Running Searches in Telesoft

This article covers how authorized users can run searches in the Telesoft telephone billing system.

1. Log in to Telesoft.

View step-by-step instructions on accessing Telesoft.

Users may find these searches to be the most useful:

  • User Expense Summary: shows you a breakdown of telecom-related expenses by CMS account code so you can match the amounts to financial reports in Data Warehouse/OBIEE
  • Invoice Item Summary: groups transactions by type (i.e. incoming calls, adds/moves/changes, local calls) and shows you the total amount for each transaction type for the selected cost center for the last 13 months
  • User Bill Cycle Comparison: shows you all users in the cost center along with their total charges for the last 13 months
  • Calls: allows you to query calls to view calls by type, duration, cost, or user. NOTE: to query by type/duration/cost, you will need to enter a cost center to avoid getting too many search results which may slow or crash the system
searches navigation
  1. Click on the carat icon next to the Track menu.
  2. Select Searches.
  3. Then select the search you want to run.

3. For all searches, ensure the correct Bill Group is selected. Then click on the magnifying glass to select a cost center.

search criteria
  1. For most departments, you can leave the Bill Group set to ADM - ADMINISTRATION. For non-state departments/cost centers, INDEP - INDEPENDENT should be selected.
  2. Click on the magnifying glass to select a Cost Center. If you know the Cost Center code, you can also just type it into this field.

3.1. Click Search to show all of the cost centers you are authorized to view.

cost center lookup

Depending on your access, you may not be able to include all of your cost centers in a single search. You can run the search for each cost center individually, download the results to Excel, and then combine the results.

select cost center

Notice in the above example, there are two IT-ADMIN cost center codes.

  1. The second one in the list will only search that one IT-ADMIN cost center.
  2. The first one in the list will search all of the cost centers under IT-ADMIN that you have authorization to view.
  3. The Path information shows that under IT-ADMIN, there are three cost centers: IT-ADMIN, ITI, and NONIT.
bucket and show fields

Recommended Report Headers for the User Expense Summary:

  • New - User Expense Summary: shows the total wireless (CMS acct 604802), COM (CMS acct 604090), and TEL (CMS acct 604001) charges for each user for the selected month along with the grand total for each CMS account which can be matched to financial reports in Data Warehouse/OBIEE.
  • Wireless Costs (Mobile): shows the wireless monthly and equipment charges for the selected month.
  1. Some searches will have additional search fields available. In this example, you need to select the Bill Period (month) that you want to search. You can choose a relative option such as Current or Previous; or choose the specific month.
  2. With the User Expense Summary, you will need to choose a Report Header. Report headers are templates created by Telecom for the User Expense Summary data.
  3. Click Search when you are ready to search.

5. In general, you can click on blue text to view more details and click Export This to export the results (if available).

user expense summary search results
  1. For most searches, clicking on a Name will bring up the Detailed Charges screen for that user.
  2. Click Export This and select the type of file you want to export to: CSV, TXT, XLSX, or PDF.
Invoice Item Summary sample

5.2. When using the User Bill Cycle Comparison, you can filter by Bucket if you only want to see a specific type of transaction (e.g., only wireless charges, only moves/adds/changes/recurring charges, only telephone call charges). Leave the Bucket field blank to see all available transaction types.

You may see additional buckets in the drop-down menu, but these are the main Telecom-related expense categories ("buckets"):

  • COM: Moves, Adds, Changes; Recurring Charges
  • TEL: Telephone Calls
  • WIR: Campus-issued wireless devices charges
User bill cycle comparison search results

5.3. When using the Calls search, remember to enter additional search criteria beyond the Cost Center and Bill Period to avoid having the search take a long time and/or too many search results.

In the example below, the search is looking for all calls in the IT-ADMIN cost center for the current billing period (March 2022) that cost more than $1.

You may also want to search for calls with a specific Duration (e.g., calls lasting longer than 1 hour), specific Call Types (e.g., all 411 calls, international calls, operator assisted calls), specific Call Times (e.g., calls made after 5pm or on holidays) or all calls for a specific Extension.

Calls search example

Need More Help?

Contact Telecom at [email protected] for assistance with Telesoft.