Time: about 5 minutes. You'll need your agent's number and a phone on your church line.
Your church number stays exactly as it is. Forwarding just changes where it rings.
In your dashboard, go to Agent. Your agent's number is listed next to its name.
Forward every call sends everything to your agent immediately. Your church phones don't ring at all. This is the right choice if nobody is regularly at the desk.
Forward only when nobody answers rings your church phone first, then hands off after about four rings. This is the right choice if someone is usually in the office. You keep direct contact for the calls you can take, and the agent catches the rest.
If you want different coverage on different days rather than one blanket rule, set that up in your availability schedule after forwarding is in place.
| What you want | Dial |
|---|---|
| Forward every call | *72 |
| Forward when no answer | *92 |
| Forward when busy | *90 |
| Turn forwarding off | *73 |
Lift the receiver, dial the code, wait for the dial tone, then enter the 10-digit number and press #. These same codes work on AT&T, Spectrum, Comcast, and most other US carriers.
On some systems the network places a test call to the forwarding number. If that call isn't answered, forwarding won't activate. If you get an error message instead, the feature may not be enabled on your account — one call to your carrier turns it on.
Call your church number from a cell phone. Your agent should answer. If you want to hear exactly what a caller experiences, our plain-English walkthrough of how call answering works covers it end to end.
The portal also lets you set forwarding by time of day, which star codes cannot do.
Your fallback number must be a line that does not forward to your agent.
If your church line forwards to the agent, and the agent's fallback is that same church line, the call bounces back — and carriers generally will not forward a call more than twice, so it fails rather than looping. Use a staff cell phone or a direct extension that bypasses your main line. You set this number on the agent itself — see updating what your agent says.
Text messages don't forward. Only voice calls move; texts sent to your church number stay there.
Carrier spam-blocking services can override forwarding rules. If forwarding stops working unexpectedly, check whether something like AT&T ActiveArmor is filtering the call before it reaches your rule.
Still deciding whether forwarding is the right approach at all? We compared four alternatives to a church phone tree, including what each one costs.
