did some research and I now understand that phase A sends a pulse when turned clockwise and phase B sends a pulse when turn counter clockwise
That really depends on the encoder. Most I've seen (if we're talking about the ones used to replace a pot and knob) are quadrature output and even those come in different flavours. Some have one detent per qudrature cycle, some have four detents per qudrature cycle and some doesn't have any detents.

Here's an example I already had in my attachments on the forum. This specific encoder has a full cycle per detent.

Name:  Encoder output.JPG
Views: 3429
Size:  18.2 KB

/Henrik.