Review and configure phone numbers

Read the Numbers list, tell the number types apart, configure a number's name, routing, tags, and emergency address, and remove one safely.

Settings > Phone Numbers > All Numbers lists every phone number assigned to the phone system named in the header. It is where you name a number, decide where its calls go, tag it, pair it with an emergency address, and remove it when it is no longer yours to answer.

The dashboard configures numbers you already have. It has no way to search for or buy a new one — a number appears in this list after Steer Phones provisions it for you or after a port completes, so ask Steer Phones when you need another number.

Prerequisites

• The intended phone system selected in the header. The list always shows one system’s numbers.
• A role that can read phone numbers to open the page, and one that can manage them to configure or remove a number. Building a rule set from inside the configuration dialog needs the same manage-numbers permission, so the button is hidden without it.
• For an emergency address: the address already registered for this phone system. You select an existing address here; you do not create one.

Read the list

Two list behaviors are worth knowing before you go looking for a specific number:

• The search box filters the page you are looking at, not the whole list. It matches text in the rows currently loaded. On a system with many numbers, raise the page size to 50 or 100, or sort by Phone Number and page through, rather than concluding a number is missing.
• Sorting is by phone number only. The other columns are not sortable.

Tell the number types apart

A hosted number is one you kept with your existing carrier while registering it with your phone system. Because its calls never reach Steer Phones, there is nothing to route: Configure is disabled and the badge carries the same explanation on hover. Ask Steer Phones what a hosted number can be used for in your setup before pointing other settings at it, and note that it can still be removed from the phone system.

Configure a number

1. Select Configure on the number. The dialog title repeats the number so you can confirm you opened the right row.
2. Set the Display Name — up to 64 characters, with the count shown under the field. This is the label for the number inside Steer Phones. Depending on how your phone system presents incoming calls, it can also be what a desk phone shows for the line that was called. It is not the name external recipients see when you call them; that is set by their carrier, not by this field.
3. Under Incoming Call Routing, choose what happens to calls arriving on this number in each of your schedule’s time periods — an extension, a call group, a call menu, a Call Assistant, voicemail, an external forward, a rule set, or another phone system. A period showing Configured by your administrator was set up by Steer Phones and cannot be changed here; leave it alone and the saved setting is preserved.
4. Under Tags, search for and select the call tags this number should carry. Selected tags appear as chips below the field and can be removed individually.
5. Under E911 Emergency Address, choose the registered address for the place this number rings. Addresses are listed as a name followed by the street address so you can tell two sites apart.
6. Select Save.

If you close the dialog with unsaved edits, you are asked to confirm before they are discarded.

Save applies the number’s own fields, its routing, and its tags as separate operations. If a tag change fails while the rest succeeds, the message names how many tag updates failed — reopen the number, check which tags are selected, and retry only that part.

Only one operation may change a number at a time. If a change is rejected because the number is being modified by another operation, wait a moment, reload, and retry against what the list now shows rather than repeating the save.

Remove a number

Removing a number unassigns it from this phone system and clears the voice configuration Steer Phones holds for it. It does not cancel the number or release it from your account, and it does not delete the call history already recorded against it.

1. Confirm the number is not a DNI pool member — the remove icon is disabled for those.
2. Open Configure and set the E911 emergency address to None, then save. Removal is refused while an address is still assigned.
3. Select the remove icon and read the confirmation. If the number is the phone system’s primary number, the dialog warns you before you continue.
4. Select Remove.

After removing the primary number, the phone system is left without one. Check that the outbound caller ID your extensions use still points at a number you kept, and ask Steer Phones to set a new primary number — neither is set from the dashboard.

Expected result

The list reflects what you saved: the display name and E911 state you chose, and no row for a number you removed. Calls to a configured number follow the routing you set for the time period the call arrives in.

Troubleshooting

• Configure is disabled: The number is either a DNI pool member or a hosted number. Neither has voice configuration to edit here.
• Remove is disabled: The number belongs to a call-tracking pool. Manage it under Dynamic Numbers.
• Removal says an emergency address is assigned: Unassign the address first. A Canadian number cannot be left without a Canadian address, so ask Steer Phones to handle that number’s removal.
• A change is refused because it would affect emergency calling: The message reads that the change would affect emergency calling configuration and to contact support. The number you are changing supplies the identity your phone system uses for 911, and no eligible replacement exists. Contact Steer Phones rather than trying a different order of operations.
• An E911 change says it is still processing: A previous registration or unregistration for that number has not finished. Wait and retry once instead of changing the selection repeatedly.
• No addresses are offered under E911 Emergency Address: None are registered for this phone system yet. Ask Steer Phones to register the site’s address.
• Routing shows “No schedule configured”: The phone system has no time periods, so there is nothing to route per period. Set up the schedule first.
• A number you expect is not listed: Check the phone system in the header, then remember that the search box only filters the rows on screen — page through or raise the page size.

Related guidance

• Assign E911 emergency addresses.
• Choose an outbound caller ID.
• Prepare to port existing numbers.
• Configure business hours and incoming call routing.
• Organize calls with tags and tag groups.
• Configure dynamic number insertion.