What are Calling rules?
Every batch carries a set of Calling rules — the guardrails that sit around the dialling itself. They cover three things: Screening gates (who may be dialled at all), the Retry policy (what happens when a call reaches voicemail, rings out, hits a busy line, or fails for a temporary reason), and the End-of-day summary (a daily email digest of how the batch performed). You’ll find them on the batch edit page: Batch Scheduler → (your batch) → Settings Scroll below the Schedule section to the Calling rules heading, described as “Screening gates, retry policy, and end-of-day summaries.” Changes take effect when you click Save in the batch header. Calling rules answer a different question from the Schedule settings: scheduling decides when fresh calls are placed; calling rules decide whether each contact may be dialled and what happens after an attempt that doesn’t connect.Screening gates
Before a queued contact is dialled, it is checked against each screening gate you have enabled. As the card puts it: “Contacts that fail an enabled screening gate are blocked from dialling.”
Each gate is a simple switch on the card. Retry attempts are re-screened before they dial, so a contact who joins the Do Not Call Register or opts out between attempts is not called again.
Screening is deliberately cautious — if a check cannot complete, the contact is held rather than risked. The full behaviour, including how the queue reports blocked and held contacts, is covered in the Batch Screening Gates deep dive.
The card also notes: “Other custom screening gates available upon request.” Speak to the Voxworks team if you need a screening gate beyond the three built-in ones.
Retry policy
The Retry policy card — “what to do on voicemail, no-answer, busy” — controls automatic follow-up calls for attempts that didn’t reach the contact. Each row is one call outcome with three columns: Max attempts, Backoff (hours) and an Active indicator.Default policy
Read each row as: after the first attempt hits this outcome, retry after the first backoff value; if the retry hits it again, wait the second value; and so on, up to Max attempts retries. With the defaults, a contact whose calls keep reaching voicemail is tried again roughly 24, 48 and 72 hours after each attempt, then left alone.
Editing the policy
- Max attempts — a number from 0 to 10. Setting it to 0 switches retries off for that outcome; the Active switch on the row simply reflects whether any attempts are configured.
- Backoff (hours) — a comma-separated list of waits, one per attempt (for example
1, 4, 24). If you allow more attempts than you list backoff values, the last value is reused for the extra attempts. Attempts you add without a backoff value default to 24 hours.
How a retry actually runs
A retry is not an instant redial. When an attempt ends in a retryable outcome:- A new entry is added to the batch queue for the same contact, with its attempt counter increased — the Queue tab shows repeat attempts as ×2, ×3 and so on in the Att column.
- The entry becomes eligible to dial only after the backoff has elapsed, measured from when the previous call ended.
- From there it is planned like any other queued contact: it waits for the next available slot inside the batch’s business hours and daily caps, and is re-screened against the enabled screening gates before dialling.
What is never retried
- Completed calls and calls the contact ended (Hang Up) — the conversation happened; there is nothing to retry.
- Cancelled calls.
- Permanent failures — calls that failed because the number is invalid or the batch is missing required configuration are never retried, because a repeat attempt cannot succeed. Only temporary faults are retried.
How outcomes are classified
Each finished call is classified into one of the four retry outcomes based on its call status and end reason (see Call Statuses for the full list):
Calls that don’t match any of these — including permanent failures — complete their queue entry with no retry created.
Cancel on inbound
Below the retry table sits a single toggle:Cancel pending retries when contact calls back inbound — Stops a retry from dialling out to someone who already reached you.It is on by default. When a contact with pending retries calls one of your numbers, their unlaunched retry entries are cancelled — there is nothing more awkward than your agent ringing someone an hour after they already spoke to you. A few details worth knowing:
- Only retries that have not yet dialled are cancelled (entries still Pending or Planned in the queue). A retry that is already on a live call is not recalled.
- Only retry entries are affected. A contact’s original, not-yet-attempted first call stays in the queue.
- Cancelled entries remain visible in the Queue tab with the status Inbound returned, so you can see exactly which follow-ups were dropped and why.
- The cancellation applies per batch according to each batch’s own toggle — a batch with the toggle off keeps its retries even if the contact calls in.
End-of-day summary
The End-of-day summary card — “daily email digest of completed calls, outcomes, retries” — configures a per-batch email recap. It is Disabled by default; use the switch on the card header to enable it.
As the card states, the digest includes: completed by outcome, appointments booked vs capacity, retries scheduled for tomorrow, suppressions, queue health, and tomorrow’s planned capacity per list.
Enable it on long-running batches — it is the quickest way to spot a batch that is burning its daily cap on retries or holding a growing pile of suppressed contacts without opening the app.
Next Steps
- Batch Screening Gates — the deep dive on DNCR, opt-out and previously-called screening, including what happens when a check can’t complete.
- Batch Scheduling & Pacing — business hours, daily caps and ramp profiles: the calendar your retries are planned into.
- Batch Queue Management — queue statuses, attempt counters, and per-contact actions like pausing or cancelling entries.
- Call Statuses — the full list of call statuses and end reasons behind the outcome classification.