Call accounting and toll-fraud protection for Unify OpenScape Business (and Telekom Octopus F X)

The PBX sends its call records over the network by itself. Prices at your carrier's tariff, departments and fraud alerts are not in them.

What Tarifon does with OpenScape Business

Tarifon reads call records (Call Charges) straight from a Unify OpenScape Business PBX – the PBX sends them over the network by itself, with no extra hardware and no serial cable. Each record becomes a call priced at your carrier's tariff, allocated per extension and department, with monthly reports by e-mail and an alert when the PBX starts being abused. Call accounting for OpenScape Business (OSBiz) therefore needs no module from the manufacturer and no change inside the PBX – it runs on an ordinary Windows PC in the office.

Telekom Octopus F X is the same PBX

Telekom Octopus F X is OpenScape Business under the Deutsche Telekom brand – the settings and the procedure are the same. If you want to keep your PBX rather than move to a cloud solution, Tarifon adds call accounting and fraud monitoring to it without touching the PBX.

How Tarifon connects to OpenScape Business

In the PBX, Expert Mode is used to switch the Call Charges output to the LAN-TCP-Client format, pointing at the IP address of the Tarifon PC and a chosen port (9000, for example). Tarifon listens on that port and the PBX connects to it by itself – after every call it sends one line with the date and time, trunk, extension, ring time, call duration and the other party's number. The record arrives about 30 seconds after the call ends; that is how the PBX works, not a fault.

The PBX does not release history retroactively – calls are collected from the moment of connection. That is why Tarifon runs as a service on a PC that is never switched off. Internal calls between extensions are not included by the PBX; incoming, outgoing, transferred and forwarded calls are, each charged to the extension that actually talked. Unanswered incoming calls are recorded too – you will see them in the overview with zero duration as missed.

What you get beyond the records from OpenScape Business

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

In the PBX open Expert Mode → Telephony Server → Basic Settings → Call Charges → Output Format: Output Format = LAN-TCP-Client, the IP address of the Tarifon PC and the port (9000, for example). Call recording must be switched on as well: Setup → Wizards → Central Telephony → Call Detail Recording → Activate Call Charge Recording.
Leave the format switches as the profile was verified: Compressed Output off, Log incoming calls on, Call Duration on, Decimal format on, Display amounts instead of units on, Output MSN off, Last 4 digits suppressed off. Any other setting changes the shape of the line and Tarifon would not understand it.
In the Tarifon wizard choose SMDR, the Unify OpenScape Business profile, the mode „the PBX sends to us (we listen)“ and port 9000. If Windows Firewall is enabled on the PC, allow Tarifon to accept connections – otherwise the PBX cannot open the connection.
Make a test call and check the extension, number, direction and trunk in the overview.
Load your carrier tariff, assign trunks to tariffs and extensions to departments.

What Tarifon cannot do on OpenScape Business

Automatic blocking of an extension after abuse is available on Yeastar P-Series and 3CX V20; on OpenScape Business you get an e-mail alert and the action is up to you. The profile is verified on OpenScape Business X3 with version V3. OpenScape 4000 and OpenScape Voice are different products with a different output – we do not support them.

Frequently asked questions about OpenScape Business

Do I need a PBX licence for the call record output?

No. In the verified installation no additional licence was needed – the Call Charges output was simply switched on in Expert Mode.

Does it work with Telekom Octopus F X?

Yes. Octopus F X is OpenScape Business under the Deutsche Telekom brand; the settings and the procedure are the same.

Does the Tarifon PC have to run all the time?

Yes. The PBX does not release history retroactively, so Tarifon runs as a service and collects calls continuously – a switched-off PC means missing calls.

Which OpenScape Business versions do you support?

Verified on version V3. According to Unify documentation, older versions have the same Call Charges output, but we have not yet verified them on a live PBX.