Starting out
You can be answering calls this afternoon.
Signing up takes a few minutes, and the first line works from a browser the moment you save it. Handsets and numbers arrive afterwards, into a system that is already running.
Your first hour
- inAdd a site
- step 1Add a line
- answeredCall from the browser
In order
The order these have to happen in
Numbered rather than listed, because doing the fourth one first means doing it twice.
Step 1: Count the phones and the places
How many people answer calls, how many offices, and whether anyone works from home. That is the whole input we need to tell you what it costs.
Step 2: Decide about your existing number
Keeping it changes the sequence and the timing, so it is worth settling early. Everything else can be built and tested while a port is in flight.
Step 3: Create the account
Checkout runs in the portal. You add a site, add your first line, and the browser phone works as soon as you save it.
Step 4: Register your service addresses
Every line carries a registered service address. A line cannot dial out until it has one, and onboarding keeps saying so until it does.
Have these to hand
Have these open before you start
None of them are hard to find, and all of them are annoying to go looking for halfway through.
- The street address of each office
- It sets the time zone, the opening hours and the service address new lines start from.
- Names and email addresses
- One line per person or per role. Extensions are suggested for you and stay editable.
- A recent phone bill, if you are porting
- The losing carrier matches the account name and service address exactly, and the bill is where those live.
- A rough idea of who answers what
- Sales here, service there, everything else to reception. That is enough to pick a starting call flow.
The first line
Three fields, then a working phone
A name, an email and a site. The extension is suggested from the next free one. Everything after that is optional.
Next
Tell us how many phones and we will have you running
Somebody who knows the product reads it, answers the awkward question if you have one, and sets the account up with you. No scheduling link and no sequence of emails.