Forward your business line to DispatchLine
You keep your business number. Forwarding tells your carrier to send calls on to your DispatchLine number, either all the time or only when you don’t pick up. It is not porting: the number stays with your carrier, and moving it to another one is a separate process, covered in how to port a business phone number. Your DispatchLine number is shown at the top of the portal and under Integrations. The forwarding steps unlock after your first Test call, so you hear the agent before any customer does.
Which kind of forwarding
| Type | What it does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Conditional (no answer / busy / unreachable) | You still get the ring first. If you don’t answer in N rings, or you’re on another call, the call goes to DispatchLine. | The common starting point. You answer when you can. |
| Unconditional (always) | Every call goes straight to DispatchLine. | Shops that want the agent to handle everything, or during vacation. |
| Scheduled | Forward only outside business hours. | Offered by most VoIP providers; not by cell carriers. |
Cell carriers (dial codes)
Replace NUMBER with your 10-digit DispatchLine number. Dial from the business phone, then press call.
| Carrier | Conditional (no answer / busy / unreachable) | Unconditional | Turn off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verizon | *71NUMBER |
*72NUMBER |
*73 |
| AT&T | **61*NUMBER# (no answer), **67*NUMBER# (busy) and **62*NUMBER# (off or no service) |
**21*NUMBER# |
##002# |
| T-Mobile | **61*NUMBER# (no answer), **67*NUMBER# (busy) and **62*NUMBER# (off or no service) |
**21*NUMBER# |
##21# / ##61# / ##67# / ##62# |
On AT&T and T-Mobile you can set the no-answer delay by adding **SS before the final #, where SS is seconds (5–30). **61*NUMBER**20# forwards after about 20 seconds (4 rings).
Set all three conditional slots, not just the no-answer one. The no-answer slot passes a bench test with full bars, but the call you lose is the one that arrives while the phone is in a basement or a crawlspace, and that is the unreachable slot. Where **004* is supported you can set all three in one dial with **004*NUMBER# and clear them with ##004#.
Read back what the network actually recorded with the status codes: *#21# for always-forward, *#61# for no answer, *#67# for busy and *#62# for unreachable. ##002# erases every forwarding rule of every type, which is the one to use when you do not know what is set.
The guides to Verizon call forwarding, AT&T call forwarding and T-Mobile call forwarding go through each carrier in more detail, and how to forward calls on iPhone covers what the iPhone’s own setting can and cannot do.
VoIP providers
RingCentral, Grasshopper, Ooma, Nextiva, 8×8, Google Voice and similar all support forwarding in their web or app settings, usually under Call handling or Answering rules. Look for “forward to external number” and set a no-answer rule with 3–4 rings. Most also support business-hours schedules, which lets you send after-hours calls only.
Landlines
Most landline carriers use *72NUMBER to forward all calls and *73 to stop. Conditional forwarding on landlines is usually a paid feature; call your carrier.
Test it
From a different phone, call your business number and let it ring. Your agent should answer with your greeting. The call will appear in the portal within a minute. If it rings out or reaches voicemail instead, work through the agent isn’t answering forwarded calls.
Caller ID: when a call is forwarded, the agent still sees the original caller’s number, not yours. Confirmation texts go from the shared DispatchLine messaging number, not from your line, and only to callers who agreed on the call.
New field guides by email
Guides for home-service businesses on answering calls, call triage and after-hours coverage: the title, a short summary and a link for up to six of the newest guides on this site. At most one email every 30 days.