Phone Screening Statuses¶
PhoneTools screens the numbers on your records against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) registers, and reports the outcome at two levels:
- Record level, in the Phone Status Field on the record, summarising every number screened on that record.
- Phone number level, in the PhoneTools Lightning Component, showing the result for each individual number.
The record level status is the one to use in reports, list views and automation, because it is an ordinary picklist field. The phone number level is what a user looks at before picking up the phone.
Record Level Statuses¶
The Phone Status Field, called Phone Screening Status on Account, Contact and Lead, holds one of five values.
| Status | Value on the record | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Not Screened | NotScreened |
The record has not been screened, or a number has changed since it was last screened |
| Safe to Call (not listed) | SafeToCall |
Every number screened on the record is clear on all of the registers you screen against |
| Caution (partially listed) | Caution |
Some, but not all, of the numbers screened are listed |
| Do Not Call (listed) | DoNotCall |
Every number screened is listed on at least one register |
| Error | Error |
Screening reported a problem for this record, so the result cannot be relied on |
Not Screened is the default value of the field, so a record that has never been screened reads the same way as one whose numbers have just changed. In both cases the record is waiting to be screened.
A number counts towards Safe to Call (not listed) only if it is clear on every register you have selected. A number listed on one register and clear on the other is treated as listed.
Note: Numbers excluded by a screening formula are not screened, so they are not counted in the record level status either. A record whose only UK number is clear reads as Safe to Call (not listed) even if it also holds overseas numbers that your formula excludes. See Define a Screening Formula.
When Screening Reports an Error¶
Error covers both a problem with an individual number, such as a number the service could not interpret, and a problem with the screening run itself, such as running out of credits.
Where the problem is with the run rather than the record, the Next Screen Due Field is deliberately left alone, so the record stays eligible and is picked up by the next screening run once the underlying problem is fixed.
Phone Number Level Statuses¶
The PhoneTools Lightning Component shows one row per configured phone field, with a status icon beside the number. Hovering over the icon opens a summary giving a separate line for each register you screen against, so you can see whether it was TPS, CTPS or both that produced the result.
| On screen | Icon | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Not Listed | Green circle, dialling handset | The number is not on this register and is safe to call |
| Listed | Red circle, ended-call handset | The number is on this register and must not be called |
| Not Screened | Refresh arrows | The number has never been screened, or has changed since it was last screened |
| Due for screening | Orange clock | The number has been screened before, but the result is now out of date |
| Excluded from screening | Grey tick | A screening formula excludes this record, so the number is not screened |
| The text of the error PhoneTools received | Orange warning triangle | Screening reported a problem for this number |
Each line in the summary is prefixed with the register it refers to, so a number that is clear on both registers reads TPS: Not Listed and CTPS: Not Listed. Only the registers you have selected are shown. See Choose Which Services to Screen Against.
A number that is clear on every register you screen against is shown as a link, so it can be dialled from the component. Every other status leaves the number as plain text.
What "Due for screening" Means¶
Screening results go stale. PhoneTools stamps the Next Screen Due Field 21 days after a successful screen, and from that moment on the numbers on the record are shown as Due for screening until the record is screened again.
The due date belongs to the record rather than to an individual number, so when a record falls due, every number on it falls due at the same time.
The summary also carries a Next Screen Due line giving the date. If the record has no due date at all, because it has never been screened or because a number has changed since it was, that line reads Next Screen Due: Screening Due.
How the Two Levels Relate¶
The record level status is written when the record is screened, and is a summary of the numbers screened at that moment. The phone number level status is worked out when the component loads, from the detail PhoneTools stored on the record at the same time, together with the current due date.
That means the two can differ in one useful way: a record can read Safe to Call (not listed) at record level while its numbers read Due for screening in the component. The result was clear when it was taken, but it is now old enough that it should be checked again.