Choose who answers your business calls and what happens when they can’t pick up. Numberline connects your business number to greetings, extensions, and the phones or connected AI agents you choose, with separate rules for after hours.
Forward to any phones you choose · Menus and extensions are optional · Business voicemail if nobody answers
Call routing decides where an incoming call to your business number goes: which phones ring, in what order, and what happens if nobody answers or the business is closed. Numberline holds those rules for your business number and applies them to every call.
A simple setup forwards every call to the owner’s mobile. That is all many businesses need at first. A menu and additional destinations become useful when different calls should reach different people, or when someone else should be able to answer while you are busy. You can start simple and add those rules later without changing the number.
Every call to the business number rings your mobile. Unanswered calls go to business voicemail.
“Press 1 for Service.” Each extension rings the phones you pick, in order or all at once.
A closed-hours greeting, and calls sent to voicemail, an on-call mobile, an answering provider, or a connected AI agent.
Reyes Plumbing, a fictional three-person business. Switch between business hours and after hours to see both paths for the same number.
An extension can forward to a connected AI agent instead of a phone. Here Sales goes straight to an intake agent during business hours and Support rings Sarah. Numberline manages the number, the menu, and the routing; the agent is configured with your AI provider.
The same saved agent can also pick up when your team cannot answer, or cover the after-hours route. How connected AI agents work →
The simplest setup: every call to your business number rings the phone you already carry. Callers hear your greeting first, so they know they reached the business, and your mobile shows the business number as caller ID, so you know it is a business call before you answer.
Nothing to install and no desk phone required. Business call forwarding to any phone is included on every plan, including Lite. If you do not answer, the call goes to your Numberline business voicemail, not your personal voicemail.
Your greeting is what callers hear first. Type your greeting and choose a voice, or record it yourself. A menu is optional. If everyone should reach the same phones, leave it out.
When different calls belong to different people, add options to the greeting and give each one an extension. Service, Billing, a person by name, or a connected AI agent. Each extension has its own destination, its own list of phones to ring, and its own voicemail recipients. Lite includes 2 extensions, Grow includes 5, and Max is unlimited. Compare plans →
In order (sequential ringing): the first phone rings, and if that person does not pick up, the next phone rings, and so on down the list. Use it when one person should answer first and someone else is the backup. Included on every plan.
At the same time (simultaneous ringing): every phone on the list rings together. The first person to accept takes the call, and the other phones stop ringing. Use it when whoever is free should answer. Simultaneous ringing is included on Grow and Max.
Either way, the phones are the mobiles and landlines your team already has. Adding a person to the ring list does not add a per-user fee.
Ringing at the same time is included on Grow and Max.
When the ring list runs out, the call goes to your Numberline business voicemail. Callers hear your business voicemail greeting, and the message is recorded, transcribed, and emailed to the people you choose for that extension. It also lands in the shared inbox, and can post to Slack. How voicemail transcription works →
This applies when nobody picks up, when a phone is switched off or out of coverage, and when someone declines the call: the message is left on your Numberline business voicemail, not on the personal voicemail of the phone that was ringing. With call announce enabled, the first person to press 1 takes the call, and the other phones stop ringing. A personal carrier voicemail that answers cannot take it. Numberline moves on to the next phone on the list, or to business voicemail if there is none. For an answering service or call center that should take the call the moment it answers, choose direct connect for that destination instead. To give callers a live option first, add more phones to the ring list, or make your answering provider the last stop before voicemail.
Set your business hours, and calls outside them follow separate rules. Callers hear a closed-hours greeting instead of the daytime menu, so they know what to expect. Then the call goes where you decide: business voicemail, an on-call mobile, your answering provider, or an AI agent you already connected.
Business hours belong to your business number. Outside them, the number’s after-hours rules send calls to business voicemail or to the on-call destination you choose, for example an emergency option that rings a mobile while everything else waits for morning. How after-hours routing works →
Type your greeting and choose a voice, or record it yourself. If every call should reach the same phones, skip the menu. If callers need Service or Billing, add those options to the greeting.
Create an extension for each option, name it, and choose its destination: the phones it rings in the order you want (a mobile, the existing business phone, or a landline), or a connected AI agent. A phone destination is an ordinary phone number, and the person answering does not need anything installed. An agent destination is one you saved from your AI provider.
Enter your hours. Unanswered calls go to business voicemail, and you choose who receives each extension’s recordings and transcripts. Then set the after-hours greeting and where after-hours calls go. Change any of it later without changing the number.
See these rules in use: how contractors ring the owner on the job, then the office, and how a small agency gives each person an extension.
Greetings, extensions, forwarding, business hours, and voicemail, all on your business number. Start simple and add rules as the business grows.
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