Obelisk
EN
Chapter 7 of 41Next chapter
Live operations

Dashboard: supervise queues

Use Dashboard during the shift to relate waiting calls to available agents. Start with a known queue and a clear operational question before changing membership or pause states.

Obelisk documentation

Select the working view

Open Dashboard and choose the section you want to supervise, for example Customer care. The administrator creates these groups in Administration → Operational views and decides which queues you may see in Users and access profiles. You can then adapt their display from your own Preferences. The links below explain each setting.

  1. Set the filters

    Combine agent-state filters and Only queues with calls. Remove these filters when checking whether an apparently missing queue is simply excluded.

Read a queue card

Check waiting calls, longest wait, conversations and member states together. Inspect the activity chart when calls are present; a compact message replaces it when no calls are active. An agent can satisfy more than one state filter, for example being busy and paused in a queue.

Make and verify an intervention

Open the relevant agent control only after identifying the queue and extension. Available commands depend on your permissions. After an authorized pause, resume or membership change, read the response and check the next live update. A submitted command is not by itself confirmation of the resulting PBX state.

Find the correct group and personalize the view

Three settings work together. Operational views defines the shared organization and display names. Account permissions control pages and actions; its live resource scopes limit visible resources. Preferences adapts the authorized view to your work. Personal settings do not grant additional access.

  1. Check the selected group

    Select the expected section or group and clear any active display or state filters. Compare the visible items with another authorized view before reporting a missing resource.

  2. Adjust your preferences

    Open Preferences for your account and use the relevant display options. Save and return to the workspace to check the result. Ask the administrator about group membership, shared aliases or permissions that you cannot change.

Read the card before opening a command

Follow the same sequence for each queue so that comparisons use the same moment and state filters.

Indicator or controlHow to read and use it
Queue heading and waitingIdentify the queue, count the waiting calls and inspect the longest wait. A long wait with low volume still needs investigation.
Members and conversationsRelate current conversations to available, ringing, busy and paused members. Membership in several queues does not create several available people.
Agent controlSelect the member in the intended queue. Check extension, action and permission before confirming; verify the refreshed state after the result.

Understand why calls keep building up

If calls regularly build up in the same queue, note its name and the time of day. Open Global Dashboard and select that queue and the affected period: compare how many calls arrived, how many were answered and how long people waited. In Workload and forecasts you can test how many agents may be needed in those time slots. If configured, AI Manager also helps you review the current situation. You decide which changes to make.

Example: an increasing wait

If waiting calls rise while several members are paused, inspect those members and current conversations before changing coverage. Agree on an intervention, verify the new states, then watch whether waiting falls. Use historical reports for a longer comparison; the live card alone does not establish the cause of a service problem.

Use the controls, understand what changes

Queue nameDrag from this icon

To change the queue order, hold the dotted icon beside the queue name, drag the whole card and release it where you want it. The same personal order is used by Dashboard and Wallboard. This changes the display order, not how FreePBX distributes calls.

Drop the queue in the desired position: Obelisk saves the order to your account. Reopen the view to check it. A section or active-only filter can hide some cards; first clear that filter when you want to inspect the complete permitted list.

Teaching example · changes only this example

Try dragging from the dotted icon beside each name, or use Move earlier / Move later. This example only changes the cards below.

  1. Customer care
  2. Technical support
  3. Sales

Recognize the icons at a glance

Dashboard and Wallboard use the same agent states and controls. Match the icon and its colour to the label: the same symbol can mean different things in different places.

Agent states

Several badges may appear on one row: an agent can be talking and also paused in that queue. The pause applies to the selected queue.

  • Free

    The extension is idle, with no pause or Do Not Disturb detected.

  • Paused

    The member is paused in this queue and does not receive its new calls.

  • Do Not Disturb

    Do Not Disturb is active on the extension. It is separate from the queue pause.

  • Ringing

    The phone is ringing. The call has not yet been answered.

  • Talking / Busy

    Asterisk reports the extension in use or busy. Read the label: Busy alone does not confirm a conversation that can be monitored.

  • Talking and ringing

    The extension is already in use and another call is ringing.

  • On hold

    An active call has been put on hold. The red badge is different from the yellow queue-pause badge.

  • Unavailable

    Asterisk cannot report an available extension. Check registration and connectivity in Status.

  • Idle-time alert

    The agent is Free and the time since the last call, or since joining the queue, exceeds the enabled idle alert threshold. Check why the agent is not receiving calls.

Queue health, waiting and pressure

Health summarizes the current queue conditions. The pressure arrow compares the number waiting now with the average number waiting in the last hour.

  • Health: 80–100%

    Green. Read the score together with waiting calls and available agents.

  • Health: 50–79%

    Yellow. Waiting, average wait, agent availability or service level is reducing the score.

  • Health: below 50%

    Red. Examine the queue to understand which conditions need attention. The calculation settings are in System and utilities → Queue health.

  • Increasing

    More calls are waiting than the recent average, beyond the configured threshold. Check whether free agents can handle the queue.

  • Decreasing

    Fewer calls are waiting than the recent average, beyond the configured threshold.

  • Stable

    The difference from the recent average is within the configured thresholds.

  • Insufficient history

    There are not yet enough historical data to show the comparison.

  • Calls waiting

    The purple badge counts callers waiting in the queue. With none waiting, it becomes a green check and shows zero.

  • Waiting-count alert

    The number waiting exceeds your enabled alert threshold. Review the queue and your thresholds in Preferences.

  • Waiting-time alert

    A caller exceeds your enabled waiting-time alert threshold. In the product the alert flashes to attract attention.

Controls and information

Agent controls appear beside the name when you point to the row or focus its buttons. You see the actions allowed for your account; check the queue name before using them.

  • Reorder queues

    Hold the dotted icon beside the queue name, drag the card and release it in its new position. The saved personal order is shared by Dashboard and Wallboard.

  • Information

    Point to the i to read what an indicator means. Click to keep the explanation open; click again, outside it or press Escape to close.

  • Pause agent

    Stops new calls from this queue being offered to this agent. It does not end an ongoing conversation.

  • Resume agent

    Removes the queue pause. The agent can receive calls again if the extension is available.

  • Remove from queue

    Removes the member from this queue. It does not delete the extension or the Obelisk login account.

  • Live monitoring

    Opens Listen, Whisper or Barge according to your permissions. Select the supervisor extension that will receive the PBX call, answer it and check the audio.

  • Queue strategy

    Shows how Asterisk distributes calls to agents, for example ringall. Obelisk reads this value from FreePBX.

  • Waiting limit

    The maximum number of waiting callers accepted by the queue. The infinity symbol means no configured limit. W is the queue weight used when agents are shared.

  • Waiting caller list

    In Wallboard, expand the waiting-callers bar to read each caller, elapsed wait and priority. The clock beside a caller shows their waiting time.

What the agent tooltip tells you

Point to an agent row in Dashboard or Wallboard. The tooltip shows the call count, time since the last call and time since joining the queue, when available. For a paused member it also shows the reason, if supplied, and the elapsed pause.

Illustrated example · sample values
Agent 201 PausedOpen the sample agent tooltip
Call count
18
Last call
3 minutes ago
Joined the queue
2 hours ago
Pause reason and elapsed time
Break · 2 minutes

Complete product screenshots

Illustrative data. Open the screenshot to enlarge it and match the controls to the instructions in this chapter.

1. Complete page

Open complete screenshot

Read the workspace section by section

Match the numbers and panels below to the complete workspace. These screenshots use illustrative data; the procedures above explain how to work with your own installation.

Section 1

Agent context

Inspect handled calls, the last completed call, membership time and the pause reason. Interact with agents, understand their states and act: pause or resume an agent, or remove them from the queue. Support a live conversation through coaching, listening or a conference, using the controls available to your account.

Section 2

Queue in detail

Read agent states, waiting callers, queue health and activity together, and independently hide the information you do not need at that moment. In your Preferences, personalise the alert thresholds for waiting-call count, caller waiting time and agent inactivity.

View 2

Live queues

Compare live queue pressure, agent states, waiting calls and service indicators in one workspace.

Request your demo

The complete Obelisk experience. Tell us about your contact center.

Loading the request form…