How to Forward Office Phone to Cell

The single most important step is finding out exactly what kind of phone service your office line runs on. The same carrier name can cover several different products with different instructions. For example, AT&T Phone for Business, AT&T Collaborate, and AT&T wireless each use different codes. Check your bill, your provider's welcome email, or ask whoever manages the account.

Once you know the product name, use that product's own instructions. Do not borrow codes from a different product or a different carrier, because they may not work or may turn on a feature you did not intend.

• Look at your monthly bill for the exact service name.
• Ask your provider or office manager which product you have.
• Note whether it is a landline, a VoIP service, or a mobile line.
• Check whether your plan charges extra for forwarded calls or long distance.

Many traditional and VoIP office lines use star codes dialed from the office phone itself. The most common pattern is *72 to turn forwarding on and *73 to turn it off, but the details vary by product. For AT&T Phone for Business, dial *72, the destination number, then # to forward all calls; dial *73# to turn it off. For no-answer forwarding use *92 plus the destination and #, and *93# to disable; for busy forwarding use *90 plus the destination and #, and *91# to disable.

For AT&T Collaborate, dial *72 plus the destination for always forwarding and *73 to disable; busy forwarding uses *62 and *63, and no-answer forwarding uses *92 and *93. An administrator controls feature access. For Comcast Managed Voice with a Panasonic TPA65 phone, lift the handset, dial *72 and the destination, then hang up to enable; *73 disables. No-answer uses *92 and *93, and busy uses *90 and *91 when call waiting is not enabled.

For Frontier Unlimited Digital Voice, lift the handset, dial *72, wait for a second dial tone, enter the destination, and listen for confirmation; *73 disables it. For Optimum Business Phone, dial *72, wait for dial tone, then dial the destination; the destination answering confirms it, and *73 turns it off.

For Verizon business landline service, dial *72 and follow the activation instructions, then *73 from the same line to deactivate.

• Dial codes from the office phone itself, not your cell.
• Listen for a confirmation tone, message, or dial tone change.
• Test with a call from a different phone before relying on it.
• Dial *73 from the same line when you want calls back at the desk.

Many modern business phone systems manage forwarding in a web dashboard or app instead of with star codes. For Spectrum Business Voice, sign in to SpectrumBusiness.net with an account role that can manage voice, open Voice, choose your phone number, then Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager, enable forwarding, and pick all calls or busy/no-answer with your destination.

Comcast Business manages forwarding through My Account or the Comcast Business App under Voice Mobility, and features depend on what you subscribe to. Vonage Business Communications lets you select Call Forwarding and choose to forward calls to a phone number. Windstream OfficeSuite UC users set immediate forwarding in the WE Connect Dashboard under My Call Forwarding, and can also send unanswered calls to another number after a chosen ring count.

For Frontier Fiber Digital Voice or Digital Voice, Find Me-Follow Me or Simultaneous Ring may be available as alternatives to simple forwarding. Check the portal for your exact service.

• Sign in with an account that has permission to change phone features.
• Choose whether to forward all calls or only missed ones.
• Save the setting, then test with an outside call.
• Turn forwarding off in the same place when you are back at the desk.

Unconditional forwarding sends every call straight to your cell, and the desk phone will not ring at all. This is the simplest option when you are out of the office all day.

Conditional forwarding only sends calls that are busy or unanswered, so the desk phone still rings first. This works well when someone is usually at the desk but you want missed calls to reach you. Not every service supports conditional forwarding, and the codes differ by product, so confirm with your provider before relying on it.

One caution: forwarding all calls usually overrides the desk phone's voicemail, so unanswered calls go to your cell's voicemail instead. Decide where you want missed calls to land before you activate.

• All-call forwarding: desk phone does not ring; use when you are away all day.
• No-answer forwarding: desk rings first; use when the desk is usually covered.
• All-call forwarding often overrides desk voicemail.
• Confirm conditional forwarding support with your exact service.

Once forwarding is on, your business line rings on your personal cell. That means you answer work calls yourself, and when you cannot pick up, callers hear your cell's voicemail. Some owners are fine with this; others find that missed calls pile up while they are on a job or driving.

If you would rather have those forwarded calls answered for you, AllDayDesk can receive them and answer around the clock using your saved business information. Setup starts by choosing your business or entering its website, checking the details, and hearing a personalized sample before you choose phone setup. You keep your public number by forwarding calls to AllDayDesk, and the steps depend on your phone service. Calls, transcripts, summaries, and bookings show up in your dashboard, and new appointments go on the built-in calendar once you have configured services and availability. When the caller's question, price, or appointment time is unknown, AllDayDesk takes a message instead of guessing.

• Forwarded calls ring on your personal cell like normal calls.
• Missed calls go to your cell voicemail unless something else answers.
• AllDayDesk can answer your forwarded calls using your business details.
• You can review calls, transcripts, summaries, and bookings in the dashboard.