Your phone number

How calls reach your receptionist

Your receptionist answers a SiVoice number. Calls reach it in one of two ways: people ring the SiVoice number directly, or your existing number sends its calls across to it. Most people do both.

Your old number stays yours. It still belongs to your phone company and you can still make calls from it as usual. Forwarding only changes where incoming calls go.

Get a number

1. Open your receptionist under Assistants. If it has no number yet, there is a Pick a number button at the top.
2. Pick the country, and type a few digits if you want a particular area, for example 0161.
3. Tap the number you like. It is bought and attached to your receptionist in one go.

You can also do this under Phone numbers, which lists every number you own and which receptionist answers each one. The Solo plan includes one number, Team includes three, and extra numbers cost a little each month.

Numbers are on sale in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada straight away. Germany, Ireland, Australia and South Africa are regulated: the phone carrier must know which business is using the number. For those, the picker shows a Verify my business button. It is a short form and a document, done once, and approval usually takes under a day. We email you when it is through and the numbers go on sale for you.

The easy way: make it your business number

Put the SiVoice number on your website, your Google Business Profile, your business cards, your social pages and your adverts. Every call to it is answered, and there is nothing else to set up. New businesses, and anyone fed up with a phone that never stops, usually do this.

Keep your old number: forward its calls

Forwarding is done on your phone or with your phone company, not inside SiVoice, because the old number belongs to them. The codes below work on nearly every mobile network. Dial the code, then press call, and the phone confirms it.

• United Kingdom: dial **21*your SiVoice number# to send every call. Dial **61*your SiVoice number# to send only the calls you do not answer, or **67*your SiVoice number# for when you are busy. Dial ##21# to switch it off. On an iPhone you can also use Settings, Phone, Call Forwarding.
• United States and Canada: dial *72 then your SiVoice number, wait for the tone and hang up. Dial *73 to switch it off. On AT&T dial *21*your SiVoice number# and #21# to switch off.
• Ireland and Australia: dial *21*your SiVoice number# to send every call, *61*your SiVoice number# for unanswered calls, and #21# to switch off.
• South Africa: dial **21*your SiVoice number# and ##21# to switch off.
• Germany: dial *21*your SiVoice number# to send every call, *61*your SiVoice number# for unanswered calls, and #21# to switch off.

Type the SiVoice number with its country code, for example +44 7700 900123, exactly as it is shown in your dashboard.

On a landline or an office phone system, forwarding lives in your provider's app or online account, usually under call forwarding or divert. If you cannot find it, your provider's support line can switch it on in a couple of minutes.

Only want the receptionist after hours? Phone companies and office phone systems can forward by time of day. Set that up with them. Or forward everything and let the receptionist take the lot; it hands urgent calls to you either way.

Your phone company may charge its normal rate for the forwarded leg of each call. Ask them if you are unsure.

Test it

1. Wait a minute or two after switching forwarding on.
2. Ring your old number from a different phone. If you chose forwarding only when unanswered, let it ring.
3. Your receptionist should answer. Say hello and hang up.
4. Open Conversations. The call is there with a summary. If it is not, the forwarding did not happen: check the code or ask your provider.

Show your own number when we ring people back

On the Team and Scale plans the receptionist can ring callers back. By default their phone shows your SiVoice number. If you would rather it showed your existing business number, you can switch that on in about a minute. Your number stays with your phone company. Nothing is moved, ported or changed, and your phone keeps working exactly as before.

1. Open Phone numbers and find the box called Show your own number when ringing people back.
2. Type your business number and press Ring me with a code. A six-digit code appears on the screen.
3. Your phone rings within a few seconds. Answer it. A voice asks for the code.
4. Type the six digits on your phone's keypad, then hang up.
5. The page notices on its own and shows a tick with your number. From then on call-backs show that number.

Changed your mind? Press Stop using it and the SiVoice number is shown again. If you ever cancel your plan, we simply stop using your number. There is nothing to undo.

Phones show a number, never a company name, whoever you use. If a caller's phone shows your business name today, that is their phone matching the number to a contact they saved, and it will keep doing that.

• The call did not come: check the number has no typing mistakes and can take calls right now. A landline behind a reception or an office phone system may need someone to answer and press the keys. Then press Cancel and start again.
• It said the code was wrong: type it slowly, all six digits, on the keypad after the voice asks. If you missed it, hang up, press Cancel and start again; a new code is made each time.
• Press I've typed the code if the page has not ticked over by itself after a few seconds.

Connect your office phone system

Got a proper phone system, like 3CX, Microsoft Teams, Yealink, Sipgate, a hosted system or a box an installer looks after? On the Team and Scale plans it can send calls for your existing numbers straight to your receptionist. No forwarding, no provider fee, and you keep your numbers and your system.

1. Under Phone numbers press Add number, then Connect my office phone system.
2. Type your phone numbers, one per line, with the country code. Then type your phone system's public IP address. Your installer or provider knows it; searching "what is my IP" on an office computer usually gives it too. If your system has no fixed address, tick the box and we give you a username and password instead.
3. Press Connect. A box appears with the few settings your phone system needs: the server to send calls to, the port, and the login if you chose one. Each has a copy button.
4. Give those settings to whoever looks after your phone system. They add a route for each of your numbers that sends calls to sip:your-number@the-server, keeping the plus sign and the country code. Most installers do this in ten minutes.
5. Ring one of the numbers from a mobile. Your receptionist answers, and the call appears under Conversations.

You can send only some calls this way, for example after hours or when nobody picks up within 20 seconds. That rule lives in your phone system, and your installer can set it.

• Nothing happens when you ring: the route in the phone system is not sending the call, or it is sending it from a different address than the one you typed. Check both with your installer, then disconnect and reconnect with the right address.
• The call arrives but the wrong receptionist answers: open Phone numbers and choose the right assistant next to that number.

Moving your number to SiVoice for good

If you would rather the old number lived on our side, so there is no forwarding and no provider fee, email apps@greentec.llc with the number and a recent bill for it. Moving a number takes a week or two. Until then forwarding does the same job.