How to Use Telephone Extensions

Regular telephones can be plugged into any extension jack. 

Each phone will have its own 2-digit extension number that can be dialed directly or assigned to a menu option for callers to press.

Physical Extensions

The VoicePro can handle up to 12 phone extensions. It uses standard single-line phones. Nothing special or expensive is required. When a regular telephone is connected to the VoicePro it has multi-line capability with flexible professional-quality features as reviewed below.

• Any caller can dial extensions directly or select menu options that you have assigned to ring to specific extensions. 
• You may assign incoming lines to ring to specific extensions if that fits your needs. 
• Menu option zero rings to extension 10 if you want to have a receptionist manage that extension. 
• Dialing a physical extension will ring the phone connected to that jack or can be forwarded to another number.
• When you pick up any extension you get outside dialtone so you can dial any number as usual.
• Callers can be transferred by pressing the flash button and dialing another extension.

Standard telephones can be connected to the extension jacks on the back of the unit. 

• The VP206 supports 6 physical extensions. Numbered 10 thru 15.
• The VP412 supports 12 physical extensions. Numbered 10 thru 21.

Virtual Extensions

Besides physical extensions, extension numbers go all the way up to 99. Those beyond the highest physical extension are virtual extensions, which can be used as voicemail extensions to play a greeting and take a message. Only physical extensions can ring to a phone or be forwarded to another number. 

Single-key Menu Options To Ring Extensions

Each phone has a 2-digit extension number. Callers can dial that directly. 

But you can optionally assign Auto Attendant menu options to ring to specific extension phones or direct to specific voice mail boxes. So your caller just presses a single key from your custom menu to reach a particular department or a specific person. 

Example: 

"For customer support, press 1. To leave a message, press 2." 

Custom Programming

Each extension and its mailbox can be custom programmed...

• Record a personal greeting that plays when your extension is not answered.
• Specify which outgoing lines are permissible by each extension.
• Activate Call Forwarding to another extension or to a remote phone number.
• Call Screening... 
  When call screening is enabled the caller will be asked to say their name. Then it plays that to you while they are on hold. Such as "You have a call from John Smith." You can press # to accept or * to send the caller to voice mail. You can enable call screening on any extension. 

Calling Outside

When you pick up any extension you get outside dialtone so you can dial any number as usual. There is no need to dial 9 first, as required on some other phone systems. 

The system automatically gives you dialtone on any outside line that is available. You don't need to think about which line it is. However, extensions can be programmed to select specific outside lines if that is important to you. 

You can also select a specific outside line on the fly by dialing *8x (where x is the line number) before the number you are calling. But there is no need to do this since you will get dialtone on any available line anyway when you lift the receiver. 

Room-to-Room Calling

• You can call from any extension to another without tying up an outside line. Just press the star key (*) to switch to an inside dialtone and then dial the two-digit extension you wish to reach.
• You can answer someone else's ringing extension by picking up your extension and dialing *50. If you don't get an outside dialtone then just dial 50 without the star.

Caller-ID

Caller-ID (name and number) is passed to extensions to view if your phone has a display. This feature requires Caller-ID service from your phone company.

Music on Hold

When a caller is being transferred to an extension, they will hear Music on Hold if you have a music source connected to the music jack on the Voice Pro. A radio, CD player, MP3 player, or even an Apple iPod can be used. Callers will hear silence while being transferred if no music source is connected.

Group Ringing

If you have a need for ringing several extensions so that any of your personnel can answer an incoming call, you can assign an Auto Attendant menu option for the caller to press that will ring multiple extensions. 

This is known as departmental or group dialing and is normally only found on larger PBX systems. But the VoicePro has it too. 

Group Ringing is also useful to avoid voicemail when a caller selects an extension that is busy. You can program a menu option that will ring multiple extensions. Then if one is busy, the other(s) will still ring. The caller will only go to voicemail if no one answers. The number of rings can be set and the mailbox to use if no answer can be specified (it's the first you assign for your group ringing). 

Transferring & Forwarding

When you answer a call that really needs to be directed to someone else, you can transfer that caller. 

You press "flash" and dial the other extension. Then hang up. The other extension can answer. 

If you would rather announce the call, don't hang up. Do the same as above, but wait for the other person to answer. Then you can tell them you are transferring so and so. When you hang up, they will be connected to the party you put on hold. 

What if you're not in the office to get to your phone and you don't want callers to just end up leaving you a message? What if you really want to get those calls live? 

In that case you can forward your extension to another outside number, such as your cell phone. 

You can take the call and the caller won't even know that you're not in the office. 

Voice Mail

If a caller dials an extension and there is no answer, they will be routed to that extension's mailbox. Each extension has its own mailbox and your personnel can record their own personal greetings. 

The message length is programmable up to the 2-hour storage limit. All messages play the time and date received. Messages can be picked up from any remote phone. All mailboxes are password protected. 

The administrator can check which mailboxes have messages in one step with a single function. So there is no need to dial each mailbox to find which has messages. 

In addition to all the physical extensions, there are additional mailboxes (up to 99) that handle "only" Voice Mail. However, only physical extensions can be forwarded to another location. But all 99 mailboxes have live message alert.

Message Notification

There are several ways the VoicePro can notify you when you have a message.

1. It can call you remotely at another number. It will tell you that you have a message and allow you to log in during that call. 
2. It can use the message light on your phone extension if you have one.
3. It can also give you stutter dialtone if you don't have a message light indicator. 

Remote notification can be done by calling your pager or by calling you live. 

Remote Message Notification

1. Pager Alert can be programmed into any mailbox to notify you that a message was left.
2. Live Message Alert can be specified to call your cell phone, or any number, by voice, to "tell you" that you have messages. And, if you wish, you can log-in with your passcode during that call to pick up your messages. 

Message Waiting Light Indicator

You will also be aware that you have messages by the "Message Waiting Indicator". There are two ways your extension will indicate that you have messages...

1. Message Waiting Light: If your phone has a standard 90 volt message light, it will flash when you have messages.
2. Stutter Dial-Tone: If your phone does not have a message light, just disable the "message waiting light" feature for your extension and the system will give you a stutter dial-tone to indicate you have messages when you pick up the phone.

External Message Waiting Light

If you don't have a telephone with a message waiting light, you can add on an external light indicator.

Viking Electronics makes a Universal Message Waiting Light that connects in line between the extension jack on the VoicePro and the phone. I comes with a short wire so you can mount it right on the phone. Then use the regular length wire you already are using to connect the light to the VoicePro. 

We tested this device and it works great. The light flashes brightly when there is a message in that extension's voice mail. Note that you will need one for each phone if you want a message light indicator for each. Click the image to order direct from Amazon.

Three-way Conferencing

The VoicePro lets you set up conference calls with one outside party and another inside party, or two outside parties and you.

In other words, when you receive a call from the outside, you can conference that caller with another person who is either atanother extension, or a remote person at another number. 

Here's how...

1. While on an outside call, press "flash."
2. You will receive an internal dial tone.
3. Dial another extension, or for an outside number, press 9 and listen for the dial tone. Then dial the outside number.
4. When they answer, press "flash" again and the first party will be included in the conference.

How are multiple incoming calls routed?

Say you use extension 10 and your associate uses extension 11. The first caller who dials 10, or selects a menu option that you programmed to ring extension 10, will obviously get through.

If a second caller dials an extension that is busy, or selects a menu option that rings to a busy phone, they will go to that extension's voicemail instead.  Each mailbox has a personal greeting that can be recorded by that person or for that department. Each extension has its own voice mailbox.

If the second caller selects 11 while you are talking on 10, no problem. Extension 11 rings and your associate can answer.

Now, what if you don't want the second caller to drop into voicemail, you can program any menu option to ring multiple phones.

With a single-line phone you can also answer another ringing phone by dialing *50. 

Can we set the Daytime Greeting by the day of the week as well as for the hours?

Yes. The automated attendant has three greetings that can be used. 

You can specify what the daytime hours are for weekdays and you can specify what those weekdays are. You can create a greeting that plays to callers during daytime hours and another that plays at nighttime.

Anything else is considered a weekend and you can also record another greeting that plays on weekends.

If I just want my calls to go to voice mail. How can I do that?

Each extension can be programmed to forward calls to another extension, to a remote phone number, or to a voice mailbox. Actually you can forward to any voice mailbox other than your own as well.

Enter station programming by pressing * then #. Then follow the prompts to set up forwarding. Forward your calls to any mailbox by placing a "3" in from of the extension number. Example: If you are programming extension 14 to go to its own voicemail you would specify the mailbox as "314".

Can I use it just as a message center for callers to leave messages for my employees?

Yes, you do not need to connect phones to the extension ports in this case. Just have one phone on extension 10 so you can program it through that phone and record the greetings for the various mailboxes. Of course you can do that by calling in from the outside as well.

Program all extensions to forward their calls to voicemail so the unit doesn't waste time ringing a non-existent phone in case someone tries to dial one of the extensions.

You can forward all extensions to one common mailbox if you wish.

How do I set up the different voice mailboxes and record messages for each mailbox?

First of all, not all mailboxes are associated with an extension. Only the first 6 or 12 (depending on which VoicePro you have) are real extensions where you can connect phones. All the rest are "greeting-only" mailboxes. Also known as "broadcast" mailboxes.

You can change the broadcast mailboxes to full-featured voice mail on any of the additional mailboxes up to mailbox 99 by changing its password to a 4-digit code that starts with a numeric. 

Broadcast mailboxes have a password that starts with a * and defaults to "**99". All the mailboxes beyond the physical extensions are broadcast mailboxes by default.

The physical extensions have mailboxes that are full-featured by default.

"Greeting only" mailboxes differ from full-featured mailboxes in the following way. They do not allow a caller to leave a voicemail message. After the greeting the caller is returned to the system main greeting and they can select other menu options.

Is there a way to adjust the sound volume of voice mail greetings and messages?

Program Function 41 is used to adjust volume. You can set the volume independently for system greeting messages and for playback of voicemail messages.

In addition to pre-programmed volume, a caller can raise and lower volume of of a voice mail message while listening to it. Pressing 7 will lower it and pressing 9 will increase the volume. They can keep pressing either key to further adjust the volume in either direction.

When transferring a call to a cell phone, can the VoicePro be programmed to take a message after a delay if the cell phone is not picking up when switched?

Yes. You need to enable "remote call screening" with function 17. Then the system will take the call back again if there is no answer or if you answer and do not accept the call after hearing the caller's name.

If your cell phone answers automatically, it will not respond to the screening request. So the VoicePro will take the caller back and it will play the greeting of the extension's voice mailbox before taking a message.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the above will only work if you let the system transfer the forwarded calls using the hook-flash transfer method. If you program it to use a second line to forward calls, it will not take unanswered calls back again. Hook-flash transfer works only if you have 3-way calling or Centrex on your phone line(s).

Where do messages go if I program it to ring multiple extensions and no one answers?

Each extension has it's own mailbox. But if you ring several extensions as in the last question, then the mailbox of the first in your list will be used to play it's greeting and take a message if none of the extensions in your list answer.

Can I create departments like press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounting? And can a department ring on more than one phone?

Yes you can create a menu with single-key options for departments just like you said. You can make any menu option ring a single extension or ring several extensions that you specify.

If you don't answer, each extension has its own voice mailbox. 

Will the Voice Pro handle calls when the lines are busy?

There are two answers I need to give you, depending on if you are asking about in-house extensions or the incoming phone lines.

When an extension is busy, the caller will hear the voice mail greeting for that extension and then they can leave a message in that extension's mailbox, or then can go back to the main menu.

However, if all your incoming lines are in use, then the next caller will get a busy signal. There is no way to pass the call through to the VoicePro if you don't have enough phone lines to allow the overflow calls to get through.

If this is the case, you need to consider adding more lines and then use the larger VoicePro that handles four incoming lines.

If traffic volume is an issue and you don't want callers to get busy signals when more than four people call, then you need a bigger phone system. 

Of course this runs into bigger expenses, but if your traffic volume calls for it then hopefully you have the income from your business to warrant such a purchase. If not, another solution would be to consider a hosted PBX service where you pay only a small monthly service fee plus usage.