Phone providers rename and move their menus regularly. These guides describe the setting you’re looking for and what to set it to. If a menu name doesn’t match what you see, search your provider’s help centre for “call forwarding” — the concept is the same everywhere.
Choose a forwarding mode
This is the only decision that really matters. All four are legitimate; pick for how you want to work.
If you choose no-answer, set the ring time to 15–20 seconds — roughly four rings. Shorter and your team never gets a fair chance to answer; longer and callers hang up before anything picks up.
Forward to your Recepta.ai number
The destination is the number provisioned in your workspace — find it under Phone numbers in the dashboard. See Phone numbers. Enter it the way your provider expects. Most accept full E.164 form —+15551234567, with the country code — and some reject anything else. A few, Vonage among them, want a plain 10-digit US number with no country code.
If the field rejects what you paste, or calls fail to connect, try the other format before assuming something deeper is wrong.
Three things that catch people out
Forwarding voice does not forward texts
Forwarding voice does not forward texts
This surprises nearly everyone. Call forwarding moves calls only. Texts sent to your existing business number keep arriving at that number, and Recepta.ai will never see them.If you want texting handled too, you have two options: publish your Recepta.ai number for texts, or port your existing number into Recepta.ai so it owns both. Forwarding alone won’t do it.
Caller ID can arrive as your own number
Caller ID can arrive as your own number
When a call is forwarded, some systems present the forwarding number as the caller rather than the person actually calling. If that happens, every call looks like it came from your own office line.That breaks real things: the agent can’t recognize returning customers from your CRM, the contact it creates has the wrong number, and nobody can call the customer back.Most providers have a setting for this — look for wording like “preserve original caller ID”, “transmit original caller ID”, or “pass through caller ID”. Turn it on.Always verify this with a test call from your mobile. Check the number shown in Call logs is your mobile, not your office line.
Announcements and accept prompts
Announcements and accept prompts
Several systems play something to whoever answers before connecting the caller — Talkroute calls it Call Announce, CallRail calls it a whisper message — and some also require a key press to accept the call.Both break an AI receptionist. Your agent hears the announcement as the opening of the conversation and may respond to it, and there is nobody to press a key, so the call never connects at all.Turn both off on any number that forwards to Recepta.ai.
Forwarding loops
Forwarding loops
If your transfer rules send escalations back to a number that itself forwards to Recepta.ai, calls bounce in a loop until something gives up.Point transfers at a number that does not forward — a mobile, or a direct extension. Then test an escalation end to end.
Verify it works
1
Call your business number from a mobile
Not from a desk phone on the same system — internal calls often skip forwarding rules entirely and you’ll get a false result.
2
Confirm the agent answers
If you chose no-answer forwarding, let it ring through without picking up.
3
Check Call logs
The call should appear in Call logs with your mobile number as the caller. If it shows your office number instead, fix caller ID before going live.
4
Test the escalation
Trigger a transfer and confirm it reaches a person rather than looping.