Forward your calls to Cara

Your number is on the truck, the yard sign, and every invoice you have ever sent. None of that changes. What changes is where a call goes when you can't pick it up: instead of a voicemail box, it goes to Cara.

You keep your number with your phone company. Forwarding just sends your calls to ClearLine.

The two ways to forward

There are two, and you can switch between them whenever you like.

• Every call. Your phone stays quiet and every caller goes straight to Cara. It's the option ClearLine365 recommends — Cara takes every call, and nothing depends on your phone answering first.
• Only the calls you miss. Your phone rings first. If you don't answer, or you're already on another call, the caller reaches Cara instead of voicemail. A new line starts here until you switch it.

Forwarding always points at your ClearLine365 number, never at your own cell number. Point a phone at itself and callers hear nothing useful.

Your ClearLine365 number is on Settings → Number & forwarding on the web, and on Settings → Your ClearLine number in the app. Have it in front of you before you dial anything.

Start with the phone in your hand

ClearLine365 runs on a phone, and that phone is one of the lines your customers call. It is the one line the app can set up for you, because a forwarding code programs whichever phone dials it.

1. Open Settings → Number & forwarding → Call Forwarding on the web, or tap the forwarding card at the top of your Leads screen in the app. Both open the same screen.
2. This phone is the first thing on it — the one you're holding. Pick your phone company under it.
3. Turn the switch on. Your dialer opens with the code already filled in, so there is nothing to type. Press call.
4. Listen for the confirmation tone, or the short note your carrier puts on the screen.

Turning it back off is the same switch. The app dials the off code for you.

On a computer there is no phone to dial from, so the same screen prints the code instead and you dial it on the phone itself. Everything else is the same.

On an iPhone running iOS 17 or later, turn Live Voicemail off first — Settings → Phone → Live Voicemail. Live Voicemail can answer a call before your forwarding gets its turn, so the caller lands in voicemail instead of reaching Cara. It only gets in the way on a cell phone. See Turn off Live Voicemail on your iPhone for the full steps.

Find your code

Pick the line you mean and the codes for it show up. On this page they carry a placeholder, because a public page doesn't know your number; in the app your real number is already filled in.

Here are the three biggest carriers written out, with NUMBER standing in for your ClearLine365 number.

The picker above covers Cricket, Metro, Visible, Mint, Google Fi, Xfinity Mobile, Boost and UScellular as well. If yours is none of those, pick My carrier isn't listed. Those codes are the standard ones most US carriers use the same way, including the smaller networks that ride on a big carrier's towers. If your carrier turns them down, ask its support line for its own call forwarding codes.

Your other lines

A shop phone, a VoIP number, a second cell in your lead tech's pocket — each one is its own line, and each one forwards on its own. On Settings → Number & forwarding → Call Forwarding on the web, or the same screen in the app, tap Add a line and pick Landline, Internet phone line (VoIP) or Another mobile. You get one row per line, named for you — an internet phone line is called "VoIP line" once it is on the list, because the row is narrow.

• Landline. Dial *72 and then your ClearLine365 number on a phone plugged into that line; *73 stops it. ClearLine365 prints the steps and you tell it when you're done. No app can dial this one for you, because the code programs the line it is dialed from.
• Internet phone line (VoIP). Forwarding lives on your provider's own website, not in a dial code. ClearLine365 names the setting to look for, provider by provider.
• Another mobile. ClearLine365 shows you that phone's on and off codes. Somebody dials them on that phone, then you mark the line done.

On a landline or a VoIP line you say who it is with, and if the company isn't in the list you can type its name in — it shows up beside the line, as Landline · Ace Telecom.

Both have a walkthrough of their own: Forward an office landline or VoIP line and Forward a second cell phone.

What to expect

Call your business number from a different phone. If you're on the calls-you-miss setting, let it ring out rather than answering. Cara picks up with your greeting.

A minute or two after you hang up, that call is on your Calls screen with the lead she captured, and the recording and transcript fill in shortly after. That call is the real proof — not the tone your carrier played. Until one arrives, ClearLine365 says it is waiting; once one does, it says Confirmed by your first call.

Limits

• Forwarding happens at your phone company, not here. ClearLine365 can show you the code and dial it on the phone it's running on, but it can't switch forwarding on for you, and your carrier never tells us whether the code took. Your first real call is what tells us, which is why your line reads Confirmed by your first call from then on.
• Confirmed by your first call covers your business, not one line. Your phone company tells nobody which of your phones sent a call, so ClearLine365 never claims a particular line is proven. Test a new line by calling it yourself.
• You can list five lines in all, counting the phone in your hand.
• On the calls-you-miss setting your phone rings first, so a caller hears several rings before Cara answers. That ring timer belongs to your carrier.
• A landline forwards every call or none. There is no ring-first option on most of them.
• Carriers change their codes now and then. If one is refused, your carrier's own support line is the fastest fix, and we would like to hear about it so we can correct this page.

Common questions

Will my phone still ring?

On the calls-you-miss setting, yes — every time, and only the calls you don't pick up reach Cara. On the every-call setting, no. That is the point of it.

Do I have to forward all of my lines?

No. Forward the ones you want Cara to answer and leave the rest alone. Plenty of owners start with the phone in their hand and add the shop line a week later.

Do I lose my voicemail?

Your carrier's voicemail is still there. The calls that used to land in it now reach Cara instead, which is the whole idea — answered rather than recorded.

How do I stop it?

Turn the line's switch off, or dial its off code. There's more on that in Turn forwarding off, or pause Cara.