Available-only tally

Available-only tally is a VICIdial campaign setting that changes which agents the dialer counts when it decides how many calls to place. With it turned on, the system counts only agents who are genuinely available right now — not the ones still in Wrap-up finishing their notes on a previous call. This is a more conservative way to handle Dialer pacing, because it never assumes an agent will be free before they actually are.

Why does the distinction matter? By default, predictive pacing tries to anticipate agents who are about to finish wrapping up and become free, and it places calls ahead of time so a live answer lands just as the agent opens up. That keeps idle time low, but if those agents take longer than expected, calls connect with no one to answer. Counting only agents in the Ready state removes that guesswork, which tends to lower your Drop rate noticeably.

The trade-off

The cost is throughput. Because the dialer ignores soon-to-be-free agents, it dials a little more slowly and the Auto dial level stays lower. You trade some speed for safety. Teams running close to a regulatory abandonment limit often switch this on precisely for that reason, accepting slightly more agent wait time in return for fewer dropped calls and a cleaner compliance record. It is a deliberate, defensive choice rather than a way to squeeze out more dials.

Available-only tally pairs naturally with Adaptive dialing, where the algorithm is already trying to read campaign conditions and set the pace. Turning it on makes that algorithm more cautious about its agent count, so it errs toward placing fewer calls. If your campaign keeps dropping calls during busy periods, or your agents have long, variable wrap-up times that throw off the pacing math, this setting is one of the first knobs worth trying before you start lowering the dial level itself. It often fixes the symptom without giving up as much speed.