Phone Numbers

This page lists the phone numbers defined on your Evatel system. The list includes the numbers already assigned to customers as well as the pool of available and reserved phone numbers. Phone numbers are also referred to as DIDs (Direct Inward Dialing). They are the numbers that people dial to call your subscribers (users and companies), send them faxes and text messages (SMS). Phone numbers are also assigned to user groups and voice services such as the virtual assistant and virtual receptionist.

As the VAR Administrator you can add/import phone numbers, reserve them and assign them to your customers. You can also unassign and delete phone numbers. Customers manage the properties and use of their phone numbers.

From the Phone Numbers page, you can:

1. Add new phone numbers into the system.
2. Import phone numbers into the system from a text file.
3. Reserve phone numbers for customer accounts.
4. Assign and unassign phone numbers to customer accounts.
5. Delete phone numbers from the system.
6. Manage the properties and options of phone numbers.
7. Dial phone numbers using the WebPhone.
8. Export a list of phone numbers to a CSV or PDF file.
9. Search, filter and sort the list of phone numbers.

Phone Numbers Management Roles

Different users have different roles and access rights on phone numbers (See User Types for details). Specifically:

• System Administrators can only view the list of phone numbers on the system and how they are used.
• VAR Administrators can add/import/release phone numbers in their account as well as reserve/assign/unassign phone numbers for their customers (companies and professionals).
• Company Administrators can order and assign phone numbers to their users, services and groups. They can also unassign, release and manage options of their phone numbers.
• Professionals can order, release and manage options of their phone numbers.

Note that administrators can always access and manage the phone numbers of their users/customers. This is useful for customer service and technical support inquiries. See Directly Access a Customer Account.

Interface Overview

This page displays the list of assigned and unassigned phone numbers with the following information (some headings are context-specific):

COLUMN HEADING	DESCRIPTION
Checkbox	Check the box next to one or several items in order to apply certain actions (ex: export lists).
Number	Phone number (assigned or available). Click this link to dial the number using your WebPhone.
Assignment	Number assignment status: Available, Reserved, Assigned, Quarantine. Click this link to edit the phone number assignment.
Used by	Name of the user, service or group using the phone number. Click this link to edit the phone number assignment.
Customer	Name of customer (company or professional) using the phone number or for whom the number is reserved. Click this link to access the Phone Numbers section of the selected customer using the phone number.
Use	Indicates what the number is used for: user, service or group. Click this link to edit the phone number assignment.
Provider	Telephony provider managing the phone number on the public telephone network. This field is not editable.
Status	Status of the phone number which can be either "Active" (calls received on this number) or "Pending" (no calls received yet). This field is set automatically by the system and cannot be modified.

Add and Reserve Phone Numbers

There may be circumstances when you need to manually provision a phone number from a telephony provider that does not support online DID provisioning. This usually happens when a customer requests a specific number that cannot be obtained from the default system telephony provider. For such cases, you must manually add new phone numbers to your pool of available DIDs, then reserve or assign them to your customers.

Make sure that the phone number being manually added is routed by the telephony provider to your Evatel phone system.

Once you are ready to add the phone number:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Click the New button.
• Enter the phone number to add to your reseller account.
• Select the account to which the new number will be assigned:
  • Available in the Reseller Pool
  • Reserve for a Company account
  • Reserve for a Professional account
• Use the Telephony Provider dropdown list to select the telephony provider from which the number will be originating.  Make sure that the new phone number is routed by the telephony provider to your phone system (PBX).
• Click Save to confirm. The new number will be added into your pool of phone numbers and eventually reserved for use by the selected company or professional customer.

Import and Reserve Phone Numbers

There may be circumstances where new phone numbers must be added manually to your pool of DIDs. For such cases, you can import multiple phone numbers into your VAR account and later reserve them or assign them to your customers or keep them in your pool of available phone numbers (DIDs). See Assign Phone Numbers to Customers for details.

Prepare a text file (.txt) containing the telephone numbers to import. There must be one telephone number per line and phone numbers must be in the TAPI (E164) format.

Once you are ready to import phone numbers:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Click the  Import button to launch the phone number import wizard.
• Click the Choose File button and select the TXT file containing the phone numbers in TAPI format. Click Open to confirm your selection.
• Select the account to which the new number will be assigned: 
  • Available in the Reseller Pool
  • Reserve for a Company account
  • Reserve for a Professional account
• Use the Telephony Provider dropdown list to select the telephony provider from which the numbers will be originating.  Make sure that the phone numbers being imported are routed by the selected telephony provider to your phone system (PBX).
• Click Next to view the list of phone numbers to import. Check the phone numbers to import and uncheck the ones that you don't want to import.
• Click Import to proceed and click OK to confirm. 

The imported phone numbers will automatically be added to your pool of phone numbers and eventually reserved for the selected company or professional customer. To assign phone numbers to customers, see Assign Phone Numbers to Customers.

Reserve Phone Numbers for Customers

As the VAR Administrator, you can reserve phone numbers from your pool of available DIDs for a specific customer (Company or Professional). If the requested number is not in your pool of available DIDs, you will need to order it before proceeding. See Add New Phone Numbers or Import Phone Numbers for details.

Phone numbers reserved for a Customer will be available for selection when the customer orders new phone numbers. The Company Administrator will be responsible for assigning its new phone numbers to users, groups or services.

To reserve a phone number for a customer account:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Select Numbers Available from the Set Filter dropdown list. If there are no available numbers, you will need to add new phone numbers before proceeding. See Add New Phone Numbers or  Import Phone Numbers for details.
• Click the Available link of the phone number to reserve it to a customer: 
  • Select the type of customer for which you want to reserve the number: Company or Professional.
  • Then use the dropdown list to select the target company or professional account. 
  • Click Next to reserve the phone number for the selected customer.
• Click Confirm to complete the phone number reservation.

If you have not checked the Inform the customer checkbox, then you should notify the customer that it is ready to order and use. You may also decide to assign the phone number yourself directly to a user, group or service. To do so, click the customer (professional or company) name in the list of phone numbers. See Directly Access Customer Accounts for details.

When a customer no longer needs a phone number, you can unassign it and return it to your pool of available DIDs:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Select Numbers Already Assigned from the Set Filter dropdown list. 
• Click the  Assigned link of the phone number to unassign.
• Select Available then click Submit to confirm.
• Review the transaction summary and check Inform the customer if you want to email a confirmation to the account owner (Professional or Company Administrator).
• Click Confirm to complete the phone number unassignment.

The phone number will automatically become available for other use.

In some situations, you may want to remove the unassigned phone number from your pool of available numbers (see Delete Phone Numbers for details). This may be the case if the customer wants to continue using the number with another service supplier or if you no longer want to be billed for the number.

Delete Phone Numbers

There are situations where you need to delete phone numbers from the system.  This may be the case if the customer will continue using the number with another service supplier or if you no longer want to be billed for the number.

In fact, it is advisable to remove or temporarily "quarantine" previously assigned numbers to avoid situations where new customers keep receiving calls for previous subscribers.

To delete a phone number:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Select Numbers Available from the Set Filter dropdown list. 
• Check the box next to the phone number to delete. Then click the Delete button.
• Click Yes to confirm.

Dial Phone Numbers Online

The WebPhone associated with your user account enables you to dial any phone number directly from your Web Portal. The communication can be established using the microphone and speakers of your PC, or through a call-back to one of your office extensions or private phone locations (mobile, home, etc.). More help on how to use the WebPhone is available on your User Web Portal.

Telephone Number Properties

Telephone Number properties define the type, location and features associated with the phone number. 

Although phone number properties are typically managed by their owners (the customers), the VAR Administrator can access and modify already assigned DIDs. This is done by directly accessing the customer account. See Directly Access Customer Accounts for details.

Type of Phone Number

There are 3 types of phone numbers:

• Local phone numbers include phone numbers within your local telephone zones as identified by the System Administrator.
• Toll-free numbers are 8XX numbers used to handle toll-free calls.
• International phone numbers include phone numbers in countries other than your country.

Telephone Number Options

Phone numbers can be configured to handle many service options. Select as many options as required:

• Telephone Calls (Voice): Check this box if the phone number will be used to receive phone calls.
• Fax Reception (SmartFax): Check this box if the phone number will be used to receive faxes.
  • Paper Copy: Check this box if faxes will be sent to a physical fax machine for a paper copy.
  • Fax Extension: Enter the office extension where the fax machine is connected using an ATA. Select the appropriate extension from the dropdown list. If no extension is found, leave the default "I will choose later" and let the Company administrator create one for the fax.
• SMS Reception (Smart SMS): Check this box if the phone number will be used to send and receive SMS text messages.
• Emergency Calls (911): Check this box if the customer will use the phone number to dial the 911 emergency services.

Geographic Location

Every phone number is associated with a geographic location. Use the dropdown boxes to select the country, state/province and city (area code) of the phone number.

Existing Phone Number

Enter the area code and phone number to add in the Phone Number field. Example: +1 (213) 555-1212. See TAPI Format for details. When unsure about the format, click the Edit icon to open the phone number format wizard.

Telephony Provider

Use the Telephony Provider dropdown list to specify the telephony provider that handles the phone number on the public telephone network.

Phone Number Format

It is recommended to always use the E164 (TAPI) format to import, store and manage phone numbers on your system.

TAPI (E164) Format

Phone numbers must be formatted according to the universal TAPI (E164) convention as follows:

+ [country code] ([area code]) [local number] x[extension]

Where:

1. Country code is the unique code of the country or region where the phone number is registered: +1 for Canada and USA, +33 for France and +44 for the UK.
2. Area code is the City/Area Code of the phone number: (514) for Montreal, (415) for San Francisco and (1) for Paris.
3. Local number is the number dialed locally to reach the phone number subscriber.
4. Extension is the subscriber's internal PBX extension.

The following are all TAPI-compliant formats:

• +1 (514) 555-1212
• +1 (514) 555 1212 x201
• +33 (1) 43.31.12.12
• +44 (3456) 6789

Export Phone Numbers

You can export the list of your phone numbers to a CSV or PDF file.

Export to a CSV file

To export a list of your phone numbers to a CSV file:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Select the phone numbers to export:
  • One or several phone numbers: Check the box next to the phone numbers to export.
  • All phone numbers: Check the box at the top of the list. All phone numbers will automatically be selected.
• Click the  CSV button to open the export window.
• By default the file is named PhoneNumbers.csv and ready to be saved to a directory on your computer.
  • Change the file name if needed but keep the CSV extension. Example: rename PhoneNumbers.csv to MyPhoneNumbers.csv.
  • Make sure that you are saving the file to the desired directory.
• Click Save.

Export phone numbers to a PDF Document

To export a list of your phone numbers to a PDF file:

• From the main menu, click Phone Numbers.
• Select the phone numbers to export:
  • One or several phone numbers: Check the box next to the phone numbers to export.
  • All phone numbers: Check the box at the top of the list. All phone numbers will automatically be selected.
• Click the  PDF button to open the export window.
• The PDF document will automatically open in a new window ready to be saved to a default directory defined on your computer.

Search Phone Numbers

Use the Web Portal to quickly find phone numbers either by searching for a keyword or by filtering the list based on the phone number status (assigned or unassigned) for example.

Search

Enter a string of digits or keyword in the first row (blank fields) to search for phone numbers. For example, type "Service" in the Use column and press enter to view all phone numbers assigned to service such as virtual assistant, virtual receptionist or duty agent.

To remove the search filter, delete the keyword typed in the first row and press enter.

Filter Phone Numbers

You can filter the list of phone numbers based on their status (assigned or unassigned) for example.

• Using the Set Filter dropdown, select Numbers Used to view only phone numbers that have been assigned to customers. Select Numbers Available to view the list of phone numbers available (not assigned yet).
• Click All to view the full list of phone numbers.

Sort Phone Numbers

You can sort the list of phone numbers by clicking on any column heading. The list will be sorted alphabetically or numerically based on the column information type.