TelCost: freeware program to analyse telephone bills

TelCost
Analyse your telephone bills

Are you also interested in how much money you spent on SMS, Internet, Mobile and other types of calls ?
Do you know what the cost is for calling service numbers ?
Do you also want to know how much you spent on the most expensive numbers and if there are other technical solutions to establisch this communication ?
Is it important to know how much time your personell spent on calling ?
Do you have a maximum amount that your employees can spent on their mobile phone ?

All these questions are quite easy to answer if you have one department with one policy and you get one bill from one provider and wnat to know this for one month. But what if you have quite a few contracts for several departments with different providers ?

In this case TelCost is your Program to analyse (mobile) telephone bills.

Supported imports are:

T-mobile Internet download

Vodafone Value Watch CD

Vodafone zakelijk download

Versatel/Tele2 CDR online

Mobistar Electronic Billing

KPN mobile prive

Proximus Fleet Management

Tele2 Zakelijk

Base XLSM

The analysis starts by downloading export file at one or more providers with the specification of telephone calls and the cost per call. This Program only makes sense for companies that have several contracts and that wants to know who and whatfor costs have been made. The goal will be to support many import formats in the future.

This file is the setup file It is free for download and use.
Send an EMail if you have any questions or improvements to John Martens

Program help info

Install
Running the install file will install TelCost by default in the 'User documents'/TelCost folder. Under the folder there will be a folder bin with the EXE (and other files in it) and a folder named data where the data files are that will be used. This folder is chosen is to avoid that you need Admin privileges to install.
The program TelCost does not make or depend on registry keys and does not require any aditional (common) DLL's other then those that are part of the setup file. You could put it on a USB stick and use it on any place.
The only use of the registry is for the TelCost installer that registers the program (for undelete purpose). If you choose to undelete TelCost only the files that were installed will be deleted. Data, import, report and back-up files will NOT be deleted by the uninstaller !
TelCost has an update function if you give it an FTP connection to the Internet.

Settings
First of all you will have to enter the main and sub-groups in which you can put the telephone numbers and names in the menu settings. These groups are used to sort and filter the numbers in reports.
Example: Main-groups: Automotive/Industry, Groups: Sales/Production/Maintanance/Procurement, Sub-groups: South/Mid/North

Then you will have to enter the provider where you have contracts.

One can also enter main-types of calls in case you want to build reports on the type of calls. As part of the call info a provider gives the type of call it was. You can think of things like 'wired telecom' or 'foreign call'. The main-type of calls works like a container for these sub-types that are supplied with the call info. With the main-types you can gather all of the call-data than has to do with wired telecom.
You group the types of calls by using Settings/Gouping types. Enter the main-types of calls you want to use for reports. Then click the button 'Enter sub-types', in the next window on the left hand side are the main-types shown with all the types connected to it. If you click the button 'Search all calls for types' TelCost will search all your calls for ungrouped types. Select the mail-type in the combobox on the top right where you want to group a type and the double-click the type on the right hand side which you want to group. Do this as long as there are ungrouped types in the right part of the window. If you are finished grouping all types of calls you can close the window.
You should check once in a while if there are no new types in new imports if you want alle calls to be neatly grouped under the main-types you've made.

The same as for type of calls is valid for country names. Each provider uses other names for foreign countries. If you want to use the report that splits cost for each country then you need to let TelCost know what country name used by a provider will be related to the standardised country names that is part of TelCost.

The possibility to enter login info is just for storing this data and to ba able to quiqly open the login page for downloading call-info from your providers website.

Numbers and names
When entering the names that belong to the telephone numers one should use a (13 digit) international format. In this way the numers stay unique. When entering the names one can also add a main-group, group and sub-group that is used for building reports. One can also add an EMail adress and info of the contract if a number is part of your own company numbers.

Import calling data
The base data exist of the import data for each charged call together with the names that you can connect to the dialing numbers.
The import data must be in a format that is kown by TelCost.

At this moment the following import formats are supported:

T-mobile Internet download: after login goto menu Kostenoverzicht, Factuuranalyse. Choose Gebruikskosten details (export only), the billing period and Alle gebruikers the click Exporteer and in the new window click OK. Goto Downloadbox and download the export file that will be read by TelCost.

Vodafone Value Watch files: get the MDB file from the CD to import. You can and should do this without starting the Vodafone application !!

Vodafone zakelijk download 1: after login on My Vodafone Zakelijk goto the menu Rekeningbeheer and afterwards click the link Rekeninganalyse and Gespreksweergave. Select the billing period, click Verder and then Export to CSV file.

Vodafone zakelijk download 2: after login on My Vodafone Zakelijk goto the menu Rekeningbeheer and afterwards click the link Rekeningextract, select the billing period and detailnieau gesprek, click Exporteren.

Versatel/Tele2 CDR online download: after login click the month for which you want the billing info. Download the EXE file that will extract the data-file that will be read by TelCost.

Mobistar Electronic Billing: these file are sent by EMail.

KPN mobile prive download: after login goto Uw mobiele Factuur Online/Raporten.

Proximus Fleet Management download: after login goto Proximanage/Administratie/Rought Data. Select the billing period and method to receive that data-file.

Tele2 Zakelijk download: after login on Mijn Tele2 Zakelijk goto the menu 'Rapportage' and afterwards pick menu-item 'Call Viewer'. Select the billing period and click the button 'Toon'. Click the button 'Exporteer naar CSV'.

Generic XML format: if you have calling data from a source that is not supported (yet) bij TelCost you can build your own XML file with all the data of every call.

Base XLSM/XML/XLSX: these file are sent by EMail

Other formats can be added on request to John Martens.

The strcuture for the Generic XML file is:

  <TELCOST_DATA>
      <TELCOST_CALLS>
          <TELCOST_CALL>
              <CALL_FROM>0031134567890</CALL_FROM>
              <CALL_TO>0031234567890</CALL_TO>
              <DATE>20090123</DATE>
              <TIME>22:07</TIME>
              <DURATION>00:00:12</DURATION>
              <COST>000,78</COST>
              <COUNTRY>Nederland</COUNTRY>
              <TYPE_1>MOBILE</TYPE_1>
              <TYPE_2>SMS</TYPE_2>
          </TELCOST_GROUP>
      </TELCOST_CALLS>
  </TELCOST_DATA>
  
  CALL_FROM is the number from which the call is made, preferrably the number should start with 00 and is 13 numbers long to make it unique, the maximum length is 20 chars
  CALL_TO is the number to which the call is made, preferrably the number should start with 00 and is 13 numbers long to make it unique, the maximum length is 20 chars
  DATE is the date on which the call is made, the date is in the format YYYYMMDD
  TIME is the time of the day on which the call is made, the time is in the format HH:MM
  DURATION is the length of the call, the duration is in the format HH:MM:SS
  COST is the cost of the call stated in the standard currency, the cost is in the format 999,99
  COUNTRY is the country that is relevant to the call, this can be the country called to or the country where the call was made/received, the maximum length is 15 chars
  TYPE_1 is the first type that can be connected to the call, the maximum length is 30 chars
  TYPE_2 is the second type that can be connected to the call, the maximum length is 30 chars

Import names and groups
If you already have names and groups in another file, you can import them in TelCost. The data will be imported from the file TELCOST_DATA.XML when it is in the data-folder. The XML file must have the following structure:

  <TELCOST_DATA>
      <TELCOST_GROUPS>
          <TELCOST_GROUP>
              <ID>1234</ID>
              <GROUP_TYPE>M</GROUP_TYPE>
              <SORT>CF</SORT>
              <ABRIVATION>Td_1</ABRIVATION>
              <NAME>Test data 1</NAME>
              <OVERWRITEIFEXIST>F</OVERWRITEIFEXIST>
          </TELCOST_GROUP>
          <TELCOST_GROUP>
              <ID>1235</ID>
              <GROUP_TYPE>M</GROUP_TYPE>
              <SORT>CG</SORT>
              <ABRIVATION>Td_2</ABRIVATION>
              <NAME>Test data 2</NAME>
              <OVERWRITEIFEXIST>TRUE</OVERWRITEIFEXIST>
          </TELCOST_GROUP>
      </TELCOST_GROUPS>
      <TELCOST_NAMES>
          <TELCOST_NAME>
              <NUMBER>003112356789</NUMBER>
              <NAME>Martens, John</NAME>
              <GROUP_M_ID>1234</NAME>
              <GROUP_G_ID>0004</NAME>
              <GROUP_S_ID>0000</NAME>
              <OVERWRITEIFEXIST>FALSE</OVERWRITEIFEXIST>
          </TELCOST_NAME>
      </TELCOST_NAMES>
  </TELCOST_DATA>
  
  GROUP_TYPE can have the values: M (for main-group), G (for group) and S (for sub-group)
  OVERWRITEIFEXIST can have the values: T, TRUE, F, FALSE.
  GROUP_M_ID is the unique ID of the main-group (0000 means empty)
  GROUP_G_ID is the unique ID of the group (0000 means empty)
  GROUP_S_ID is the unique ID of the sub-group (0000 means empty)

Reports
Several reports can be selected in the report window.
All reports are made in HTML tables. You could use this to import the reports in OpenOffice Calc or Microsoft Office Excel to build more graphical output.
One special output is a report where you can build multiple report files at once. In combination with EMail adresses this can be used to inform personell about the cost they made in a given time-period.

Still need help ?
If you still need help for the use of TelCost send me an EMail from the Help menu or send mail from here to John Martens

What's new

2007 Dec: TelCost is now fully in English
2008 Jan: Mobistar import, better report in cost per country
2008 Jul: KPN mobile prive import
2008 Sep: Proximus fleet management, My Vodafone Zakelijk
2009 Jan: XML import of calling data and goups/names
2009 Aug: Send report per number by EMail to inform about the cost in a given time-period
2009 Sept: Mijn Tele2 zakelijk import
2011 Feb: Base XLSM import 2012 Apr: Base XLSX import