# How Call Logging Works

What to expect in Salesloft after a call is placed through Talkdesk — and why
recordings arrive a little later than the call record itself.

This is written for admins and managers who want to understand the behavior
they're seeing. No configuration is required to read it.

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## The lifecycle of one call

**1. A rep clicks Call in Salesloft.**
The dial request is handed to Talkdesk, which starts your Studio Flow. The flow
places the outbound call to the customer and connects the assigned agent. The
caller ID the customer sees comes from the integration's configuration, not from
Talkdesk's queue settings.

**2. The call happens in Talkdesk.**
Salesloft is not involved while the call is live. The rep works in Talkdesk as
usual.

**3. The agent hangs up and dispositions the call.**
Dispositioning is what triggers logging. Until the agent selects a disposition,
nothing is written to Salesloft.

**4. Salesloft is updated — within seconds.**
Two records are created:

- A **call data record**, holding the call's structured detail: direction,
  duration, disposition, outcome, and the identifier linking it back to Talkdesk.
- A **call activity**, which is what appears on the person's activity feed and
  in reporting.

The two are linked, and if the call was placed from a cadence, the **cadence step
advances** at this point.

**5. The recording attaches — usually within a couple of minutes.**
This step is separate, and it is the one worth understanding.

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## Why recordings arrive after the call record

When a call ends, Talkdesk needs time to finish processing the audio before the
recording can be retrieved. The recording is genuinely not available for a short
period after hangup.

The integration is designed around that reality rather than waiting for it:

- The call record and activity are written **immediately**, so reps and managers
  see the call, and the cadence keeps moving, without waiting on audio.
- The recording is attached to the existing call record **as soon as Talkdesk
  makes it available**, checked repeatedly over the following minutes.

**What this means in practice:** a call appears in Salesloft almost immediately,
and its recording becomes playable shortly after. A call that shows no recording
in the first moments after hangup is behaving normally. Processing time varies
and is not strictly proportional to call length.

If the recording still hasn't appeared after several minutes, see
*Troubleshooting* below.

---

## Recordings and Salesloft Conversations

If your instance has Salesloft Conversations, an attached recording is ingested
there automatically — which is what makes transcription, keyword search, and
coaching workflows available on the call.

Two clarifications:

- **The integration does not transcribe anything.** It attaches the recording;
  Salesloft Conversations performs transcription and analysis.
- **Conversations is optional.** Without it, calls still log and recordings
  still attach — they're simply playable rather than transcribed.

---

## What gets logged, and what doesn't

**Logged to Salesloft:**

- Outbound calls placed by clicking **Call** in Salesloft
- Call duration, direction, disposition, and outcome
- The call recording, once available
- Cadence step completion, when the call originated from a cadence

**Not logged:**

- **Inbound calls.** Calls arriving in Talkdesk are not written to Salesloft by
  this integration.
- **Outbound calls dialed directly in Talkdesk.** Only calls initiated from
  Salesloft are correlated and logged.
- **Calls that never reached a disposition.** Dispositioning is the trigger.
- **Failed or abandoned dial attempts.** Outcomes such as an invalid number, an
  unmatched agent, or a callback that timed out are handled inside the Studio
  Flow and do not produce a Salesloft call record.

---

## Duplicate protection

Delivery of call events can be retried, so the same call may be reported to the
integration more than once. Each call is tracked by its Talkdesk identifier and
logged only once — a retry does not create a second activity on the person's
timeline.

The protection is deliberately built so that a retry following a genuine failure
still succeeds. It suppresses duplicates without suppressing recovery.

---

## Troubleshooting

| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Call logged, no recording yet | Normal in the first minutes after a call. Give it a few minutes. |
| Recording still missing after several minutes | Confirm call recording is enabled in Talkdesk for that agent or queue, and that the integration's Talkdesk credentials are authorized to read recordings. |
| Recording present but not transcribed | Transcription is a Salesloft Conversations feature — confirm it is enabled for your instance. |
| Call logged but not on the person's timeline | The person could not be matched. Confirm the number dialed matches a phone number on that person's record. |
| Cadence step didn't advance | The call was placed outside a cadence, or the cadence context wasn't carried through. Verify the Talkdesk automation echoes back the context values — see the **Admin Setup Guide**, Section 2. |
| Nothing logged at all | The agent likely never dispositioned the call. If dispositions are being set, check the Talkdesk automation is firing. |
| Duplicate activities for one call | Expected to be prevented. If you see it, capture the call and the time and raise it with support. |

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## A note on unusually long calls

Very long calls produce large recording files, which take Talkdesk longer to
process and Salesloft longer to ingest. If recordings on your longest calls
behave differently from your typical ones, note the call duration when raising
it — it's directly relevant to diagnosis.

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## Related resources

- **Prerequisites & Compatibility Checklist** — what's needed before installing
- **Admin Setup Guide** — end-to-end configuration walkthrough