Call Accounting Software

Call accounting software was the original business phone tool. The focus was on cost control and automating the process of accounting for business phone expenses. That's still the main reason why businesses invest in call accounting software. Despite increased competition and cheaper phone calls resulting from the up-take of VoIP phone systems the telephone bill remains the 3rd or 4th biggest small business business expense.

Why are Call Accounting Systems Used?

• Customer service - Call software is an indispensable management tool. It provides the means to quantify or measure whether or not calls are answered responsively. Are there peaks and troughs in calling patterns. The average number of seconds or rings before a call is answered? How many in-bound calls drop out un-answered? What are the bottlenecks?
• Management - "Its impossible manage anything that cannot be measured." An effective PBX call accounting system provides the means to measure how a phone system is used. For example, it can identify bottlenecks and whether there are too many or too few lines and trunks.
• Accurately apportion costs between departments and cost centers. Alternatives include splitting costs based on staff numbers, handsets or percentages; none of which make employees or departments accountable.
• Accountability - when employees know their calls are being logged they change the way they use business phone systems. For a start the number of personal and premium rate calls immediately declines without anything else being done.
• Transparency - first generation call management software was strictly a reporting tool. A tool that could only be used for post-mortem analysis and only accessible by those on the circulation list. Today it is a requirement that call software must be on-line and directly accessible by all authorized personnel. Web based call accounting enables managers to drill into departmental, project or cost center records from anywhere at any time. Tailored reports can be accessed on-line or automatically emailed as attachments in any electronic format.
• Management by exception - telephone call accounting is required to highlight key information at a glance. Each user or department having access to a customized dashboard that highlights trends and exceptions and provides the ability to drill down with a mouse click into the underlying call records.
• Phone fraud detection and prevention, it's a booming business worth billions of dollars annually. It takes many forms that may involve employees as well as external parties. The convergence of voice and data technologies is a major factor responsible the trend. Call accounting software provides the audit trails that help detect fraud and trigger real time alerts.
• Telephone bill verification and reconciliation - Call accounting systems are used to automate the reconciliation of phone bills. It is achieved by loading rate tables and tariffs obtained from the carriers and generating a bill that can be compared with those received from carriers. Substantial cost savings can be achieved because errors in phone bills are very common, but are nearly impossible to identify without call accounting software.
• Carrier cost comparisons - by loading rate tables from multiple carriers, call management software can calculate the cost savings that can be achieved by switching carriers or taking selected services from different carriers.
• Inventory control - i.e. maintaining an up to date registry of lines, trunks, costs, anniversary dates and usage. Without a registry it is easy to lose track of lines and pay for services that are no longer in use.
• VoIP phone systems: the technology has changed, but the objectives are still the same. Current generation solutions must also support VoIP call accounting features. These may include the ability to monitor VoIP QOS (Quality of Service).
• Mobile phone usage - current generation call management software is also required to account for mobile phone usage. This information is required to complete the picture of employee phone usage and associated expenses. Some of the available solutions also log other channels of communication including email.

In addition to the generic reasons for implementing call accounting solutions, there are also specific requirements associated with:

In these segments call accounting systems have been recognized as a fundamental business requirement for many years.