Office Phone Forward Calls: Steps and Codes for Common Business Phone Services

Forwarding instructions are not interchangeable between products, even from the same company. AT&T, for instance, publishes different codes for AT&T Phone for Business than for AT&T Collaborate, and wireless codes are different again. Using the wrong product's steps can leave forwarding off or set it up in a way you did not intend.

Look at your monthly bill, your provider's welcome email, or the account portal name to find the exact service. If your office phone is part of a hosted or managed system, your administrator may control whether forwarding is available to you at all.

• Check the product name on your bill or account portal before dialing any code.
• Ask your phone system administrator if forwarding is restricted on your extension.
• Note whether your line is a landline, a hosted voice line, or a mobile line, since the codes differ.

These are the activation steps published by each provider for its own product. All-call forwarding sends every incoming call to the destination immediately. No-answer and busy forwarding only send calls when the desk phone is not picked up or is already on a call.

• AT&T Phone for Business: all calls, dial *72, destination, #; off with *73#. No answer, *92, destination, #; off with *93#. Busy, *90, destination, #; off with *91#. Numbers already stored online do not need to be reentered.
• AT&T Collaborate: always forward with *72 plus destination, off with *73; busy forward with *62 plus destination, off with *63; no-answer forward with *92 plus destination, off with *93. An administrator controls feature access.
• Comcast Managed Voice (Panasonic TPA65 desk phone): lift the handset, dial *72 and the destination, then hang up to enable all-call forwarding; *73 disables. *92 plus destination sets no-answer, *93 disables; *90 plus destination sets busy when call waiting is not enabled, *91 disables. Other Comcast Business products use different steps.
• Verizon business landline: dial *72 and follow the activation instructions; dial *73 from the same line to deactivate.
• Optimum Business Phone (guide-covered service): dial *72, wait for dial tone, then dial the destination. The destination answering confirms it. If busy or unanswered, press flash, dial *72 again and redial; two beeps and dial tone confirm. *73 turns it off.
• Frontier Unlimited Digital Voice: lift the handset, dial *72, wait for a second dial tone, enter the destination, and listen for confirmation. *73 disables. Note that all-call forwarding prevents calls from ringing at the original line and overrides voicemail forwarding.
• C Spire wireless: dial *72 and the 10-digit destination, then press Call; *73 then Call disables. Conditional codes for this carrier are not verified here, so confirm with C Spire before using any.

Many hosted and managed office phone systems manage forwarding through a web dashboard or app rather than star codes. These portal steps are also the usual route when you want to change forwarding remotely, such as from home.

• Spectrum Business Voice: sign in to SpectrumBusiness.net with a role that manages voice, open Voice, choose the phone number, then Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager. Enable forwarding, choose all calls or busy/no-answer, and set the destination. Disable in the same place.
• Vonage Business Communications: select Call Forwarding and enable Forward Calls to a phone number. Verify the destination with an outside call, since screens can differ between devices.
• Windstream OfficeSuite UC: in the WE Connect Dashboard, open the My Call Forwarding widget, choose Call Forwarding (Immediate), select Another Phone, enter the 10-digit destination, and save. Choose None and save to turn it off. For unanswered calls, select the extension, choose the ring count, and set another phone number.
• Comcast Business: Voice Mobility includes call forwarding and remote call forwarding, and My Account or the Comcast Business App manages phone features. Which features you see depends on your subscribed services.

Before you activate, decide which kind of forwarding you need. All-call (unconditional) forwarding sends every call away from the desk phone the moment it arrives, which means the office phone will not ring at all. That suits an office that is closed or unattended, but it surprises callers if someone is still at the desk.

Conditional forwarding only redirects calls under certain conditions: when nobody answers after a set number of rings, when the line is busy, or when the phone is unreachable. This keeps the desk phone working during the day while catching calls after hours. Some systems let you set the ring count; OfficeSuite UC, for example, lets you choose between 1 and 20 rings before unanswered calls forward.

Also remember that forwarding applies to calls, not text messages, and on some services all-call forwarding overrides voicemail on the original line.

• Use all-call forwarding when the office phone should not ring at all.
• Use no-answer or busy forwarding when the desk phone should still ring first.
• Check whether forwarding overrides your existing voicemail before you activate.
• Forwarding moves calls only; texts are not forwarded.

Forwarding only solves half the problem; something still has to handle the call at the destination. Common choices are a cell phone, a voicemail box, or an answering service. If you forward to a cell phone, the carrier-specific steps differ, so use a guide written for that carrier rather than reusing office codes.

One important limit: Google Voice can forward calls to linked phone numbers, but Google explicitly says forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system is unsupported. If your office number is a Google Voice number, confirm what is possible before relying on it.

If the destination is an answering service, the service answers in your business's name, takes messages, and can book appointments. AllDayDesk, the service on this site, answers calls around the clock using your saved business information, and you keep your public number by forwarding calls to it. Calls, transcripts, summaries, and bookings show up in your dashboard, and new appointments go on the built-in calendar once you have configured your services and availability, with an optional Google Calendar connection available in Settings after you authorize your account.

• Forward to a cell phone when you personally want to pick up.
• Forward to an answering service when you want calls handled in your business's name.
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated system, per Google's own documentation.
• Test forwarding with a real call from another phone after you activate.

A few minutes of checking prevents the most common forwarding mistakes, such as forwarding to a mistyped number or leaving forwarding on after a holiday.

• Confirm the exact destination number, including area code, before dialing the code.
• Listen for the confirmation tone or message your provider describes, or have the destination answer to confirm.
• Place a real test call from a different phone to verify the call arrives where you expect.
• Write down the deactivation code so you can turn forwarding off quickly.
• If you use conditional forwarding, set a sensible ring count so callers are not left waiting too long.
• Check whether your plan charges for forwarded minutes or long-distance legs.