Set up call forwarding

Forwarding is how calls to your existing business number reach your SwiftGuard agent, so it can answer, take the customer's details, and book the job while you are under a sink. You keep your number. You keep your phone. Nothing is installed and nobody visits: you dial one short code on your own handset, the same way you would divert calls to a colleague.

The whole thing takes about two minutes, and you can undo it in ten seconds.

What you need before you start

• A SwiftGuard account on an active or trial plan. Your agent answers calls while the plan is running. If the plan lapses, forwarded calls are turned away, so keep it current. Your plan also includes a set number of answered minutes each month - once they run out, your agent stops answering and callers hear the busy tone until the month resets or you move up a plan. Your dashboard home page shows how many of this month's minutes you have used, so you can see it coming.
• Owner or admin access to that account. Team members can see the forwarding settings but cannot change them.
• Your business number, and the handset it belongs to. The code has to be dialled from that phone. Dialling it from any other phone forwards the wrong line. We also text a 6-digit code to that number to check the line is yours, so have it to hand.
• A line in the Netherlands. This is the country SwiftGuard supports forwarding for today. If you are somewhere else, the setup screen says so instead of showing you a code.

One more thing worth knowing up front: a phone number can only be connected to one SwiftGuard account. If your number is already registered somewhere else, saving it tells you so.

Which calls should your agent answer?

Decide this before you dial, because each choice has its own code. SwiftGuard calls the two options All calls and Only when you can't.

	All calls	Only when you can't
What the caller gets	Your agent, every time	Your phone first, your agent if you don't pick up
Does your handset ring?	No. The network diverts the call before it reaches you	Yes
Your agent takes over when	Always	The call goes unanswered, the line is busy, or the phone is off or out of signal
Suits you if	You want the agent to be the front door and you'd rather not be interrupted on a job	You want to answer what you can and never lose the rest

The trade-off is real, so pick with your eyes open. All calls means your business line stops ringing at your pocket entirely - your agent becomes the only thing that picks up. Only when you can't leaves you in charge and puts the agent behind you, catching the calls that would otherwise have rung out.

Either way you are not locked in. Switching later is just re-dialling with the other code.

Register your number with SwiftGuard

Sign in and go to the setup step named Forward your calls to SwiftGuard. (If you have already finished setup, the same screen lives under Business, on the Phone forwarding tab.) Type your business number into Your business phone number, pick your answer mode under When should we answer?, and press Save number - or Save changes, if you came in through the Phone forwarding tab.

This step is not paperwork. When a forwarded call arrives, SwiftGuard uses the number it was diverted from to work out whose business it is - which agent should answer, whose customers to look up, whose calendar to book into. A call arriving from a number we do not recognise is turned away rather than answered on your behalf. Registering the number is the thing that connects the call to you.

If the line is already registered under a different SwiftGuard account, saving still texts you a code - numbers change hands, and the phone that rings at a number is the phone that owns it. Type the code in and the number moves to your account. The only number that cannot move is one rented from us by another account: that one returns "That number is already connected to another SwiftGuard account", and it is released by the account renting it, not by a code.

Confirm the number is yours

Saving sends a 6-digit code by text message to the number you typed in. Read it off that phone, type it into the box that appears, and press Confirm the number. The code lasts five minutes; Send a new code gets you another one, and Change the number takes you back if you typed it wrong.

We ask for this because the number decides where real calls go. Anybody can type a number into a form - the code is how we know the line is actually yours, and it is what stops somebody else registering your business number and receiving your customers' calls. Once it is confirmed, the screen says so, and the only person who could take the number from you is someone who can pick up at it themselves.

Until you confirm it, calls are not reaching your agent. The number is saved and held for you, but it does nothing else - so do this before you dial the forwarding codes below, not after. If you leave it, we let the number go again after a day and you can start over.

If the text never arrives, check the number on screen digit by digit, then press Send a new code. Some lines cannot receive a text at all - most landlines cannot - and the screen has no way to know: your network accepts the message and then quietly drops it, so the page goes on waiting for a code that is never coming. If a second code brings nothing either, stop sending them and email [email protected]; we will confirm the number with you another way.

Dial the two codes on your phone

Once the number is saved, the screen shows the codes under Set it up on your phone, with a Copy button beside each one. That screen is the only place your own SwiftGuard number appears - we do not print it on this public page - so the codes written below use <your SwiftGuard number> as a stand-in. Sign in, and copy the real code from that screen rather than typing it out by hand.

If the code on that screen still reads **21*0000000000#, your SwiftGuard number has not been assigned to your account yet. Those zeros are a placeholder, not a working code: dial it and your calls are forwarded nowhere, so your agent never answers. Get in touch and we will sort it out before you dial anything.

Dial from your business handset, in this order.

First, clear any forwarding already on the line

Dial ##002# and press call.

This erases every forwarding rule on the number, including old ones you have forgotten about and the one that sends unanswered calls to your carrier's voicemail. Do it first. An existing rule can otherwise take precedence over the new one, and the calls quietly never reach us.

Clearing voicemail diversion is the point, not a side effect: from here on, your agent is the thing that answers instead of voicemail. Your network confirms with a short message when the codes are accepted.

Then, turn forwarding on

Dial the code for the mode you saved:

• All calls - **21*<your SwiftGuard number>#
• Only when you can't - **004*<your SwiftGuard number>#

Press call, and wait for the network's confirmation. That is the setup done.

Check that it worked

There is no button that tests this for you, and you should not trust it until a real call has been through. So make one.

Borrow a phone that is not your business line and ring your business number.

• If you chose All calls, your agent should answer within a few rings and your own handset should stay silent.
• If you chose Only when you can't, let it ring out without answering. Your agent should pick up once your phone gives up.

Either way, the call then appears on the Calls page in your dashboard. Open it to hear the recording and read what was said.

If nothing happens, work through these in order: check your number shows as confirmed on the forwarding screen (an unconfirmed number takes no calls at all); check you dialled the code from the business handset and not another phone; check you dialled the code that matches the mode you saved; then dial ##002# and the activation code again, watching for the network's confirmation each time.

Turn forwarding off again

Dial ##002# from your business handset. That clears every forwarding rule and your phone goes back to ringing for every call.

It does not cancel your plan, delete your agent, or touch anything in your account. It only stops the calls being handed over. The dashboard keeps this code tucked behind Need to turn forwarding off later? for exactly this reason - so nobody dials it by accident on the way in.

If your line is not a mobile

The codes above are the GSM codes that every mobile network in the Netherlands understands. A landline, a VoIP line, or a hosted phone system generally does not accept dial codes at all. Forwarding is a setting in your provider's control panel or app instead.

Point it at the same SwiftGuard number the setup screen shows you, and choose the provider's equivalent of the mode you picked - "always forward" for All calls, or "forward on no answer and when busy" for Only when you can't. The destination number is what matters. How your provider lets you aim the line at it is up to them.