Configuration of call rating in Tariscope

The Tariscope billing system has a flexible and powerful call rating subsystem. It allows you to configure almost all call rating options. But this flexibility requires a good understanding of how call rating works in general and in Tariscope in particular. To better understand the rating system and, accordingly, to configure it correctly, consider the example shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

There is a telephone system that contains subscribers: Dan Brown and Brian Smith. Dan Brown has an extension of 1010. His rate plan is the Base one. Brian Smith has an extension of 1020. He is served under the Preferential plan. Different rate plans are a feature of the Tariscope Provider. For most users of Tariscope Enterprise, one rate plan, Base, is enough. The PBX connects with route 029 to the telecom provider, which is shown as a cloud. This is the simplest option when the PBX connects to PSTN through a single operator. If there were connections with other telecom operators, the PBX would have appropriate routes to connect with them, and these operators would have their own rates.

Let us assume that Dan Brown and Brian Smith make calls to the same telephone number, for example, they dial 0573930611, where 0 is the long-distance telephone access code. Let us assume that the telephone code 57 corresponds to Rate 1. Therefore, a call lasting 2 minutes for the first subscriber will cost 1.00 €. (0.5 € [cost of one minute in Rate 1 of the Base Plan] * 2 minutes), and for the second subscriber the call of such duration will cost 0.80 € (0.4 € [cost of one minute in Rate 1 of the Preferential Plan] * 2 minutes).

What does a billing system need to know to correctly calculate the cost of a call?

The billing system must identify the subscriber who made the outgoing call by the extension (internal telephone number) from which it was made. If there is such a subscriber, then determine the rate plan that is valid for him at the moment.

From the side of the PBX connection to PSTN, it is necessary to determine the route or gateway on which the call was made. Using this route, the system must find out which provider it is connected to. Next, it finds the area code in the dialed phone number. In the given example, it is 57. Then it determines which rate should be used for this code (Rate 1, Rate 2, or Rate 3). Finally, depending on the rate plan of the subscriber who made the call, select the required rate value (in the given example it is 0.5 € per minute or 0.4 € per minute).

How to setup this in Tariscope?

Configuration of subscriber

For choice of the desired subscriber in Tariscope, select in the menu: Communication nodes → your telephone system name → Subscribers (Figure 2).

Figure 2

You can use the Search box to quickly find the desired subscriber. A description of how to work on the Subscribers page listed in the section. Figure 3 shows the page of a particular subscriber and highlights the elements that affect the rating.

Малюнок 3

You should enter a subscriber name in the Name textbox.

In the Rate plan box, specify the required plan. As mentioned earlier, for most users of the Tariscope Enterprise edition, one Base rate plan is enough. It is included in the installation package by default.

Next, in the Extensions / IP box you need to specify the list of extensions (internal telephone numbers) that belong to the subscriber. To enter extensions, click on the button with three dots. A page for entering extensions appears, an example of which is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4

To add an extension, click the Add icon. If you need to edit a number, select the appropriate line and click the Edit icon. When you add a new extension, a window will appear, an example of which is shown in Figure 5.  

Figure 5

The figure highlights the positions that are required for call rating.

In the Equipment list, select the name of the telephone system to which the extension belongs.

In the Extension/IP box, enter the extension.

In the Connection date calendar list, specify the date from which the entered extension will belong to this subscriber. Note that the current date is set by default. If you process calls with dates earlier than the current one, it will be considered that this extension does not belong to this subscriber. If you disable this calendar list, this number will be considered to belong to this subscriber from the connection date of the subscriber (Connection date in Figure 3).

To keep data, click on the Save button.

If you return to Figure 3, the Connection date and Disconnection date calendar boxes specify the period when the subscriber is active. Only during this period calls will belong to this subscriber and will be charged.

Other parameters for call rating are configured in the parameters of Providers and rates and parameters of the telephone system.

Providers and rates settings

To configure telecom provider settings, select in the menu: Providers and rates → Providers management. See the full description of settings in the section of Telecommunications service providers. The Providers page appears, an example of which is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6

Check to see if there is a required provider to which your PBX is connected on this page. If you do not have it, you can import it from the SoftPI site, if it is there, or create one.

Select the desired provider in the menu, click on the Outgoing menu item, and then click Rates. The Rates page appears, an example of which is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7

Make sure that this page contains all the required rates, and that the cost of rates corresponds to those that are in the contract of your company with the provider.

If you do not have the necessary rats, create them. To do this, click on the Add icon on the Rates page. The New rate page appears, described in the documentation.

To edit the settings of any rate, select it on the Rates page and click the Edit icon. The page for editing the selected rate appears, where you should make the necessary changes.

The next step is to link the area codes and corresponding rates. To do this, select the Destination codes item from the menu. The Destination codes page appears, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8

All area codes are grouped into tree, which can be opened by clicking on the cross. You can use the Search box to quickly find the required code. To do this, enter the area code in the format: [country code] [area code or mobile operator code]. For example: 38057, where 380 is the code of Ukraine, 57 is the code of the city of Kharkiv. To edit the area code settings, select the line with that code and click the Edit icon. The Edit tariff for this code window, an example of which is shown in Figure 9, appears.

Figure 9

In the Rate list, select the name of the rate that will be applied when calling this area code. Save the settings.

Telephone system settings

Select your phone system from the Equipment menu, and then select Settings. A page will appear, an example of which is shown in Figure 10. The items highlighted in this figure affect the call rating. Therefore, consider only them. For a description of other items, see the relevant documentation.

Figure 10

In the Equipment list, select the name that corresponds to your telephone system. Then click on the Advanced settings button and make the necessary. For example, for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), you must enable the Use numbering Plan for internal numbers detection check box to identify extensions that belong to CUCM.

In the Long distance prefix box, you should specify the code used to make calls to other cities in the country. For most countries in the world, it is 0.

In the International code box, you should specify the code used to make international calls. For most countries in the world, it is 0.

In the Country code list, select the name of the country where the PBX is located.

In the Area code list, enter the area code where the PBX is located.

Save the settings by clicking the Save button.

In the submenu of your telephone system, select Numbering plan item. The Numbering Plan page appears, an example of which is shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11

Create a numbering plan for the extensions of your telephone system. Only telephone numbers included in the numbering plan will be considered as extensions. For example, you use extensions from 1000 to 1999 and from 3000 to 3500. This page should look like Figure 12.

Figure 12

Next, you need to link the telecom provider to the route (trunk group) or gateway. To do this, select the Routes and Gateways item in the submenu of your PBX (Figure 13).

Figure 13

If your phone system is connected to only one provider, you can link it to the All routes row of the table. To do this, select it and click the Edit icon. The Editing window appears as shown in Figure 14. The figure highlights the items you need to setup.

Figure 14

The value in the Route box is not editable for All Routes. If you are creating a specific route or gateway, you must specify the route or gateway number in the form in which it is present in the CDR records. You can see route numbers in the call views if you include the Terminator (it contains the route for outgoing calls) and Originator (it contains the route for incoming calls) fields.

To create a specific route for the example given at the beginning of the article in the Route box, enter: 29.

If an access code is used to access a specific route (gateway) and it is present in the dialed number in the CDR records, it must be specified in the Access code box. For example, in the call view you see the dialed number: 90573930611, where 9 is the access code to the route, 0 is the long-distance access code, 57 is the Kharkiv city code, and 3930611 is the phone number. In this case you should enter 9 in the box. After re-rating of calls the specified dialed number should be displayed as 0573930611 and the To telephone column should contain Kharkiv or other name which is connected to the area code of 38057. If you added the code of 380573930611 with the name SoftPI on the Common phone codes page, then the view of calls will display this name.

Finally, in the Provider list, you must select the telecom provider whose rates will be applied for this route (gateway).

Save the settings.

Sometimes many different prefixes can be used in dialed phone numbers. In this case, go to the Prefixes settings page and add all these prefixes.

Rating check

Call rating in Tariscope can be applied in several ways. Normal rating is performed when receiving CDR data from the telephone system. If necessary, be able to re-rate all or some calls. This can be done in view for calls. An example of the view for calls is shown in Figure 15. The highlighted icons are used for call rating.

Figure 15

If you want to re-rate all the calls in the selected view, click the Recharge all rows icon on the toolbar. Depending on the number of records in the view, the parameters of the server where Microsoft SQL Server is installed, its load on other tasks, rating can take a different amount of time.

It is easier to check the correctness of the rating setting on a small number of records. To do this, you should either make the appropriate view, filtering the necessary records by calls, or select one or more lines in the view and click on the Recharge selected rows icon.

If calls are charged with an error, we recommend using rating with tracing. To do this, select the required call and click the Recharge with tracing icon. As a result, a separate tab of the browser will display all the rating steps that were performed, with their result. In case of an error in any of the steps, a recommendation is given to eliminate this error. An example of part of such a page is shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16

This page has a different look if you click on the Raw data icon, which is highlighted in Figure 16. In this case, the page looks like Figure 17. It is more intended for SoftPI employees. That is, if you are unable to set up the call rating yourself and you have SoftPI technical support, you can send the results from this page to SoftPI Support.

Figure 17

If you use the Tariscope Provider edition, calls can be re-charged in Subscribers Accounts.

To re-rate the calls of an individual subscriber, select its account, click on the toolbar on the Account actions icon and select the Recharge month menu item.

If you want to re-rate the calls of all subscribers, then on the Subscribers Accounts page, on the toolbar, you should click on the Recalculate month icon.