How to find missed calls nobody returned in CallRail

CallRail tells you which calls were missed, but as of October 2026 it has no built-in report or alert for the missed calls that nobody called back. To find them, you compare missed inbound calls with outbound calls to the same numbers, either by hand from two exports or with a tool that reads your call log. This guide shows both ways and what each one misses.

What CallRail gives you today

CallRail has two features that people often expect to answer this question. Neither one does on its own.

• Notifications. CallRail can alert you about missed calls, voicemails, first-time callers and calls matching a tag, by email, desktop, push or text. These alerts fire when the call is missed. They don't tell you later whether someone called the person back. See CallRail's notifications article.
• The Unanswered Calls report. Under Analytics, then Reports, then Unanswered Calls, you can see how many calls were missed by day of the week or hour of the day, and open the details for each period. It is useful for staffing. It has no "returned" or "not returned" column. See CallRail's Unanswered Calls report.

CallRail users have asked for the missing piece in its community. In a 2024 thread titled "Need Report that shows 'Unreturned Calls'", a user wrote that they search through the data every month to find missed calls that weren't returned, and that it is "a huge time expense". A CallRail community moderator replied that it is "not a report that we currently have available" and described the workaround as "a manual process involving a missed calls report being compared to an outbound calls report". See the CallRail community thread.

Know what CallRail counts as missed

Before you compare anything, check the definition. CallRail counts a call as missed when it is an unanswered inbound call that ends in an automatically detected voicemail or is detected as abandoned. Calls that reach a voicemail step in a call flow also count as missed. A call answered by a phone system outside CallRail counts as answered, and so does a call answered by an automated system where the caller didn't leave a voicemail. Source: CallRail's Unanswered Calls report.

Two consequences for a plumbing or HVAC shop:

• If calls forward to a cell phone or another phone system and ring out there, CallRail may record them as answered. Those callers will never show up as missed in CallRail, returned or not.
• An IVR or auto-attendant that picks up counts as answered unless the caller leaves a voicemail. A caller who hangs up on the menu can disappear from your missed-call numbers.

Method 1: compare two exports by hand

This is the workaround CallRail's own community team describes. It works for any account and costs nothing but time.

1. Export the Call Log for the period you want, for example the last 7 days plus one more day so that callbacks made the next morning are included. Our call-log export guide links to CallRail's instructions.
2. In a spreadsheet, split the rows into two lists: missed inbound calls, and outbound calls.
3. For each missed caller's number, look for an outbound call to that number placed after the missed call.
4. Keep the numbers with no outbound call after the miss. That is your list of callers nobody called back.
5. Also keep the gap between the missed call and the first callback for the others. A callback the next afternoon is better than none, but it is not the same as a callback in 15 minutes.

Watch out for three things:

• Repeat callers. The same person may call three times in ten minutes. Count them once, timed from the first miss.
• Callbacks made outside CallRail. If a tech calls back from a personal cell, that call is not in the export, and the caller will look unreturned when they were not.
• Spam and hang-ups. Short abandoned calls and robocalls inflate the list. Decide on a rule, for example ignore calls under 15 seconds, and apply it every time.

Method 2: tag calls you return

CallRail staff also suggested, in a 2023 community thread, creating a tag for returned calls and applying it to missed calls when you call the lead back, then running a calls-by-tag report. A user replied that this "does not work well when applied", because tags apply to one call at a time: with five missed calls from the same person, clearing the tag on one leaves the other four. See the 2023 thread on returned-call reporting.

Tagging also depends on someone remembering to do it during a busy day, which is exactly when calls get missed.

Method 3: check it automatically

The comparison in Method 1 is mechanical, so software can run it continuously instead of once a month. That is what Herdback does: it reads your CallRail call log, lines up each missed caller with later outbound calls to the same number, and emails you when a missed caller is still waiting after your target time, 15 minutes by default. New callers are listed first. A callback placed from a phone outside CallRail, such as a personal cell, still doesn't appear in the log, so Herdback can't see it and may alert you anyway; tapping Mark as called back on that caller takes them off the list. If you want to see the numbers for your shop first, the free missed-call audit runs the same comparison on a call-log export in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

Does CallRail have an unreturned calls report?

Not as of October 2026. Its Unanswered Calls report counts missed calls by day and hour, and CallRail's community team has described finding unreturned calls as a manual comparison of a missed-calls report and an outbound-calls report.

Can CallRail alert me when a missed call hasn't been called back?

CallRail's notifications cover missed calls, voicemails, first-time callers and tagged calls at the time of the call. Its notifications article doesn't describe a delayed alert for calls that are still unreturned later.

Why does a caller I called back still look unreturned?

Usually because the callback was made from a phone that CallRail doesn't track, such as a personal cell. The outbound call never reaches the call log, so any comparison based on the log can't see it.

How often should I check?

Daily at a minimum if you check by hand. A monthly review tells you how many callers you lost, but it is too late to call any of them back.

Sources

• https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/5711858588813-Notifications
• https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/5712132142605-Unanswered-calls-report
• https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/23869342892941-Need-Report-that-shows-Unreturned-Calls
• https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/17560290253069-Add-Reporting-for-which-Missed-Calls-were-Returned