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The Business numbers page (sidebar: Your business, then the Business numbers tab) lists every number your customers call, and which AI Receptionist answers it. Every number on your account appears here with its status, whether you added it from this page or from a Receptionist’s editor.

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Your numbers at a glance

Each row shows the business number, who answers it (“Answered by” and the AI Receptionist’s name, or “Not assigned to an AI Receptionist yet”), a status chip, and a ⋮ menu holding whatever you can do with that number. To narrow the list, open the dropdown at the top of it and choose All, Assigned or Not assigned — each choice shows how many numbers it holds, such as All (5). The statuses you’ll see:
  • Active — live and answering.
  • Provisioning — the order is with the phone company. It usually clears on its own within moments, and the page keeps checking for you.
  • Failed — an order that didn’t go through. The number stays in the list so you can retry it from its row — see If a number cannot be set up.
  • Held — a number you’ve given up, kept for you in case you want it back.
  • Releasing — a held number whose hold has ended; it’s on its way back to the provider and can no longer be recovered.
Below the filter, a line names how many numbers your plan includes and how many you’re using — and, on a paid plan, what each number past that allowance adds per month, with the tax shown the way your country shows it. That way you know before adding a number whether it’s covered by your plan. The line turns amber once you’re over your allowance. See the Plans tab of Usage & billing for how allowances work.
Only workspace admins can add a business number or give one up. Everyone else in the workspace can still see the list.

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Add a number

1

Open the Add number panel

Choose Add number, at the top right of the list. A panel slides out titled Add a business number. If your account has no numbers yet, the page shows a Get a new number card instead of a list; its Choose a number button opens the same panel.
2

Search for a number

Type a location or prefix — a town, city, region or dialling prefix — and pick a match. A short list of Available numbers appears for it. Each number shows its location, and either Included (your plan covers it) or the monthly rate it would add.If the prefix you picked has run out but the same place still has numbers on other prefixes, the list shows those instead, under a note such as “No numbers were available in 404, here are some nearby alternatives.” If there are none there at all, you see “No numbers available for that prefix right now — try another.” Start typing a new search and the warning clears.
3

Check what it costs

Pick a number and the panel tells you plainly whether it’s included in your plan, or — if you’re past your allowance — exactly what it adds to your invoice and from when. Nothing is hidden until the bill.
4

Add it

Choose Add number. The number is ordered to your account straight away and appears in the list — Not assigned until you give it to an AI Receptionist.
If the number you add is past what your plan includes, we email your billing contact as well, confirming what it adds each month and the date the new amount is first charged. That happens every time you add an extra number, so a rise in your monthly bill is never a surprise — and nothing is charged on the day you add it.

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If the Add number button isn’t there

Adding a number needs a plan, and Moneypenny AI tells you so before you start searching. Wherever you’d normally begin — Add number on this page, or in the Business numbers section of a Receptionist’s editor — you get a Choose a plan button instead, with a short line saying why. The button takes you straight to the Plans tab of Usage & billing. If there are no numbers on your account at all, the Get a new number card shows the same Choose a plan button, with the line “Adding a number needs a plan. Choose one and you can pick your number straight after.” The reasons below still apply. There are two reasons for it:
  • Your account has no plan — you’re on Free Access, your plan has been cancelled, or your free trial has finished. The line reads “You’ll need a plan before you can add a business number.” Nothing you’ve set up is lost: your AI Receptionists and settings are still here, any numbers you had are held for you, and picking a plan brings it all back.
  • Your free trial’s number is already on your account — a trial includes one business number, and giving it up doesn’t free the place for another. To add a second number, choose a paid plan.
If you do reach the Add a business number panel — a Receptionist’s editor still offers it when you have a spare number to assign — it shows the same message and the same Choose a plan button, and offers nothing to search.
Assigning a number you already own is never blocked. If your account has a spare number — one that’s answering and not assigned to any Receptionist — the panel still lists it under Use one of your numbers with an Assign button, whatever your plan, because nothing new is being ordered. A number on Held isn’t a spare: it can’t be assigned until you take it back, so it isn’t offered here.

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If a number cannot be set up

Ordering a number is a request to the phone company, and now and then one of those requests can’t be completed. When that happens, the number stays in the list with a red Failed status. You’ll hear about it one of two ways:
  • While you’re adding it. The Add a business number panel closes, and a message tells you the number is waiting on the Business numbers page, where you can retry it, and that you haven’t been charged.
  • By email, later. If we only find out after the order is placed that it won’t complete, we email your workspace admins so you aren’t left waiting on a number that isn’t coming. The email’s Go to Business numbers button brings you back here.
Not every problem while adding a number leaves a Failed number behind. In these two cases nothing is added to your account and nothing is charged:
  • The number was just taken. Someone else got it between your search and your order. The panel says so and asks you to pick another from the list.
  • We couldn’t get through to the phone company. A message at the bottom of the screen asks you to try again in a few minutes. The panel stays open, so you can choose Add number again then. If a search can’t get through, the panel shows the same message where the list of numbers would be.
While a number is on Failed:
  • You haven’t paid for it. Nothing is charged for a Failed number, and nothing else about your account changes — your AI Receptionists and your other numbers carry on exactly as they were.
  • It doesn’t count against your allowance or your limit. It isn’t one of the numbers your plan includes, and it doesn’t count towards the cap on how many numbers you can add in one billing period. That holds on a free trial too: the one number your trial includes is still yours to use.
To try again, open the ⋮ menu on the number’s row and choose Retry. Workspace admins get Retry whenever they could add a number — if Add number isn’t available to you, neither is Retry (see If the Add number button isn’t there). Within your plan’s allowance, the retry goes ahead straight away. If your account is already using all the numbers your plan includes, you’re asked to confirm first, in a dialog titled “Retry” followed by the number. It shows the same cost details as the Add a business number panel (see Add a number): nothing is charged today, and the number adds the extra-number rate to your invoice from your plan’s renewal date. Choose Retry to go ahead, or Cancel to leave the number on Failed. A message at the bottom of the screen tells you how the retry went:
  • It worked. The number moves on to Provisioning or Active, and from then on it counts and costs the same as any other number on your account.
  • It still didn’t work. The row stays on Failed, and the message asks you to try again in a few minutes. You still haven’t been charged.
  • The number is no longer available. The row stays on Failed, and the message says the number can’t be set up, so retrying won’t help. You still haven’t been charged: remove it from the Business numbers page and add a different number instead, as described below.
You don’t have to retry. To get rid of a Failed number you don’t want, open the ⋮ menu on its row, choose Remove number, then confirm. Workspace admins can do this on any account, including a free trial, even when Add number isn’t available. The row leaves the list straight away, the number goes back to the phone company, and it’s taken off any Receptionist it was on. Removing a Failed number can’t be undone: unlike giving up a working number, there’s no hold and no Keep it. It doesn’t count towards your per-billing-period cap or your trial’s one number either. For a replacement, choose Add number and select a different number: any other number works exactly as that one would have, so a nearby number from the same location is usually the quickest fix.
If a number sits on Provisioning far longer than you’d expect, don’t keep waiting on it — contact support and we’ll find out where the order stands. Quote the number you were trying to add.

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Put a number on a Receptionist

Assigning happens in your AI Receptionist’s editor, in its Business numbers section — the numbers your customers call to reach this Receptionist.
1

Open the Receptionist's Business numbers section

Open the Receptionist and go to Business numbers. The section lists every number this Receptionist answers, with its status and whether it takes calls and SMS.
2

Add a number to the Receptionist

Choose Add number. If the Receptionist has no number yet, the section says Add a business number to go live, with the same button underneath. If your account already has spare numbers, the panel offers them first under Use one of your numbers — choose Assign next to one and it’s routed to this Receptionist with nothing new ordered. Or search and order a fresh number, which is assigned to the Receptionist as soon as it’s ordered.
If a fresh number can’t be set up, it isn’t put on the Receptionist: retry it from the Business numbers page, then assign it here as a spare. A number already in this section whose order fails shows Failed, with a Retry button next to its ✕ whenever you could add a number. The ✕ here only unassigns it. To get rid of a Failed number, remove it from the Business numbers page, which takes it off this Receptionist too. To take a number off a Receptionist, use the ✕ on its row in the same section and choose Unassign to confirm. The Receptionist stops answering that number straight away, and a message confirms it has been unassigned from this Receptionist. Unassigning only detaches it from this Receptionist — a working number stays on your account as a spare, ready to reassign. A Failed number stays on your account too, but not as a spare: the confirmation tells you it can’t be reassigned here, and points you to the Business numbers page to retry it or remove it. Giving a number up entirely happens on the Business numbers page; see Give up a number. Adding and unassigning numbers aren’t part of the Receptionist’s draft: each takes effect as soon as you do it, with nothing to publish, and Discard draft doesn’t undo it. A number answers for one Receptionist at a time, so a number that’s already on another Receptionist isn’t offered here. Removing an AI Receptionist frees its numbers the same way: they stay on your account and turn up as Not assigned, ready to give to another Receptionist. Nothing goes back to the phone company unless you give it up yourself. Callers on a number always reach the Receptionist’s published version — changes still in your draft don’t reach them until you publish. A paused Receptionist doesn’t answer its numbers until you resume it.