Microsoft Teams Phone call forwarding to Terva
Use this if your practice number rings on Microsoft Teams Phone. A Teams admin makes these changes, on the auto attendant or call queue that answers your practice number.
Your phones ring first, so the front desk gets the first chance to answer. Terva answers when nobody picks up.
Enter it once and every code on this page uses it. Copy works once it’s filled in.
Turn off voicemail first
Voicemail or a recorded message that answers first stops the call reaching Terva.
Find the last step of your main number’s call flow when nobody answers. If it’s voicemail, a recorded message or night mode, replace it with your Terva number.
Turn off any “press 1 to accept” or call confirm on forwarded calls, or Terva can’t answer them.
Choose when Terva answers
We recommend When no one answers, left on all the time. The rest are optional.
Aim for a 15-second ring time. 10 to 20 seconds is fine. If calls enter a queue, set the caller’s total wait to about 15 to 30 seconds.
In the Teams admin center, go to Voice, then Call queues, and open the queue for your practice number.
Under Exception handling, set Call timeout to 15–30 seconds.
Choose Redirect to External phone number and enter your Terva number in +61 format.
+61 X XXXX XXXX (your Terva number)
In the Teams admin center, go to Voice, then Call queues, and open the queue for your practice number.
Under Exception handling, set Call timeout (also called Call timeout handling) to 15–30 seconds. This is the most time a caller waits on hold.
Choose Redirect to External phone number and enter your Terva number in +61 format.
+61 X XXXX XXXX (your Terva number)
Overflow is a separate queue-full limit. It starts only once that many callers are already waiting; the timeout sends waiting callers to Terva sooner.
Check with your provider
A busy team does not trigger an immediate forward in a queue. The caller waits until Call timeout. Ask your Microsoft admin or phone provider if you need a different busy rule.
In the Teams admin center, go to Voice, then Auto attendants, and open the one for your practice number.
Under Call handling hours, set your time zone and opening hours.
In the after-hours call flow, choose Redirect call, then External phone number.
+61 X XXXX XXXX (your Terva number)Do the same in the holidays call flow if you use one.
Ring time
Set the no-answer ring time to 15 seconds where you can. 10 to 20 seconds is fine. For a call queue, set the caller’s total wait to about 15 to 30 seconds.
The queue’s Call timeout is the total time a caller waits. Set 15 seconds; 15–30 seconds is suitable for a queue.
Check it works
- From another phone, not one on your practice line, ring your practice number.
- Don’t answer at the practice. Let it ring out.
- Terva answers.
- Do it again once after hours. If voicemail, or someone carrying the practice phone, answers first, the call won’t reach Terva.
Ringing your Terva number directly doesn’t test forwarding. To test When busy, keep another call going on the line first. Test the after-hours route after closing.
Signed up to Terva? Press Check it works on Phone line, and Terva rings your line for you. How the check works.
Turn forwarding off
Set each call flow and exception you changed back to its previous destination.
Ring your practice number again to check calls stay with your team.
Someone else looks after your phones?
Copy this, fill in the [brackets] and send it. It has your Terva number once you enter it above.
Whoever runs your phone system
3CX, Maxo, Teams, Zoom, RingCentral, TIPT, hosted desk phones, or an IT company that manages them.
Hi, we’re setting up Terva to answer our practice’s calls when our team can’t. Please make this change for calls to our main number, [practice number]:
1. Find what answers that number first: a menu (auto attendant), ring group, queue or time switch. 2. When nobody answers within 15 seconds, or a caller has waited 30 seconds in a queue, send the call to our Terva number 0X XXXX XXXX as an external number. Use +61 X XXXX XXXX if the system needs +61. 3. If a menu answers, send callers who press nothing to the same place after the timeout. 4. Outside our opening hours ([opening hours]), send calls to 0X XXXX XXXX instead of voicemail or a closed message.
Please also: - make sure voicemail doesn’t answer before this - turn off any “press 1 to accept” or call confirm on forwarded calls - keep the caller’s number showing (caller ID pass-through) - leave our daytime ringing as it is, so our phones ring first
Please tell us what you changed and how to undo it. When it’s done, Terva will ring our number to check it works.
Thanks, [your name]
Good to know
Check with your provider
Redirecting to an external number needs the right Teams licences on the auto attendant or queue. Since 1 November 2025, Microsoft Calling Plan numbers also need pay-as-you-go credit. Ask your Microsoft admin or phone provider to confirm before you start.
Check with your provider
Telstra Calling for Office 365 ends on 30 November 2026. Numbers through Operator Connect may not allow transfers to an outside number, so ask your provider.
Sources
These steps follow the provider’s own guides, checked in September and October 2026. Menus change, so if a step doesn’t match what you see, check with your provider.
Other phone systems
See every phone system- A phone system answers first
- Calls already go to a mobile
- Telstra mobile
- Optus mobile
- Vodafone mobile
- Boost, ALDI, amaysim and others
- Telstra home or business phone
- Optus landline
- TPG or iiNet
- Aussie Broadband
- 3CX
- Maxo (MaxoTel)
- Hosted desk phones
- Zoom Phone
- RingCentral
- Telstra TIPT
- Older phone system or adaptor box
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