Phone numbers

The practice's whole number inventory — order UK or US numbers, complete UK verification where it applies, bring your existing numbers in, move a number between the phone system and call tracking, and pick the outbound caller ID.

Open Settings → Phone numbers to order and manage the practice's numbers. It needs the owner or manager role.

Every number the practice holds is listed here, whatever it does: the lines the phone system answers, the rotating numbers your website shows, and the numbers printed on your adverts. The Role column says which is which — see What each role means.

What you can change depends on the number. Voice lines need the SmileLine Voice add-on, so with Voice off their actions are unavailable; call-tracking numbers are part of the core plan and can be managed either way.

You need at least one Active Voice line before the practice can make or receive calls: it is both what callers dial and the caller ID patients see. An unknown caller who rings one becomes a lead with the practice's Phone call lead source (see Attribution).

Complete UK verification

Ofcom requires verified business details before a UK number can be put on a business's account, so verification comes before your first number. The calling provider decides what it needs, so the form is built from its current UK requirements; SmileLine lays them out as guided steps and fills in what it already knows about your practice.

US practices skip this section. US local numbers carry no regulatory verification, so the UK verification card does not appear and Buy a US number works straight away.

Find the UK verification card and click Start verification.

About your practice. What the number is for (a short description is prefilled — keep the sentence saying the number will not be passed on to another business), who the reviewer can contact, and your practice website.

Practice address. The practice's physical UK address — a deliverable location, not a PO box. It must match the proof-of-address document.

Documents. Two uploads, each a PDF or clear colour scan, maximum 10 MB: proof of address (a utility bill, bank statement or HMRC letter dated within the last 3 months, showing the business name and address) and your Companies House certificate of incorporation — or a passport or driving licence for a sole trader.

Review & submit. Check every detail once more and click Submit for review. The badge moves to Submitted, then Under review once the provider's reviewers have it.

Verification is a review by the calling provider, not an instant check. Allow several working days for a verdict, and don't schedule a calling campaign until the badge reads Approved. Nothing you do in SmileLine makes the review go faster.

What each badge means:

Not started — nothing has been submitted yet.
Submitted / Under review — the details are with the provider. Wait. The progress card below the badge says which stage it is actually at. If that card turns amber and says Smileline has been alerted, something stopped the submission before it reached the provider and we are already on it; there is nothing for you to resend.
Approved — UK numbers can be ordered.
Declined — the reviewer refused one or more details. Click View review, fix only the details marked Declined and click Send updated details; everything else keeps its approval. Only declined details can be changed, and only while the badge reads Declined.
Expired — the verification lapsed; click Start over and resubmit before ordering more numbers. Start over is offered only for a declined or expired verification — one under review or approved is never replaced.

Follow the review

Click View review on the card at any time. It lists every detail you submitted with the reviewer's own verdict on it — Under review, Approved, Declined or Expired — and the messages the reviewer has left. You can reply to the reviewer from the same place.

SmileLine checks the review every six hours for as long as it is open, and Check status reads it immediately. If a review sits open for more than a week the card says so — the checks continue, but that is the moment to contact SmileLine support so we can chase the provider.

Order a number

Every Voice line is tied to the location it serves: choose it before clicking Buy. Its address is registered with the carrier when the number goes live so 999/112/911 can be dialled from that location — see Emergency calling.

In the Phone numbers card, click Buy a UK number (or Buy a US number). In the UK, until verification is approved the card shows Verify to buy a number instead, which opens the verification form.

Optionally type digits the number should contain, click Search, and pick from the results.

Click Buy. The number appears in the list straight away as Pending validation.

A number ordered here arrives as a Voice line. To buy one straight into a rotating pool instead, order it from Settings → Call tracking — and either way you can change its role afterwards.

Ordering is asynchronous. SmileLine hands the order to the calling provider and keeps working it in the background, so you can close the page. New UK numbers are then validated by the carrier — allow up to 72 hours before a number turns Active. US numbers are usually Active within minutes.

What each number status means:

Pending validation — ordered; the carrier is validating it.
Awaiting verification — the order is waiting on UK verification.
Porting in — the number is being transferred in from your previous provider; the carriers control the timing.
Active — usable, and eligible to be the default caller ID.
Parked — Voice is switched off, so callers hear a line-changed notice and can leave a voicemail. See Switching Voice off.
Failed — the order did not complete. Order a different number, and tell SmileLine support if it keeps happening. An order the carrier simply holds is never marked failed: SmileLine keeps checking it every four hours for as long as it takes, and once it has been open for more than a week the pending-operation row says so — that is the moment to contact SmileLine support so we can chase the provider.
Port failed — number held — a transfer in did not complete. SmileLine holds the number's place in case the carrier still confirms it.
Transferred away — the number moved to another provider after an approved transfer request. It is no longer billed.

What each role means

Every number has one Role, shown in the list:

Voice line — part of the phone system. It rings your call routing, it can be the outbound caller ID, and it can ring a desk phone. Voice lines need the SmileLine Voice add-on.
Website pool member — a rotating call-tracking number. The tracking script shows it to one website visitor at a time, so the call is attributed to the campaign that brought them. Where it forwards, what treatment a new enquiry becomes and which location it belongs to all come from its pool.
Static tracking number — a tracking number printed on one advert and pinned to one lead source, so every call to it is attributed to that source. It carries its own forwarding, treatment and location rather than a pool's. See Track printed and offline ads.

A number is not stuck with the role it was ordered in. Any number can move to any of the three roles at any time, as long as nothing still depends on what it does today.

Every role has a safety net for the moments SmileLine cannot take a call. A Voice line forwards to the Backup number you set under Call routing; a tracking number forwards straight to wherever it normally forwards — the location's phone, or the pool's or number's own forwarding number — with nothing to configure. That destination follows the number's settings on its own: immediately after a role change, and within about five minutes of a change to the pool's forwarding or the location's phone; while it updates, a Backup number operation shows on this page. Every rescued call, and every call to a Voice line that had no backup configured, is written to the review queue within the hour with the caller's number, so someone can ring back.

Change a number's role

Click Change role next to the number and pick the role you want.

Fill in what that role needs. Website pool member asks which pool to join. Static tracking number asks for the lead source its calls are attributed to, the treatment a new enquiry becomes, and the location the call belongs to — plus, optionally, a number to forward calls to. Leave the forwarding number empty and calls follow that location's own phone.

Confirm. The change applies immediately, and the Role column updates.

What the change does:

Billing moves with the role, in the same step. A Voice line that becomes a tracking number stops counting against your Voice numbers and starts being billed per tracking number; the other direction does the reverse. See How numbers are billed.
A Voice line joining a pool shows “activating…” for a moment while billing confirms the change, exactly like a freshly ordered pool number. Until it clears, your website keeps showing your real number instead of that one — calls to the number itself still come through as normal. It starts serving the site as soon as activating clears. Moving a number that is already a tracking number, from one pool to another or from static into a pool, has nothing to confirm and takes effect at once.
A Parked Voice line that becomes a tracking number goes Active straight away. Tracking numbers are part of the core plan, so the Voice hold no longer applies to it.
Becoming a Voice line makes it the default caller ID if the practice doesn't have one yet.
Nothing that already happened changes. Calls keep the lead source, treatment and location they were captured with, so reports for past months don't move.

When a role change is refused

SmileLine refuses a role change while something still depends on what the number does today, and the message names which one. Clear it and try again:

It's the outbound caller ID. Make another number the default first.
A desk phone uses it. Disconnect that number's desk-phone line first.
Backup forwarding is armed on it. Remove the backup number first; it has to clear at the carrier before the role can change.
Something still forwards to it. A tracking pool or a static number sends its calls here — either directly, or by following a location whose phone number is this one. Repoint that forwarding first.
A website visitor is still holding it. A pooled number stays with the visitor it was shown to for about four hours after their last visit, plus an hour's quiet period afterwards. The message names the exact time it frees; try again after that.
A provider or carrier job is still running. An order, release or other operation on the number, or a transfer request under review, has to finish first.
The number isn't Active or Parked. One still being ordered, or in the middle of a port, can't change role — wait for it to settle.
It was assigned by SmileLine staff. Those numbers can't become tracking numbers; contact support.

Bring your existing numbers to SmileLine

If the practice already has numbers with another provider, you can move them into SmileLine Voice instead of buying new ones — a port-in. The wizard reads every number in the practice's own country. Only the practice owner can start, submit, amend, or cancel a port — everyone else sees the progress but the actions refuse with an owner-only message.

UK practices: landline numbers are supported; mobile numbers are not. Complete UK verification first.
US practices: no verification is needed. Any number your current provider will release can move, mobile numbers included.

Porting a US number

The carrier process differs from the UK one in three places, and the wizard adjusts itself:

State and ZIP code. The billing address asks for the State — a US port is rejected without it.
Port-out PIN. Most US providers protect an account with a port-out PIN (some call it a transfer or account PIN). Enter it under Port-out PIN if your provider set one; it is stored encrypted with the other account details and sent only to the carrier. A wrong or missing PIN is the most common US rejection.
No "numbers staying behind" step. The main billing number and the ranges staying with the current provider are part of the UK process only.

The wizard does not yet link a US letter-of-authority template — ask SmileLine support for the carrier's form before you start, then sign every page and upload it as a PDF like a UK port.

What to prepare

A signed letter of authority. For a UK port the wizard links to the carrier's template — sign every page and save it as a PDF.
Your latest bill or invoice from the current provider, showing the account details.
The account number and billing address exactly as your current provider has them. Mismatched details are the main reason ports get rejected, so copy them from the bill rather than from memory.

Before you start, check that nothing else in the practice depends on the line you're moving: broadband, card terminals, fax machines, alarms, door entry and call diverts often share it, and anything that does stops working when the number moves. The wizard lets you list the numbers staying with your current provider, and whether each range stays in service or is disconnected.

Start the port

In the Phone numbers card, click Bring your existing number.

Your numbers — type the numbers to move, one per line (up to 30). SmileLine checks each one with the carrier network; a number that can't be moved blocks the wizard and shows the reason.

Your current provider — enter the provider's name, the Name on the account with your current provider (prefilled with the practice name — change it if the provider holds the account under another name, because this is the name that goes on the letter of authority), the account number, Who signs the letter of authority and the billing address. A US practice also enters the State and, if the provider set one, the Port-out PIN. Optionally add a preferred switch date — and, in the UK, the main billing number on the account and the numbers staying behind. The date is not guaranteed — the carrier confirms it, and changing it after submission costs a fee and needs notice. Tick Make this the outbound caller ID when the port completes if the ported number should become the practice's caller ID.

Documents — sign every page of the letter of authority (the wizard links the UK template), save it as a PDF and upload it, together with your latest bill.

Review & start — check the summary and click Start the port. A Numbers moving to SmileLine card appears on the page and tracks progress from here.

When the card shows Needs your details, click Submit to the carrier to send the port into the carrier network.

Set up call routing before the switch date. The moment a number moves it starts ringing in SmileLine, and without routing in place calls fall back to voicemail.

Timelines

A port usually takes one to four weeks end to end; the carriers control the timing, and SmileLine emails you when anything changes or needs your attention. On the day itself the switch can take a few hours to complete, so plan calls around it. Your numbers keep working with your current provider until the switch.

If the port is rejected

Rejections are a normal part of porting — usually a detail that doesn't match the current provider's records, not a refusal. When one arrives the card shows which numbers were rejected, a short label for why, and the carrier's own words under it (with account numbers and phone numbers blanked out), and you get an email alert. Check the detail it names against your current provider's records, then click Amend & resubmit: the dialog shows the same account-detail fields as the wizard — correct only what the carrier flagged (a blank field keeps what was filed) and resubmit. The corrected details are filed with the carrier together with the resubmission. Each rejection round allows a limited number of retries before SmileLine support takes over.

Carrier requirements

Some carriers ask for more than the letter of authority and a bill — an extra document, or a value such as a service address exactly as they hold it. The card reads the carrier's checklist each time it opens and lists every open requirement with an input or a file picker next to it. Save each answer and it goes to the carrier on submission (or on the next resubmission); answering one requirement never clears another.

If the automatic carrier checks run out before the carrier answers — a port that sits with the carrier for months — the card says so and offers Retry. Retry restarts the checks on the same request; nothing is resubmitted and no details change. The same Retry appears on a transfer request (port-out) whose checks ran out. Occasionally the card shows that our team is already looking at a settled order — no action is needed from you then.

Respond promptly to a rejection: the carrier can cancel a port whose rejection is ignored for about two weeks, and the whole process starts over.

Cancelling a port

Click Cancel port on the card and confirm. Cancellation is a carrier process too — the card shows Cancellation requested until the carrier confirms it, and the numbers stay with your current provider throughout. Within 48 hours of a confirmed switch date the port can no longer be cancelled in SmileLine — contact support urgently and we'll try to stop it with the carrier.

When the port completes

The number turns Active in SmileLine and starts ringing here.
It becomes billable exactly like a purchased number — see How numbers are billed.
If you ticked the caller-ID option, it becomes the outbound caller ID.

A port always brings the number in as a Voice line. To use a number you brought with you for call tracking instead, wait until the port completes, then change its role — there is nothing to choose in the wizard.

Ported-in numbers are custody-protected: they can't be released from the numbers list the way purchased numbers can, so a mis-click can never discard a number the practice has owned for years. That holds in every role — a ported-in number working as a tracking number still can't be released. If you ever leave, move them to your next provider with a port-out, or contact support.

How numbers are billed

What a number costs follows its role, so changing the role moves the charge with it in the same step.

Voice numbers are billed with the Voice add-on. Lines are what you pay for on Settings → Billing (three included, then £49/month or $69/month each, up to 30), and each line comes with one number, so a three-line practice holds three Voice numbers at no extra charge. Beyond the numbers your lines include, each extra Voice number is £5/month for GBP practices or $7/month for USD practices — as many as the practice needs. Lowering the lines on Settings → Billing never strands a number: every number past the new line count simply bills as an extra from then on.

Tracking numbers — pool members and static numbers alike — are part of the core plan, with no add-on to enable, at £5/month or $7/month each. On top of that you pay for the minutes tracked calls use and for transcription; see Call tracking. They are counted separately from Voice numbers, so a busy pool never eats into your Voice numbers.

Every change to your numbers or lines updates the subscription in the background, usually within a minute. If that update cannot be applied — a card problem, say — the numbers page says billing hasn't caught up and offers Retry; the numbers keep working meanwhile.

Releasing a number frees its slot immediately.

Pick the default caller ID

Select the radio button next to a number to make it the default caller ID — the number patients see on every outbound call. Only active Voice lines can be the default, so tracking numbers have no radio button; a local number your patients recognise gets answered more often.

If the practice has no default yet, the first Voice line to go active becomes the default caller ID on its own.

Release a number

Click Release next to a number, then Confirm release. Releasing stops the monthly charge for that number and frees its slot. Like ordering, the release is handed to the provider and finishes in the background.

Releasing is immediate and irreversible — there is no 60-day hold for a manual release (the hold applies only when the whole Voice add-on is switched off). The number returns to the provider's pool and you will not get it back. You also can't release the current default caller ID; make another number the default first.

If an operation is parked for review

Verification submissions, document uploads and number releases are handed to the calling provider in the background. When SmileLine cannot finish one — the attempt budget ran out, or it could not confirm what the provider received — the operation is parked for review rather than failed: it appears in Review queue as a Phone event, and owners and managers get an Incoming data needs review notification — in the bell and by email — that opens the queue.

A parked operation was never refused by the provider, so you retry it by submitting exactly the same thing again: send the same verification details, upload the same file, or click Release on the number again — or click Retry on the row in the review queue, which does the same thing. SmileLine re-arms the parked operation in place instead of creating a second one. Only a provider rejection — a Declined verification, a rejected port — needs the details changed before you try again.

The details an operation carries — addresses, requirement values, document names — are kept encrypted while it is in flight or parked and redacted 90 days after it completes or is rejected. A port request keeps its submitted details for 90 days after it settles for the same reason: disputes refer to them.

When another provider asks to take your number

If the practice moves to a different phone provider, the new provider can ask to take a number with it — a port-out request. When one arrives, a Number transfer requests card appears at the top of Settings → Phone numbers, and the practice owner and managers receive an email alert, with reminders while the request is still unanswered.

The practice owner or a practice manager decides — so a request that arrives while the owner is away can still be answered before the carrier's deadline. Every decision is recorded in the activity log with who made it.

Check the request: the numbers it covers, the name of the provider asking, and the carrier's deadline where one is stated.

If you asked for this move, click Approve transfer and confirm. If you didn't — or don't recognise the provider — click Reject and pick one of the carrier's rejection reasons.

Either decision is sent to the carrier network in the background and can take a little while to register; the request shows Decision in progress until it does.

SmileLine never approves or rejects a transfer for you — the decision is always the practice's. But carrier rules may allow the transfer to proceed if nobody responds, so don't ignore the request: decide before the carrier's deadline.

When an approved transfer completes, the number stops ringing in SmileLine and billing for it stops at the same time. Its status shows Transferred away. If the other carrier cancels its own request before that, the request shows Withdrawn, nothing changes, and you get one email saying so — no decision is needed.

Switching Voice off

Turning the Voice add-on off does not release your numbers. Every active Voice line becomes Parked:

The practice stops being billed for lines and extra numbers.
Callers who dial a parked number hear a short line-changed notice and can leave a voicemail, so nobody reaches a dead line.
The number is held free for 60 days, and the list shows the date the hold expires.

Re-enable Voice inside those 60 days and every parked number goes straight back to Active with its routing intact. After the hold expires SmileLine releases the number and it is gone for good.

Re-enabling also withdraws a release you started on a parked number while it was still queued on SmileLine's side, so that number comes back instead of leaving; a release already submitted to the provider carries on, and the number stays Parked until it goes. A number whose hold has already expired is not revived: it stays Parked and is released.

Tracking numbers are unaffected: they are part of the core plan, so they keep answering and keep being billed while Voice is off. A parked Voice line you still want to use can be changed into a tracking number, which puts it straight back into service.