Overquota and counter quotas are options that you can choose when setting up the quotas using the Quota Setup program rather than scripting features. However, they may affect the way the script behaves in certain instances.

When you define quotas, each cell is set up as a Normal quota. This means that as soon as the sum of pending and completed interviews in a cell matches the target, the next interview in that cell will fail quota control and will be terminated even if the other interviews are still running. For example, if the cell target is 50 and you have 47 completed interviews, you can have up to three interviews running that belong in that cell. If a fourth interview starts in that cell, it will be terminated when the quota is tested. If one of the pending interviews fails a later quota test, the pending counts are rolled back and you will be left with an unfilled cell where you could have reached the target.

Depending on how strict your quota requirements are, you may be able to get round this problem by allowing cells to go slightly over quota. This allows you to have any number of pending interviews in a cell, even if this means that the sum of pending and completed interviews exceeds the target. Once the target has been met, any interviews that are already pending for that cell will be allowed to complete, but any new interviews in that cell will be terminated. For example, if the cell target is 50 and there are 49 completed interviews and two pending, and one of the pending interviews completes, no new interviews will be allowed in that cell but the other pending interview will be allowed to complete, giving you a total of 51 completed interviews.

Counter quotas never fail; they simply count the number of interviews achieved in a cell. You might want to use this facility for No Answer, Don't Know, Refused and Other Specify.