Never Let a Busy Line Drop a Call

Call overflow catches the calls your team cannot take and routes them — to another line, your mobile, or a voice-to-email mailbox that puts the recording in your inbox within minutes.

Set Up Overflow on a New Number

How Overflow Helps

Catches Busy Calls

Calls roll over automatically when your line is engaged or unanswered.

Routes Anywhere

Another staff line, your mobile, an IVR menu or a voicemail box — you set the destinations.

Time Conditions

Different overflow rules for business hours, after hours and weekends.

Voice-to-Mailbox Overflow

The recording of every overflow call, emailed to one address or many.

Works With Any Number

Pair it with 1300, 1800, local and mobile services.

No Lock-In

Numbers from $10/month, month-to-month, per-second call billing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to a call when my line is busy?

With overflow routing set on your number, the call moves automatically to the next destination in your rules — another line, your mobile, or a mailbox. The caller never hears an engaged tone.

Can overflow go to voicemail or voice to email?

Yes, and it is the most common setup for small teams: the overflow destination is a voice-to-email mailbox, so the caller leaves a message and the recording arrives in your inbox addressed to whoever needs it.

Does overflow work after hours?

Yes. Time conditions let you set different overflow destinations outside business hours — typically an after-hours greeting followed by voice to email.

Every call, captured

Set Up Overflow on a New Number

No business size is immune to the busy-line problem: everyone's on the phone at the same moment and the next caller is greeted by silence. Call overflow turns that silence into a captured message. For the wider family of options, see our live call answering guide.

What Call Overflow Is

Call overflow is a routing rule: when your main line is busy, unanswered after a set time, or outside your coverage hours, the call is automatically directed to the next destination in your list. It needs no new hardware and works with 1300 and 1800 numbers, local and mobile services.

The Business Cost of Dropped Calls

When a caller hits a busy tone, they do not wait. They ring the next vendor, book the competitor and move on. Every dropped call is a lost potential enquiry — one that cost nothing to take. Overflow makes those calls land somewhere useful.

Your Overflow Options Today

Another staff line — the classic chain: office, then mobile, then mailbox.
Your mobile — overflow follows you onto the road.
An IVR menu — callers route themselves to the right person.
A voice-to-email mailbox — the caller hears your greeting and leaves a message; the recording is emailed to one address or the whole team, with transcription on many plans.

One honest note: Simple Telecom used to offer live-operator overflow — where our staff answered your overflow calls — and that service is retired from sale. Today's overflow lands in destinations you control, and for most small teams the mailbox option captures everything at no extra cost: voice to email is included free with Simple Telecom number plans.

How to Set It Up

Get a Simple Telecom number (from $10/month, no lock-in) or use your existing one.
Set your overflow destinations and the conditions that trigger them.
Add time conditions — business-hours overflow to your mobile, after-hours overflow to the mailbox.
Record your greetings. Callers hear you, not a dead line.

Overflow and voice to email together mean every call ends in an inbox, not in silence. Questions? Call 1300 858 751.