Since its launch in 2017, Microsoft Teams has grown into the business world’s most popular online collaboration tool. Leveraging the popularity of Microsoft’s Office 365, Teams surpassed Slack in 2019. And its use has grown dramatically during 2020, when the coronavirus forced millions of people to work from home.

Along with messaging and video, you can route all your business phone calls through Teams. This short guide explains how to create a Microsoft Teams PSTN report.

What is a PSTN Usage Report?

PSTN stand for Public Switched Telephone Network. A Microsoft Teams PSTN report will provide records of numbers called, total minutes, and charges for all calling and audio conferencing in your organization placed via Teams.

Costs will be calculated via Microsoft Calling Plans or via Direct Routing if you use your phone provider. Depending on whether your organization uses Microsoft’s calling plans or your phone provider for direct routing, you generate reports similarly, but the results will look a bit different.

Data for Calling Plans are available for up to 12 months, depending on the laws in the countries where calls took place. Direct Routing is available up to 150 days.

How do I Create a PSTN Usage Report?

1. In the Microsoft Teams administration center, in the left navigation area, click Analytics & Reports and then click Usage Reports. On the View Reports tab, under Report, select PSTN Usage Report.

2. Under Date Range, either select a predefined range of 7 or 28 days or set a custom range. Then click on Run Report.

3. When it’s done, click Export to Excel. Exporting can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the amount of data. When it’s done, go to the Downloads tab, and click Download to download the report. This exports data of all users and enables you to do simple sorting and filtering for further analysis. Exported files contain additional fields that are not available in the online report. These can be used for troubleshooting and automated workflows.

4. You will receive a zip file named &;Calls.Export.[identifier].zip&;, with the identifier being a unique ID for the export that can be used for troubleshooting.

5. If you have both Calling Plans and Direct Routing, the exported file may contain data for both. PSTN usage report file has filename & PSTN.calls.[UTC date].csv& and Direct Routing & DirectRouting.calls.[UTC date].csv&.

6. In addition to PSTN and Direct Routing files, the archive contains file & ;parameters.json&, with the selected export time range and capabilities. Exported files come in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format, compliant with RFC 4180 standard. You should be able to open the files right up in Excel or any other standards-compliant editor without any issues. The first row of the CSV contains column names. All dates are UTC and in ISO 8601 format.

7. What about Skype for Business? The directions for making a Skype PSTN report are similar. Here is Microsoft’s on PSTN reports through Skype for Business, which is in the process of being phased out to Microsoft Teams.

Additional resources for Microsoft Teams PSTN Calling

You can read more, included any updated instructions, on Microsoft Teams’ PSTN report page. Here’s a quick guide to setting up Microsoft Teams. Here you can learn more about Microsoft Teams’ advantages compared to Slack.

EquiiNet provides simple, reliable, and secure direct call routing through Microsoft Teams. We’ve been providing unified, secure communications solutions around the world since 1998.