How to Group VICIdial Statuses Into a Category

Once you decide which call outcomes belong together, building the bucket takes about a minute. A VICIdial status category is created in the System Status Categories screen under the Admin section, and then individual statuses get pointed at it. Here is the order that keeps the setup clean.

Step 1: Create the category

Open System Status Categories and add a new one. Three fields define it. The Category ID is the short machine handle and must be 2 to 20 characters with no spaces, so something like REVENUE or NO_CONTACT works while a sentence does not. The name is the human label, 2 to 50 characters, and this is what shows up in reports. The description is optional; use it to note what the bucket is for so the next operator is not guessing.

Pick the Category ID carefully. Treat it like a key: short, all-caps, underscores instead of spaces, and stable. You can rename the display name later without much pain, but the ID is the thing your statuses reference.

Step 2: Assign statuses to it

The category is empty until statuses point into it. Open each Status (lead status) you want in the bucket on the System Statuses screen and set its Category option to the category you just made. A status that an Agent selects as a Disposition then counts toward that group automatically every time it lands on a Lead. Repeat for every status that belongs in the bucket. There is no limit that forces a status into only one place mentally, but each status carries one Category assignment, so plan your buckets so they do not overlap in a confusing way.

flowchart TD
  A[Open System Status Categories] --> B[Add category]
  B --> C[Set Category ID 2-20 chars no spaces]
  C --> D[Set name 2-50 chars]
  D --> E[Optional description]
  E --> F[Open each status]
  F --> G[Set status Category to this category]
  G --> H[Statuses now roll up to the group]

Step 3: Confirm the grouping

After assigning, run a campaign report or watch a test call through to disposition. The status you set should now total under the category name rather than only as its own line. If a status is not counting where you expect, the usual culprit is that its Category field was never set or points at a different category ID. There is no need to restart anything; the assignment takes effect on the next dispositioned call.

Naming buckets you will not regret

A little planning here saves cleanup later. Build categories around the questions you ask your reports, not around individual outcomes. Good buckets tend to be things like sales, callbacks, no-contact, and not-interested, because those are the lines a floor manager actually reads. Keep the count of categories small and the names plain, since the Category ID is what you will reference and the name is what everyone else will read in reports.

One more practical note: decide your buckets before you start renaming statuses or adding new ones. If you are also reshaping the underlying outcomes, get that work done first so each status lands in the right category the first time. Editing the same status twice is just churn.

This is reporting plumbing, so it pays to get your underlying dispositions defined first. If you have not built your custom outcome codes yet, our guide on adding a custom disposition covers that step, the modify a status walkthrough shows how to edit the Category field on an existing status, and the broader agent screen configuration guide shows where categories sit in the full picture.

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