How we count calls
We count conversations, not records. If a call rings on five devices, it stays one call. And a call that reaches you and is transferred internally is not a second, outgoing call.
Three rules, that is all
- A conversation is one line. For a single call the phone system writes several records: one per ringing device, one per queue, one for the voicemail. With a hunt group that can easily be seventeen. What is counted is the call, not the system's bookkeeping.
- The direction is decided by who dialled. Outgoing is a conversation that starts at your end – somebody at your company dials. If the call comes from outside and is passed on internally, it stays incoming, even though the system writes an internal outgoing leg for the hand-over.
- Answered means: somebody picked up. A diversion to voicemail or to another destination is reported by the phone system as "answered". For the caller, nobody was there. That is why only what a person or a device picked up counts as answered.
A dial attempt where nobody picks up does count as an outgoing call: the attempt is the service. It simply does not count as answered.
What changed when
- 18 Sep 2026 The reports count conversations. Since then, an internal hand-over no longer counts as an outgoing call of its own. The same rule applies retroactively to all stored calls – otherwise every time series would have a step on that day that looks like a collapse and is none.
- 01 Oct 2026 Billing counts the way the reports count. Until then, every case with an outgoing leg was billed. The change takes effect on that day and is not applied retroactively: what was billed stays billed.
- 01 Dec 2026 "Answered" requires a human being. From that day on, a call counts as answered only if a workplace or a device picked up – not if the phone system passed it on. This was announced in advance, so that nobody finds the number in their dashboard first.
Why your outgoing figures have fallen
Because too much was counted before – not because there was less telephoning. Measured across all companies over thirty days, read-only against the real data:
- −53 % outgoing calls. Every second counted "outgoing call" was in truth a leg of a transfer, a queue or the voicemail.
- −3 % answered calls. Here the old figure was almost right; affected are only diverted calls where nobody really picked up.
Incoming calls tend to rise rather than fall: a call that used to be booked as an outgoing leg is now what it always was – an incoming call.
Where the rule reaches its limit
Whether an outgoing leg belongs to an incoming call is something we recognise by the identifier the phone system gives to both legs. Against the cases where the system states the reason for the diversion explicitly, this rule catches them all – it misses not a single one.
About three in a hundred recognised legs are something else, though: an outgoing call somebody started during an ongoing conversation – consultation and transfer. Under this rule they do not count as a call of their own. That is a decision, not a measurement, and it is stated here so that it can be held against us.
As at 18 Sep 2026. Measured against our own call data, not estimated. If the rule changes, this page changes – and so does the note next to the number.