin, Benjamin", 130, 04 - Customer Service
"Torricelli, Evangelista", 131, 04 - Customer Service
"Watt, James", 144, 04 - Customer Service
"Le Rond, Jean", 139, 04 - Customer Service
"Euler, Leonard", 151, 04 - Customer Service

Please take note of the following:
1. Invalid entries are skipped with a message
2. Duplicate entries are skipped

40

News from CallAccounting.ws / Call Accounting Mate V2.6.1.97 released on 21 October 2005

« on: March 02, 2005, 09:53:54 AM »

We released Call Accounting Mate 2.6.1.97 on 21 October 2005. Improvements and enhacements made in latest version of Call Accounting Mate can be viewed at http://www.callaccounting.ws/call_accounting_release_history.htm

Thank you to all of you who have supported us either by purchasing our products or giving us useful feedback on the software.

We will continue to listen to our customers and deliver the products that the market needs. As many of our customers already know, we intend to be the best Call Accounting System for small and medium size businesses.

41

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Explanation of Maintenance --> Purge Calls

« on: February 27, 2005, 01:09:08 PM »

This page allows to purge old calls data. Purge Calls page has several options allowing user to control the way data is removed from internal database.

These options are described below:

Date from
This parameter is used to specify low date bound for calls to be purged

Date to
This parameter is used to specify high date bound for calls to be purged. Please note that Date to bound is excluded from date
range, i.e. calls for the date specified in this field will not be purged. Thus, for example, to preserve calls only for current month
(e.g. Feb 2005) you should specify 1 Feb 2005 in Date to field and leave Date from field empty; in this case all calls having start time less
than 1 Feb 2005 00:00:00 will be removed.

Purge raw data
Mark this option to remove all raw SMDR data within date bounds. Please note that in this case you will not be able to restore calls information as the raw smdr would have been deleted.

Shrink database
Mark this option to reclaim free space used in internal database file back to operating system. When data is deleted  free space inside internal database file is marked for future use but is not returned to operating system. This is done for optimization purposes. This option allows to return free space from internal database file back to operating system.

To select calls to be purged section
This section contains 2 options allowing you to control which calls to be purged. Every call record has two dates associated with it: date reported by a PBX and computer date when the call was registered by a system. In some cases these dates may differ, for example, when
PBX reports invalid date or operating system has incorrect locale option specified. Date reported by a PBX is displayed in every view and  report except Raw Data views and reports. To view computer date associated with a call use Views/List/Raw Data page.

 
   Use only PBX date - 
   Mark this option to use dates reported by a PBX to select calls to be purged

   Use both PBX and computer date
   Mark this option to delete as much data as possible, it is recommended to use this option in case when PBX and computer dates match.

Finally, below is an example of purging all calls except current month (e.g. Feb 2005) reclaiming as much free space as possible:
- open Maintenance/Purge Calls page
- specify 1 Feb 2005 in Date to field
- mark Purge raw data option
- mark Shrink database option
- mark Use both PBX and computer date option in To select calls to be purged section
- press Ok button to start operation
- the operation may take up to several minutes depending on database size and computer speed

42

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Explanation of Settings --> Contacts

« on: February 24, 2005, 09:37:54 AM »

Settings-->Contacts page allows the following functions to be defined :

1. Mappings between phone number(s) and contact name

Contact
Call Accounting Mate allows you to assign phone number or several numbers to a contact name. This information can be used in online views and reports several ways. You can use contact name to place in any report or view supporting columns customization or filer a report or a view by a contact name. There is also section named Contacts Report on Reports/List page which allows to build various reports grouped by a contact name.

To manage contacts lookup table use Add and  Delete buttons on the page's bottom toolbar. To edit a contact just click it's row in contacts list. Adding a new contact or editing an existing one opens contact form containing fields described below:

Contact Name.
This field contains contact name.

Phones List.
This field contains comma separated list of phone numbers assigned to the contact name. You can either enter numbers directly or use [..] button on the right side of the filed to open Phone Numbers dialog. In the dialog you can enter phone numbers placing each number on new row. To apply changes made in the dialog and close the window press Ok button. Cancel discards changes made in phone numbers.
 
The page also allows you to import contacts information from an external file. File format is described in Importing contacts - Format of ASCII file article, which can be found in Call Accounting Mate FAQ.

Information in contacts table can be used in online views and reports. To display contacts mappings in a view or a report you need to change report template and add Number/Contact or/and Contact column(s) to it.

Following is a sample of configuring report template to display contact names assigned to phone numbers:
1. Open Views/List/::Custom View Builder::
2. Press [..] button on the right side of Report template field to invoke template editor
3. Activate Columns tab in the template editor dialog box
4. Click Number column to open column edit form
5. Select Contact column in the combobox instead of Number
6. Press Save to apply changes
7. Close the template editor dialog box by pressing Close button
8. Press Apply button on ::Custom View Builder:: page to apply changes made in the report template

43

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Explanation of Settings --> CO Lines

« on: February 24, 2005, 04:56:38 AM »

Please note that CO line is also very often referred to as Trunk line.

Settings-->CO Lines page allows the following functions to be defined :

1. Mappings between CO line internal number and external phone number assigned to the line
2. Which department owns certain CO line

To manage CO line mappings use Add, Edit and Delete buttons on the page's bottom toolbar. Add and Edit buttons open CO line form containing fields described below:

1. CO.
This field contains CO line internal number as it reported by a PBX in the SMDR.

Phone number.
This field contains external phone number assigned to a certain CO line.

Department.
This field allows you to select which department owns the CO line. This information is used to build Daily Report by Department and Monthly Report by Department from Statistic section on Reports/List page. In these reports calls are grouped by department basing not on user extension reported by a PBX, but on CO line information and relations between lines and departments defined in this table.

Information in CO lines table can be used in online views and reports. To display CO line mappings in a view or a report you need to change report template and add CO/Line or/and Line column(s) to it.

Following is a sample of configuring report template to display external numbers assigned to CO lines:
1. Open Views/List/::Custom View Builder::
2. Press [..] button on the right side of Report template field to invoke template editor
3. Activate Columns tab in the template editor dialog box
4. Click CO column to open column edit form
5. Select Line column in the combobox
6. Press Save to apply changes
7. Close the template editor dialog box by pressing Close button
8. Press Apply button on ::Custom View Builder:: page to apply changes made in the report template

44

News from CallAccounting.ws / Re: New version update?

« on: February 09, 2005, 10:48:21 AM »

Call Accounting Mate 2.6.1.75, which is currently available for download from http://www.callaccounting.ws/call_accounting_download.htm, allows to build report grouped by user extension and containing all call directions. To generate the report just select All option in 'Call Direction' field on Report/List/Extension Report/Detailed Report page.

You may also check release history (http://www.callaccounting.ws/call_accounting_release_history.htm) for other enhancements made in latest version of Call Accounting Mate.

Thanks for using Call Accounting Mate!

45

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Samples of auto emailed reports/alerts configuration

« on: January 06, 2005, 06:27:33 AM »

CAM has a built in feature to email reports or alerts perodically. This feature is useful when you want to send reports or alerts via email without logging on to CAM. Most important part of auto emailed report(alert) configuration is defining report template for the alert. Below is list of samples intended to show process of such template creation. For general instuctions for configuring all subsystems involved in automatic report generation please refer to How to use the task scheduler to schedule auto emailing of reports/alerts in Call Accounting Mate FAQ.

Following are links to auto emailed reports configuration samples:

http://www.callaccounting.ws/howto/Scheduled Report Sample 1.mht

46

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / Re: Duration Correction

« on: December 10, 2004, 11:42:06 AM »

It is possible to filter out junk calls using report customization technique desribed in How to customize report generation topic (http://www.callaccounting.ws/forum/index.php?topic=42.0).

"Duration correction" field on 'Import SMDR' pand and Driver tab of PBX Communcation page is used to define value that will be subtracted from every call duration so it is not possible to use it for calls filtering.

For data export/import CAM uses primarily 2 formats: SQL and XML scripts; for some data tables (e.g. users table) CSV is also used. You may send us sample of data that needs to be imported into CAM and we'll either put support for that format in next CAM release or translate the data to SQL/XML script that you can import in your copy of CAM.

47

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / How to customize report generation

« on: December 10, 2004, 11:21:26 AM »

Call Accounting Mate allows you to generate reports from report templates that user can define and store in system. Such report template defines filtering and ordering for report and can be stored permanently in system reports list. Report templates are shared among Online Views, Custom Report and Task Scheduler modules, thus same technique is applicable for cusomization of all listed modules.

Click on the link below for an instructions of how to customize reports generated by CAM.

http://www.callaccounting.ws/howto/How%20To%20Use%20Custom%20Report.mht

If you have any problems, please contact support@callaccounting.ws

48

Call Accounting Mate Q&A / How to import SMDR/CDR data into system from external log file(s)

« on: December 09, 2004, 02:55:54 PM »

Call Accounting Mate allows SMDR/CDR data to be imported into system from external text files (PBX log files). This is usefull when you have data collected before you installed CAM or, for some reason, it is not possible to use comm port to collect SMDR/CDR data.
Click on the link below for an instructions of how to import SMDR/CDR data into system from external log file(s).

http://www.callaccounting.ws/howto/How To Import SMDR-CDR Data.mht

If you have any problems, please contact support@callaccounting.ws