Setting Up Your Phone System
Fieldwork includes a full business phone system. You can buy local or toll-free numbers, receive and place calls from your browser or the mobile app, set up ring groups so the right people answer, and enable voicemail and call recording.
This guide walks through the phone system setup from start to finish. For Voice AI and Inbox AI features, see the separate AI Features guide.
Step 1: Purchase a Phone Number
Click it to open the number search. You can enter an area code to find numbers in your local area, or leave it blank to see available numbers nationwide. Pick the number you want and click Buy. The number is ready to use immediately.
Each number has three toggles you can turn on or off:
SMS — Use this number to send text messages (requires completed A2P registration).
Voice — Use this number to receive and place voice calls.
Voice AI — Let the AI voice agent answer inbound calls to this number (requires Voice AI to be enabled).
You can purchase multiple numbers. For example, you might have one number for your main office line and another for a sales line, each routed to different ring groups.
Step 2: Set Up Your Inbound Call Flow
When someone calls one of your numbers, the call moves through a series of stages in order until somebody answers. You configure this flow on the Telephony settings page under Voice Call Handling > Inbound Call Flow.
The stages are:
Voice AI answers first (optional) — If enabled, the AI agent picks up the call using your custom greeting and business knowledge. If Voice AI is off, busy, or not enabled for the number that was called, the call moves to the next stage.
Ring groups — The call rings your team's browser softphones. If you have ring groups set up, the call is routed to the right group based on which number was called or which IVR menu digit the caller pressed. If no ring groups exist, this stage is skipped.
Main account phone — As a final fallback, the call is forwarded to your main account phone number. If voicemail is turned on, the caller can leave a message.
There is also a bypass option: skip the flow and forward all inbound calls straight to your main account phone. Your team can still place outbound calls as usual when this is on.
Changes to the call flow are saved automatically.
Step 3: Configure a Greeting
Under the Greeting panel on the Telephony settings page, you can type a message that is read aloud to every caller before your team is rung. Use it to identify your business so callers know they reached the right place. For example: "Thanks for calling Acme Pest Control."
Leave it blank to connect callers without any greeting.
Note: Voice AI has its own greeting configured separately and ignores this one.
Step 4: Set Business Hours
Under Business Hours, set the days and times your office is open. Outside these hours, your team is not rung.
Callers who reach you after hours will hear your after-hours message. If you have
Voice AI turned on for after-hours calls, it will answer instead. If voicemail is enabled, callers can leave a message.
You can choose which days of the week your office is open and set opening and closing times in 24-hour format. Changes are saved automatically.
Step 7: Set Up Ring Groups
Ring groups control which team members' phones ring when a call comes in. Go to Settings > Ring Groups to manage them.
To create a ring group:
Click New Ring Group.
Give it a name (for example, "Sales" or "Service").
Choose a ring strategy:
Ring all — Every member's phone rings at the same time. First person to pick up gets the call.
Ring in order — Members are called one at a time in the order you set. If the first person does not answer within the timeout, the next person is tried.
Rotate across calls — Each new call starts with the next member in rotation, distributing calls evenly across the team.
Set the ring timeout — how many seconds to ring before moving on (default is 25 seconds).
Choose how callers reach this group:
Dedicated number — Calls to a specific phone number ring this group directly. Select the number from the dropdown.
Menu digit — Callers on a shared number press a digit (0–9, *, or #) to reach this group. This creates an IVR menu that plays automatically.
Neither — The group acts as the default fallback when no other group matches.
Check the team members who should be part of this group. Use the arrows to set their ringing order.
Click Save.
A default ring group is created automatically. It cannot be deleted and serves as the fallback when no dedicated number or IVR digit matches the call.
Team members can set themselves to Do Not Disturb to temporarily stop receiving calls without being removed from the group.
Step 8: Enable Voicemail
Under the Voicemail panel on the Telephony settings page, check "Take a voicemail instead of hanging up."
When voicemail is on, callers who are not answered — whether because nobody picked up, the ring group was empty, or the office is closed — hear your voicemail greeting and can leave a message after the tone.
You can customize the greeting in the text box. Leave it blank to use the default: "Sorry, we can't take your call right now. Please leave a message after the tone and we will get back to you."
Voicemails arrive in your Inbox with the audio recording attached. When a transcript is available, it is included automatically.
Step 9: Call Recording and Transcripts
Under Call Recording & Transcripts, you can enable recording for calls answered by your team.
Check "Record calls" to start recording. Each recording is attached to the call record so you can review it later.
Check "Announce the recording to the other party" to play a brief notice to the caller letting them know the call is being recorded. Many states require all-party consent for call recording — only turn the announcement off if you have confirmed your state allows single-party consent.
When sentiment analysis is enabled (configured under Voice AI — see the AI Features guide), recordings are also transcribed and summarized automatically. Each call is flagged as positive, neutral, or negative so you can spot unhappy callers at a glance.
Placing Outbound Calls
Your team can place calls directly from Fieldwork. Calls go out from your company phone number so customers see a professional caller ID instead of a personal cell number.
From the browser, click any phone number in Fieldwork to initiate a call through the built-in softphone. A small phone widget appears in the corner of the screen where you can manage the call.
From the mobile app, tap a customer's phone number to place an outbound call through the Fieldwork app. The call shows your company number as the caller ID.
Outbound calls use the same recording settings you configured in Telephony settings.
Viewing Call History
Click Recent Calls on the Telephony settings page to see a log of all inbound and outbound calls. Each entry shows the caller, the number called, the duration, whether it was answered, and any recording or transcript attached.
Calls associated with customers appear on the customer's record as well, giving your team full context on every interaction.