Help with your AI receptionist

How it answers calls

The receptionist answers your business’s calls, takes a message, and passes it to your team. It asks for the caller’s name, best callback number, service address, what they need, and when they’d like a call back. Each call shows in Receptionist in JobSigner with its transcript and summary, and the summary is emailed to the people you choose.

It answers only from the business details you give it. It doesn’t book appointments, promise times, take payments, or quote prices you haven’t listed. It isn’t an emergency service: when a caller describes an emergency, it tells them to hang up and call 911 or their gas or electric utility. Calls start in English, and it switches when a caller speaks another language it supports. Each call is limited to 10 minutes, and transcripts are kept for 180 days.

What callers hear first

Every call the receptionist answers starts with this notice, with your business’s name in place of [business name]. When you have a fallback phone:

“Thanks for calling [business name]! I’m an AI assistant, and this call is recorded and transcribed by [business name] and its service providers. If that’s okay with you, just stay on the line. If not, you can hang up, or press 0 anytime for [business name]’s phone.”

Without one:

“Thanks for calling [business name]! I’m an AI assistant, and this call is recorded and transcribed by [business name] and its service providers. If that’s okay with you, just stay on the line. If not, you can hang up.”

The receptionist starts listening only after the notice ends, and it never claims to be a person. No one can turn the notice off, shorten it, or change its words.

When it can’t answer

The receptionist answers up to 4 calls at once, shared by every business that uses it and our demo line. When it can’t take a call, it forwards the call to your fallback phone if you’ve set one. Otherwise the caller hears a short message, and the call ends.

The receptionist doesn’t take voicemail, and no audio is stored.

Your fallback phone

Your fallback phone is a phone a person answers, such as your cell. The receptionist sends calls there when it can’t take them, and callers who press 0 are transferred to it. The account owner sets it in Receptionist settings.

• It must be a US or Canadian number.
• It can’t be your receptionist number or the business line you forward to the receptionist, and it mustn’t forward its calls back to the receptionist. For example, if your cell forwards unanswered calls to your business line, and your business line forwards to the receptionist, a call sent to your cell would come straight back. The receptionist stops a call like that, and the caller hears that no one can take the call.
• Calls we forward show your receptionist number as the caller. Save it as a contact, such as “Receptionist transfer,” so you know to answer. The caller’s own number is in Receptionist in JobSigner.
• JobSigner doesn’t listen to, record, transcribe, or summarize a forwarded call, and time after a call is forwarded uses none of your minutes.
• Your phone company may charge for calls to your fallback phone. We can’t promise that someone answers: if no one does, the call reaches your fallback phone’s voicemail, or the caller hears that no one can take the call.

Pressing 0

With a fallback phone, the notice tells callers they can press 0 at any time to be transferred. During the call, a 0 pressed on its own, followed by a pause or #, transfers the caller. A 0 inside a number they type, like a ZIP code, doesn’t.

Forward your business line

To keep your existing business number, set your phone service to forward calls to your receptionist number, which you’ll find in Receptionist in JobSigner. If JobSigner gave you a new number to share instead, you can skip this.

• Forward every call: the receptionist answers everything, and calls it can’t take go to your fallback phone.
• Forward only busy or unanswered calls: your phone rings first, and the receptionist answers the calls you miss. Your fallback phone then needs to be a different phone, such as your cell.

In these codes, replace [receptionist number] with your receptionist number’s 10 digits, with no spaces or dashes: for (760) 555-0123, that’s 7605550123. Dial the code from the line you’re forwarding. Codes vary by carrier and can change, so if one doesn’t work, check your carrier’s help or call them. Forwarded calls may use your plan’s minutes or cost extra. Codes checked 2026-10-22.

Landline or cable phone service

To forward only busy or unanswered calls, ask your phone company or use its online account.

Verizon (mobile)

*73 turns off both kinds of forwarding.

AT&T (mobile)

To forward only busy, unanswered, or unreachable calls, use your phone’s call forwarding settings.

T-Mobile (mobile)

Dial ##004# to send busy, unanswered, and unreachable calls back to your voicemail.

Other mobile carriers

Most other mobile carriers use the codes of the network they run on. Check your carrier’s help.

VoIP and business phone systems

In your phone system’s admin settings, find call forwarding, call handling, or answering rules, and add your receptionist number as an external forwarding number. Common systems include RingCentral, Google Voice, Microsoft Teams Phone, Zoom Phone, Dialpad, Grasshopper, Ooma Office, Nextiva, Vonage Business, and 8x8.

Turning forwarding off

Dial the turn-off code from the same line, or change the setting back in your phone system. Your phone company may charge for forwarded calls.

Test it

1. Call your business number from a different phone than the one you forwarded.
2. Listen to the notice, then leave a test message.
3. Check that the call shows in Receptionist in JobSigner and that the new-call email arrives.

Test calls use minutes like any other call. To test your fallback phone, pause the receptionist and call your business number: the call should ring your fallback phone. Resume the receptionist when you’re done. You can also press 0 during the notice to test the transfer.

Minutes and Extra minutes

• Team includes 250 minutes and Scale includes 600 minutes each calendar month, in your receptionist’s time zone. Unused minutes don’t carry over.
• Starter includes 30 free minutes once, and minutes used during your JobSigner trial count toward them. During a trial, receptionist use is capped at 60 minutes and isn’t charged.
• A call uses minutes from the start of the notice until the receptionist’s part of the call ends. Time on hold, calls that end or are transferred during the notice, and time after a call is forwarded use no minutes. Each month’s minutes are totaled and rounded up to the next whole minute.

Extra minutes

Extra minutes are 25¢ each and off by default. While they’re off, the receptionist stops answering new calls when your minutes run out, and calls go to your fallback phone if you’ve set one. Starter answers calls after its free minutes only with Extra minutes on. They aren’t available during a trial.

While Extra minutes are on, there’s a monthly budget for Extra minutes: $50 unless the account owner changes it, from $5 to $2,500. When a month’s Extra minutes reach it, the receptionist doesn’t answer new calls past your included minutes until the next month or until the budget is raised; they go to your fallback phone if you’ve set one. A call in progress finishes, and minutes beyond the budget aren’t charged.

On monthly plans, Extra minutes are added to your next subscription invoice. On annual plans, each month’s Extra minutes are billed on a separate invoice after the month ends, usually in the first week, and charged to the payment method on your subscription. If that invoice isn’t paid, Extra minutes turn off until it is; your included minutes and the rest of JobSigner keep working.

The full terms are in section 12 of our service terms, and plan prices are on our pricing page.

Your callers’ privacy

Your business decides how its callers’ information is used, and JobSigner handles it for you as your service provider. Your own privacy notice must say that you use an AI receptionist and its service providers to answer calls, and you must give any other notice and get any consent the law requires for your calls. You can’t remove, shorten, delay, or reword the opening notice.

Read section 12 of our service terms and what our privacy policy tells callers.

Troubleshooting

The forwarding code didn’t work

Check that you dialed the whole code from the line you’re forwarding, with your receptionist number’s area code and no spaces or dashes. Some phone plans don’t include call forwarding, and carriers change their codes, so check your carrier’s help or call them.

Calls still ring only my phone

If you forward only busy or unanswered calls, your phone rings first, and the receptionist answers the calls you miss. If you forward every call, dial the code again from the line you’re forwarding, then test from a different phone.

Callers hear that the line is busy

Every line may have stayed busy for the whole 60-second hold, or a caller went over an hourly limit. Set a fallback phone so those calls reach you instead.

Callers reach my voicemail

If you forward only unanswered calls, your voicemail may answer before the call is forwarded. Ask your phone company to forward sooner, or forward every call. A forwarded call can also reach your fallback phone’s voicemail when no one answers there.

Forwarded calls never reach my fallback phone

Your fallback phone may forward its calls back to your business line or the receptionist, which sends them in a loop. The receptionist stops those calls. Turn off forwarding on the fallback phone, or choose a different fallback phone.

I don’t see a call

Calls the receptionist forwarded or couldn’t take show in Receptionist too. If a call isn’t there, it didn’t reach the receptionist: check your forwarding, and test from a different phone. Calls are kept for 180 days.

Can I turn the notice off?

No. Every call the receptionist answers starts with it, so each caller knows they’re talking to an AI and that the call is recorded and transcribed before the receptionist listens. Some states, including California, require everyone’s consent before a call is recorded.

Get help

Email team@jobsigner.com from your account’s email address. Tell us your business name and what happened, with the time of the call if it’s about one. Never send passwords, verification codes, or payment card details.