Phone numbers

Complete UK verification, order the numbers callers dial, bring your existing numbers in, pick the outbound caller ID, and understand what happens to a number when Voice is switched off.

Open Settings → Phone numbers to order and manage the practice's numbers. It needs the owner or manager role, and SmileLine Voice must be enabled before anything on the page can be changed.

You need at least one Active number 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.

Find the UK verification card and click Start verification.

Fill in the business details the form asks for. The calling provider decides what those are, so the form is built from its current UK requirements — expect typed fields, a business address, and one or two documents to upload (maximum 10 MB each).

Click Submit for review. The badge moves to Submitted, then Under review once the provider picks it up.

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.
Approved — UK numbers can be ordered.
Declined — click Update details, correct the submission and resubmit.
Expired — the verification lapsed; resubmit before ordering more numbers.

If the badge sits Under review for more than a week, contact SmileLine support rather than resubmitting — SmileLine tracks the review and can tell you where it has reached.

Order a number

In the Phone numbers card, click Buy a number. Until verification is approved the button opens the verification form instead.

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.

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.

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.
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.

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. UK landline numbers are supported; mobile numbers are not. Complete UK verification first, and note that 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.

What to prepare

A signed letter of authority. 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 account number, the account holder's name and the billing address. Optionally add the main billing number on the account, the numbers staying behind, and a preferred switch date. 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 — download the letter of authority template, sign every page, 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 UK 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 and why in plain terms, and you get an email alert. Check the detail it names against your current provider's records, then click Amend & resubmit. Each rejection round allows a limited number of retries before SmileLine support takes over, and occasionally the card shows that our team is already looking at an 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.

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. If you ever leave, move them to your next provider with a port-out, or contact support.

How numbers are billed

Each line your subscription includes comes with one number, so a three-line practice holds three numbers at no extra charge. Beyond that, each number is £5/month for GBP practices or $7/month for USD practices.

A practice can hold up to 45 numbers in total and can be billed for up to 15 extra ones. Releasing a number frees its slot immediately.

Rotating call-tracking numbers are a separate inventory with their own page (Settings → Call tracking) and their own per-number charge — they never appear here and never become the outbound caller ID.

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 numbers can be the default, and a local number your patients recognise gets answered more often.

If the practice has no default yet, the first number 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 irreversible — 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.

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.

Only the practice owner can decide. Managers can see the request, but Approve transfer and Reject work only for the owner's account.

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.

Switching Voice off

Turning the Voice add-on off does not release your numbers. Every active number 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.