Skip to main content

​
What are Phone Numbers?

Every inbound call your assistants answer — and every outbound call they place — travels through a phone number owned by your team. Voxworks maintains a pool of Australian numbers, so you claim a number from inventory in seconds rather than buying one through a carrier. Your numbers live under: Numbers & Routing → Numbers The tab is described as “Inbound numbers and the scripts that answer them.” It shows a list of your numbers on the left — each with its name, the script currently answering it (or No script assigned), and a Temporary badge for trial numbers — and a detail panel on the right where you rename the number, set its location, flag it as Test or Live, choose its inbound script, and review its recent calls. If your team has no numbers yet, the tab shows “No numbers yet — Add a number to get started.” with an Add number button.

​
Claiming a number from the inventory pool

Click Add number to open the Assign phone number dialog: “Choose an available number from inventory and assign it to a team address.”
  1. Search the available numbers (the Search available numbers field matches the digits or the name) and select one from the table. Unnamed pool numbers show as Inventory.
  2. Under Assignment Details, choose an Address. Every assigned number must have a team service address — if your team has none yet, the dialog shows an Address Required alert and opens an inline address form; if you already have addresses, you can add another with + Add new address. See Service Addresses & Regulatory Verification for why addresses are required.
  3. Optionally give the number a Name (for example Main office line).
  4. Click Assign number.
The number is claimed immediately — there is no checkout step. If another team claims the same number a moment before you, you’ll see “This number is no longer available”; pick another. Claiming a number from inventory requires the team owner or admin role. Other team members can still rename numbers and change script assignments. You can also reach the same dialog from an AI Receptionist’s settings — when your team has no numbers yet, the Your phone number card shows “No numbers yet — get one to start taking calls.” with a Get a number button that claims a number and connects it to that receptionist in one step.

​
Number types: mobile vs area

The inventory pool contains two kinds of Australian numbers: Choose an area number when you want callers to see a familiar local presence, or a mobile number when a mobile identity suits your business better. Both types answer inbound calls and place outbound calls the same way. During onboarding, the number picker shows each number’s Location (e.g. NSW / ACT, Australia mobile) and Type (Area or Mobile) so you can choose deliberately.

​
Trial numbers and the 14-day hold

When you sign up, Voxworks reserves a number for you automatically as part of onboarding — you’ll see “We’ve reserved a number for you” with the note: “Your new phone number will be held for 14 days. Add a card on the next step to keep it permanently.” You can swap it with Choose a different number before continuing (or Skip this step and claim one later), and it is connected to the script you create during onboarding so inbound calls work straight away. While you’re on the free trial:
  • The reserved number appears in Numbers & Routing → Numbers with a Temporary badge. Hovering the badge explains: “Temporary numbers expire after the trial period. A dedicated number can be assigned once an address is available.”
  • Trial accounts use shared Voxworks numbers — upgrading lets you assign dedicated numbers for your business.
  • Adding a payment card lets you keep the number permanently. If the 14-day hold lapses without a card, the temporary number expires and becomes available for other teams to claim.
See Free Trial for what else the trial includes.

​
Renaming a number

Click the name at the top of the number’s detail panel (placeholder: Add a name…), type the new name, and press Enter — or click away — to save. Press Escape to cancel. Names are labels only; they never affect dialling or routing, and they help you tell numbers apart in pickers across the app (batch calling settings and receptionist settings both show them). Hovering over the phone number itself reveals a Copy number button, so you can paste the full number into signage, forwarding setups, or anywhere else you need it.

​
Assigning an inbound script

The Inbound script section of the detail panel controls which script answers calls to the number — the assigned script “Answers every call to this number.”
  • With no script assigned, the panel prompts “Assign a script so calls to this number get answered” — click Assign script and pick from the searchable list. Each script shows its production version alongside its name.
  • To change it, click the pencil icon and choose another script. A confirmation dialog — Change inbound script? — spells out the effect: “Calls to this number will be answered by «script name».”
  • Choose Remove script to unassign. The confirmation warns: “Calls to this number will no longer be answered by a script.”
A number answers with exactly one script, but one script can answer on several numbers. Assigning a number that is already answering as another script moves the assignment — the AI Receptionist number picker calls this out: “Currently answering as «name» — selecting it will reassign it here.” When a call comes in, the answering script has the caller’s details available as variables — for example {{contact.phone}} (string, e.g. +61412345678) is populated from the inbound caller ID at call start, so your script can greet known Contacts by name. The detail panel also lets you:
  • Set location — link the number to one of your Locations via its address, so routed call volume shows on the Numbers & Routing Overview. Locations without an address show “Add an address to use this location”.
  • Toggle Test / Live — the badge next to the number marks it as a test or live line so you can keep experimental traffic clearly separated from production. Changing it takes effect immediately.

​
Releasing a number

Releasing returns a number to the shared inventory pool. The Release Phone Number dialog runs several safeguards before anything happens:
  • Active calls block the release. If the number has calls in progress you’ll see Cannot Release — “This number has N active call(s) in progress. Please wait for them to complete.” The Release Number button stays disabled until they finish.
  • Scheduled calls are flagged. If there are no active calls, the dialog warns that scheduled calls on the number “will fail when executed” and lists the next few by time — this is advisory only, so you can still confirm the release; cancel the scheduled calls first if you don’t want them to fail.
  • Last number for a script. If this is the only number assigned to a script, an Inbound Script Assignment notice appears with an optional “Reassign to another number” picker, so the script keeps answering calls on a different number after the release.
Before you confirm, the dialog summarises exactly what will happen: the number returns to available inventory, it is removed from your account, and — importantly — the number can be assigned again while it remains available. Another team may claim it, so don’t release a number you’ve printed on signage or given to customers unless you’re sure you’re finished with it. Releasing applies to numbers your team owns; temporary trial numbers expire on their own at the end of the trial.

​
Keeping your existing number

Porting an existing phone number into Voxworks is not yet available — it’s coming soon. In the meantime you don’t need to give up your current number: keep it with your carrier and forward it to your Voxworks number, so callers dial the number they already know and your assistant answers. The Forward Your Existing Number guide has the exact dial codes for Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, landlines, and PBX/VoIP systems, including forward-all and only-when-unanswered modes.

​
Next Steps