FreePBX / Asterisk call accounting – costs per extension

What FreePBX will not tell you about calls

FreePBX writes down every call in its CDR database, but that is where it stops: the reports show how many calls and how long, not what they cost at your carrier's tariff – let alone split across cost centres or cleared of private calls. Tarifon is a call accounting program for FreePBX, Asterisk and derived distributions (Issabel, VitalPBX, Elastix, Sangoma) that runs on an ordinary Windows PC in the office and is deployed in ten minutes.

How Tarifon connects to FreePBX

Straight into the asteriskcdrdb database (MySQL/MariaDB), from which it reads finished call records including trunk names. Nothing is installed into the PBX, you need no module and no commercial add-on. Because it reads a database, Tarifon can pull the history too on first run, for as many months as you choose – you have the billing right away, not in a month. After a connection outage the missing calls are re-imported and no gap appears in the history.

What you get beyond the reports in FreePBX

The price of every call at your carrier's tariff including VAT, rounding as on the invoice, free minutes and flat rates – separately for VoIP, a GSM gateway and the fixed line.
Billing per extension and department with a monthly Excel report that arrives by e-mail automatically.
Marking private calls with one click and a separate report for payroll.
Limits per extension with a warning at 80 % and 100 %.
Protection against PBX toll fraud – six rules watch calls to premium-rate and satellite numbers, night traffic and unusual call volume, and send an e-mail within minutes.
Finding any call by number, extension or date – even six months back, including who picked it up.

Setup step by step

On the FreePBX server create a read-only database user and allow it access only from the IP address of the computer running Tarifon:
CREATE USER 'cdruser'@'192.168.1.199' IDENTIFIED BY 'silne_heslo';
GRANT SELECT ON asteriskcdrdb.* TO 'cdruser'@'192.168.1.199';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Check that MySQL listens on the network (bind-address) and that the firewall lets port 3306 through from the same IP address.
In the Tarifon wizard choose FreePBX and enter the server address, user and password; the connection test verifies that the database answers.
Load your carrier tariff (sample tariffs for SK/CZ/PL/DE come with the program), assign trunks to tariffs and extensions to departments. Choose how many months of history to pull.

Frequently asked questions about FreePBX

Does it also work with Issabel, VitalPBX or plain Asterisk?

Yes, anything that writes CDR into MySQL in the standard Asterisk layout.

Do I have to install anything on the FreePBX server?

No. A read-only database account is enough.

How does it know which trunk the call went out on?

From the trunk name in the CDR; you assign a tariff to each trunk – VoIP, GSM gateway or fixed line.

What if the database connection drops?

Tarifon reconnects and pulls the missing calls afterwards – nothing is lost.

What does it cost?

A perpetual licence from €249 for up to 24 extensions, with no monthly fees; 30 days free in the full version.

FreePBX and Asterisk call accounting – costs per extension and department