How to Set Up Call Forwarding with Ooma Office (2026)

Ooma Office gives you four distinct ways to route incoming calls: forward everything immediately, forward only when you are busy or unavailable, forward automatically after hours and on weekends, or turn forwarding off entirely. This guide covers all four, in order, so you can set up exactly what your business needs in a single session.

Before you start, log in to your Ooma Office Manager at office.ooma.com and have the forwarding number ready — your answering service line, mobile number, or on-call destination.

How to forward all calls with Ooma Office

This setting redirects every incoming call to an external number the moment it arrives. Your Ooma desk phone will not ring at all while this is active. Use it when you are traveling, out of office for the day, or want a live answering service to handle everything without exception.

You have three ways to turn it on — the star code is the fastest, the web portal gives you the most control, and the mobile app works if you are already away from your desk.

Option A — Star code from any Ooma phone (fastest)

1. Pick up any Ooma desk phone, IP phone, or open the Ooma mobile app.
2. Dial *72.
3. Wait for the audio prompt.
4. Enter the 10-digit forwarding number followed by #. Do not include +1.
5. The system reads the number back to confirm. Hang up.

All calls to your extension now go directly to that number. Your desk phone stays silent until you disable forwarding.

Option B — Ooma Office Manager web portal

1. Go to office.ooma.com and sign in.
2. In the left menu, click Users and select the extension you want to forward.
3. Click the gear icon next to that user and select Call Handling.
4. Scroll to the Call Forwarding section and check the box to enable it.
5. Enter the forwarding number in the field provided.
6. Under Caller ID, choose whether the recipient sees the original caller’s number or your company number. For answering services, original caller number is usually the right choice so the operator knows who is calling.
7. Click Save.

Option C — Ooma mobile app

1. Open the Ooma Office mobile app.
2. Tap More in the bottom menu.
3. Tap Call Forward and toggle it on.
4. Enter your forwarding number and save.

How to set up overflow call forwarding with Ooma

Overflow forwarding only kicks in when your line is unavailable — either because you are already on a call or because you did not pick up in time. When you are free, calls reach you normally. This is the right setup if you handle most calls yourself but want a live backup for the moments you cannot get to the phone.

Ooma offers two overflow rules. Use them together for complete coverage.

Forward when busy

This triggers when your line is already on an active call and a second caller tries to reach you.

1. Log in to office.ooma.com.
2. Go to Users, click the gear icon on the relevant extension, and select Call Handling.
3. Locate Call Forward When Busy and enable it.
4. Enter the forwarding number.
5. Click Save.

Forward when unanswered

This triggers when your phone rings but nobody picks up within a set number of seconds.

1. In the same Call Handling panel, locate Call Forward When Unanswered and enable it.
2. Set the ring duration. A 20 to 25 second window gives you enough time to answer without making callers wait too long.
3. Enter the forwarding number — this can be the same number as your busy forwarding destination.
4. Click Save.

How to set up after-hours and weekend call forwarding with Ooma

After-hours and weekend forwarding is time-based and fully automatic. You define your business hours once, and Ooma switches call routing on its own every day — no manual toggling required when you leave the office on Friday evening.

This works through the Ooma Office Virtual Receptionist and its schedule settings, not through the basic extension forwarding covered above. You need administrator access to configure it.

Step 1 — Define your business hours

1. Log in to office.ooma.com as an administrator.
2. Go to Settings and open your Virtual Receptionist.
3. Click the Schedule tab.
4. Select a day from the dropdown and use the slider to set your open hours for that day. Repeat for each weekday.
5. If your hours vary day to day — shorter on Fridays, closed Wednesday afternoons — click + Add new time interval and add a separate row for each variation.
6. Leave Saturday and Sunday out of the schedule entirely if your business is closed on weekends. Ooma will treat those days as after-hours automatically.
7. Save your schedule.

Step 2 — Set the After Hours action to forward calls

1. Still inside the Virtual Receptionist settings, click the After Hours tab.
2. Set the default action to Forward to external number.
3. Enter the forwarding number — your answering service line, personal mobile, or on-call destination.
4. Optionally add a short greeting so callers know they are being transferred. Keep it brief — callers who are calling outside business hours typically want to reach someone, not hear a long message.
5. Click Save.

From this point on, every call that arrives outside your defined hours routes to the forwarding number automatically. The switch happens based on your time zone settings in Ooma, so double-check that the correct time zone is selected in your account settings if you operate across multiple states.

Step 3 — Add holiday closures (optional)

1. In the Schedule tab, use the + Add dropdown and choose Add holiday list.
2. In the Edit Holiday Schedule window, add each date your business will be closed all day.
3. By default, Ooma plays the After Hours menu on all holidays — meaning calls forward to your external number just as they do on evenings and weekends.
4. Ooma Pro Plus subscribers can create a separate holiday menu with distinct messaging or routing if needed.
5. Save the holiday list.

How to turn off call forwarding on Ooma

Disabling forwarding takes the same amount of time as enabling it. Use the method that matches how you turned it on.

Turn off all-call forwarding (star codes)

• Disable and clear the forwarding number: Dial *73 from any Ooma phone. The system confirms forwarding is off and erases the stored number.
• Toggle without re-entering the number: Dial *74. This switches forwarding on or off using the number already stored, so you do not have to retype it each time. Useful if you enable and disable forwarding daily.

Turn off forwarding via the web portal

1. Log in to office.ooma.com and go to the user’s Call Handling settings.
2. Uncheck the Call Forwarding box (or the busy/unanswered boxes if you are turning off overflow rules).
3. Click Save. Calls return to ringing your Ooma devices immediately.

Turn off forwarding via the mobile app

1. Open the Ooma Office app, tap More, then tap Call Forward.
2. Toggle it off. Changes take effect immediately.

Turn off after-hours forwarding

To stop after-hours routing, go back to the Virtual Receptionist Schedule tab and either remove the business hours schedule (so the After Hours menu no longer applies) or change the After Hours action from “Forward to external number” to your preferred alternative — such as playing a voicemail prompt or routing to a ring group.

Disable call screening before forwarding calls to an answering service

Ooma Office has a call screening feature called Require key press on answer. When this is on, the person who picks up a forwarded call must press a key on their keypad before the call connects. The idea is to confirm a live person answered rather than a voicemail inbox.

The problem is that professional answering services answer with a live operator, and that key press requirement adds an awkward delay at the start of every call. It can also interfere with some answering service systems, causing calls to drop or connect incorrectly.

We recommend disabling this feature when forwarding to a live answering service. Here is how:

1. Log in to office.ooma.com and go to Users.
2. Click the gear icon on the relevant extension and select Call Handling.
3. Find the Require key press on answer option and uncheck it.
4. Click Save.

Once this is off, forwarded calls connect instantly when the answering service picks up, with no prompts or delays. Callers get a clean, professional experience from the first word.

Frequently asked questions