Call Forwarding lets you automatically route inbound calls to an external phone number when your team is unavailable outside business hours. Instead of sending callers to voicemail or disconnecting them, the call is bridged to a number you configure — an on-call mobile, a third-party answering service, or any reachable external number.
Ensure that the agent role has the `Manage Voice` permission enabled.
Before you begin
- Voicemail (outside business hours) must be off. Call forwarding and voicemail are mutually exclusive for the outside-business-hours window. You can only have one active at a time. If voicemail is currently on, you'll need to disable it before enabling forwarding.
- A work schedule must already be configured on the phone line. Forwarding only triggers when a call arrives outside that schedule.
- Call forwarding applies to both your regular outside-hours schedule and any holidays you've added to that work schedule.
Setting up call forwarding
- Go to Phone Numbers and Routing and open the line you want to configure.
- Click the Business Hours tab.
- In the Call Forwarding (outside business hours) section, toggle it on.
- Enter the external phone number in E.164 format (e.g. +12015550123).
- Click Save.
Note: An additional outbound charge applies to each forwarded call, alongside the standard inbound charge.
The forwarding number cannot match the line's own number, or any other phone line within the same HappyFox AI Contact Center account.
Validating the forwarding number
Before saving, you can optionally click Validate Number next to the input field. This is not required to save — it's a check you can run to catch issues before a real customer call is affected.
Validation runs two checks in sequence:
- Format check — confirms the number is structurally valid, abides E164 format and has a country code.
- Country check — confirms calls to that country are enabled for the phone line. If it fails: Please contact HappyFox support to get this country enabled.
If both checks pass, a Number Validated icon appears next to the field. This confirms the number passed format and country checks — it does not guarantee call delivery. If the entered number has an issue, the call will not reach the destination.
How forwarded calls work
When a call arrives on the line outside business hours and forwarding is enabled:
- The welcome greeting and recording consent message play as per your line configuration.
- The call is immediately bridged to your configured external number.
- The caller ID shown to the recipient is HappyFox's line number.
- If the external number doesn't answer, the call is disconnected with missed status.
Note: If the forwarding destination is another contact center's IVR or automated system, the call will be marked as answered as soon as that system picks up, regardless of whether a human connects.
Call recording follows the same settings configured on the line — if recording is on, forwarded calls are recorded the same way as regular inbound calls.
Caller ID
The external recipient sees HappyFox's line number as the caller ID, not the original caller's number. If you need to call the customer back, their number is available on the ticket.
Tickets for forwarded calls
A ticket is created for every forwarded call. Forwarded call tickets look the same as regular incoming call tickets, with a Forwarded To field showing the external number the call was sent to.
The call details on the ticket vary by outcome:
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Note: Due to a technical limitation in how the forwarding bridge works, we cannot determine who disconnected the call on the external leg. Any call that was not answered by the external number will be marked as Missed, regardless of whether the caller or the recipient ended it.
Reporting
Forwarded calls appear in the following places in your Contact Center Report:
- Total Calls — forwarded calls are included.
- Forwarded Calls tile — a dedicated counter, placed after Voicemail Calls in the top metrics row, shows the total number of forwarded calls for the selected period.
- Forward Completion Rate — in the Performance Snapshot, shows the percentage of forwarded calls that were answered by the destination number. "A completed forwarded call indicates the destination number picked up, not that the customer's issue was resolved."
- Average Call Duration — completed forwarded calls are included in this metric.
- Call Completion Rate — completed forwarded calls are included in this metric.
- Raw report — includes two additional columns: Forwarded (true/false) and Forwarded To (the external number).
Forwarded calls are not shown in the live dashboard.