This guide is for supervisors and admins who are getting ready to roll out Aircall to their team. It’s your 30-day guide to set things up confidently and start getting the most value out of Aircall as quickly as possible. It will help you:

Note: If you are still on a trial, start by reading Trial experience with Aircall so you know what is included in your trial and what will change once you move to a full account. You can still follow this checklist to understand what the onboarding journey looks like and prepare your setup.

Article overview

Use this overview to navigate directly to the section that’s most relevant to what you’re working on:

  1. Log in to Aircall Dashboard
  2. Set up your numbers in Aircall Dashboard
  3. Create your users, teams, and build call distribution
  4. Use AI Voice Agent to protect your lines and reduce missed calls 
  5. Set up messaging (SMS, Whatsapp and compliance)
  6. Get your team working in Aircall Workspace
  7. Connect your key tools with Aircall (integrations)
  8. Use Aircall Analytics and Live Monitoring in your first month
  9. Other high-value features to explore 
  10. If you need help

1. Log in to Aircall Dashboard

Mainly relevant for: Admin & Supervisors

Login to Aircall Dashboard, which is the primary platform for Admins and Supervisors. You can find more information on how to access and navigate the Aircall Dashboard in our articles:

When you open the Aircall Dashboard, we advise you to start from the Home tab. This page gives you a built-in onboarding checklist where you can see and track your progress on the basics. 

In the next steps of this guideline, we will provide you with instructions on how to make the most out of Aircall Dashboard during your first weeks.

Even though as an Admin or Supervisor your primary platform will be Aircall Dashboard, you can also sign in to Aircall Workspace to handle conversations. You can download the Aircall Workspace desktop and mobile app via aircall.io/download.

Note: Agents handle customer calls in Aircall Workspace. Supervisors and Admins use both Aircall Workspace and Aircall Dashboard. Supervisors primarily use the Aircall Dashboard for monitoring and coaching, while Admins use it for system configuration, number management, and user management.

For more details about the different roles and access levels, see the article Aircall roles and permissions.
Note: If you have Owner permissions, you have access to billing and company-level settings in the Aircall Dashboard. Your configuration capabilities are determined by your role, the Owner permission only adds access to billing and account details.
If you have questions about charges, invoices, or payment methods, see the Billing & Subscription section.

2. Set up your numbers in Aircall Dashboard

Mainly relevant for: Admin

From Aircall Dashboard → Numbers tab, you can easily create new Aircall numbers or port your existing business numbers from your former provider. This section helps you choose the right option, understand verification requirements, and get your numbers ready for later call routing.

Choose how you’ll get your numbers

There are two ways to get numbers in Aircall:

  1. Create new Aircall numbers directly from the Aircall Dashboard
  2. Port existing numbers from your current provider
Note: Number porting isn’t available during trial. If you’re testing Aircall, start with new numbers and plan porting for when you’re ready to go live.

Create new numbers (new number creation & verification)

  1. In Aircall Dashboard → Numbers tab, create the first numbers you’ll use (for example, your main line, sales,  support line, or direct phone lines). 

    Please see our article Creating a new number in Aircall for more information. Number creation is available via Aircall Dashboard or via request with our Support Team, depending on the number purchasing requirements 

  2. If you are creating an international number, make sure you have the necessary documentation to create the number for the country you’re targeting. You can find this information in our article: Number purchase requirements by country. 

    To know more about the document submission process and timelines, please see Verifying your number on the Aircall Dashboard.

Important: For you to start using your new numbers, your documents need to be validated. Please note that US numbers can be created immediately, whereas for other countries it may take up to three days, depending on the submitted documents.
During the approval process, you can still set up your number in the call distribution.

Port existing numbers (bring your own numbers)

If you want to keep the numbers that are already on your website, email signatures, or marketing materials:

  1. Learn about the Aircall porting process in our article Aircall porting guide.
  2. Review the porting requirements by country in our article Number porting requirements by country.
  3. Submit a request to port your selected numbers via the Aircall Dashboard. Go to the Numbers section and click on Create or port a number > Port a number. 
  4. Make sure internal stakeholders know that porting can take time (around 2-3 weeks), and plan your go-live accordingly. You can continue with the number configuration while the porting is in progress, but the number won’t be usable within Aircall until the process is complete.

Outbound calling guidelines

If you’re planning to call internationally or running campaigns, we encourage you to review our Guidelines for Outbound Calling: Permissions and Restrictions, especially for North America and other regulated regions.

You can find articles with detailed information about numbers in our Number management section. 

A2P 10DLC messaging regulation

If you have created US numbers and you’re planning to use it for sending SMS to US phone numbers, you will need to submit a registration form directly in the Aircall Dashboard as soon as possible. Please check these articles to know where to start: A2P 10DLC.

3. Create your users & teams and build call distribution

Mainly relevant for: Admin

Create users and teams in Aircall based on your organizational structure, so that the right people receive the right calls, and you can report accurately on how your teams perform. 

Note: Smartflows = call distribution
Smartflows is the feature in the Aircall Dashboard that allows you to build your call distribution: who rings, when it rings, how long it rings, in which order, with which menus and messages, and what happens if nobody answers.

Create your users and teams

In Aircall Dashboard → Users & Teams tab:

  1. Create one or multiple users: add everyone who will work in Aircall. 

  2. Assign each user the right user role and permissions. For example, Agent, Supervisor, or Admin. Owner permissions can be added on top of a role. 

    For more information on how to create users and assign them roles, please visit Managing individual users in the Aircall Dashboard.

  3. Create your teams (for call queues and routing calls to groups of users), for example, Sales or Support.

    For details on how to create your teams, please refer to our article Managing teams in the Aircall Dashboard.

If you want to manage your team and users availability, please see our article Admins: Configure your Custom Working Hours and Manage Availability.

You can find more articles with detailed information about users and teams management in our Users & teams section.

Assign users and teams to numbers

To decide who actually receives calls on a number, you configure the call distribution in Smartflows:

  1. In Aircall Dashboard → Numbers, select the number you want to configure.
  2. Go to the Call distribution tab to open the Smartflow for that number.
  3. Add one or more Ring To widgets and select the teams and/or specific users who should receive calls for this number. This is what assigns them to the number’s call queue.
  4. If you need someone who can make calls but not receive them (for example, a manager who only joins or monitors calls), use the Calls and data access setting on the number Teams & Users tab instead of adding them to the Ring To steps.

You can go to the number Teams & Users tab and check the Assigned users and teams section to review which users and teams are attached, but editing who receives calls is done through the Smartflow.

For more information on how to assign users and teams to numbers, please refer to our articles Smartflows: Ring To widget and Configuring Numbers: Integrations and Teams & Users.

Note: Agents cannot receive calls if they are not assigned to a number/part of a call distribution. In this situation, if an agent tries to make a call in Aircall Workspace, the call button will be greyed out.

Build your call distribution with Smartflows

Once users, teams, and numbers exist, you can design how calls move through your system in Smartflows:

  1. Go to Aircall Dashboard → Numbers
  2. Select the number and go to the Call distribution section
  3. Choose a Smartflows template (for example, simple queue, IVR, after-hours flow) or start from scratch.
Tip: Templates are a good way to get started quickly without designing every step yourself.
  1. Configure your business hours via the Time Rule widget to determine when your line is open or closed. 
  2. Configure how calls should ring: choose whether certain people should always ring first or whether calls should ring the whole team. You can learn more about the available ringing options in our Ring To widget article.
  3. Add voicemail, waiting music and other audio messages. For more information about how to configure voicemail messages, see our article Configuring Numbers: Voicemail, Music, and Messages.
  4. For each number, create the appropriate Smartflow.

To keep things manageable at first, start with one clear path per number, for example:

  • Greeting → ring Sales team → voicemail
  • Greeting → IVR (“1 for Sales, 2 for Support”) → team → voicemail

You can find more information about number configuration, call distribution and available Smartflows widgets in our Routing & call flows section.

Test and Edit your call flows

Before you roll out to everyone:

  1. Test with a small group: Ask 1–2 admins,  team leads, and/or a few agents to make and receive test calls.
  2. Test different scenarios:
    • Call during business hours and outside business hours for each respective phone number
    • Let a call ring without answering to see what happens (queue, voicemail, fallback).
    • Try transfers and internal calls between teams.
  3. Check what you see in Aircall Workspace and confirm calls appear as expected.

If something doesn’t behave as expected, adjust the Smartflow and repeat the test before adding more branches or queues.

4. Use AI Voice Agent to protect your lines and reduce missed calls

Mainly relevant for: Admin & Supervisors

Once your basics (numbers, routing and teams) are stable, you can start exploring AI Voice Agent.

AI Virtual Agent is an AI-powered tool that helps you handle inbound calls more efficiently. It can:

  • Collect structured callback requests for your team outside business hours, so you can return calls with full context.
  • Deflect simple, repetitive FAQs as a first line of defence before transferring to a human representative.
  • Act as a virtual receptionist by collecting key information (name, reason for calling, account details) before routing to the right queue or person.
  • Gatekeep access to your team by qualifying callers (e.g. existing customers vs prospects, high priority vs low priority) before ringing agents.
  • Act as a safety net when your human representatives are too busy to take new calls, helping ensure no call is completely missed.
  • Reduce wait times and missed calls overall, while sharing call recaps in Aircall Workspace for follow-up.

To get started:

  1. Read Aircall’s AI Voice Agent overview for capabilities and prerequisites.
  2. Choose one or two simple use cases to pilot.
  3. Configure AI Voice Agent, in the AI Voice Agent Tab in the dashboard, on the relevant numbers and integrate it into your Smartflows by adding the AI voice agent widget into your call distribution.
  4. Monitor results in Analytics / Live Monitoring and adjust prompts and flows as you learn.

5. Set up messaging (SMS, WhatsApp, and compliance)

Mainly relevant for: Admin

With Aircall, you can do more than make and receive calls - you can also use it as a powerful messaging tool. This means you can exchange SMS and MMS messages, and even set up WhatsApp for your business using your Aircall numbers. Let’s zoom in on the most important aspects of the messaging tools.

SMS & MMS

• Availability:
Before enabling SMS & MMS, make sure your numbers are compatible with the guidelines linked. You can check the list of supported countries and requirements in the article SMS (Business Text Messaging).

• Enablement:
SMS & MMS are enabled at the company level. Once activated, you’ll see the SMS/MMS icon next to compatible numbers in the Numbers tab of your Aircall Dashboard. To enable the feature, simply reach out to our Customer Support team.

• Messaging limits:
To ensure a smooth experience, make sure you’re familiar with messaging limitations as well as supported file sizes and formats for MMS.

• CRM Logging:
Your SMS activity can be automatically logged into supported CRM integrations such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Monday, Intercom, and Zoho CRM. Make sure this is configured from day one for optimal tracking.

A2P 10DLC 

Planning to send SMS or MMS using US or Canadian numbers? If yes, this step is mandatory.

To stay compliant with carrier regulations, you must complete your A2P 10DLC registration:

If you use Toll-Free numbers for SMS/MMS

If you plan to send SMS/MMS from US or Canadian Toll-Free numbers, they do not go through A2P 10DLC. Instead, they must be Toll-Free verified:

  • Toll-Free verification is a separate, mandatory process for all businesses using US/CA Toll-Free numbers for messaging.
  • While verification is pending, outbound SMS is allowed but subject to strict limits; unverified Toll-Free traffic can be blocked by carriers.
  • To verify your Toll-Free numbers, you need to contact Aircall Support and submit your business details, use case, expected volume, and opt-in information.

For full details and current limits, see Messaging compliance for Toll-Free US and Canada numbers.

Important: Outbound SMS from Aircall numbers to Toll-Free numbers is not supported. See Cannot send text messages (SMS/MMS) to Toll-Free numbers for more information.

WhatsApp in Aircall

If WhatsApp is a key communication channel for your customers, you can integrate it seamlessly with the WhatsApp in Aircall add-on.

What it enables:

  • Use your Aircall numbers for WhatsApp messaging
  • Send, receive, and track WhatsApp messages directly from Aircall Workspace and CRMs

To get started:

  1. Make sure you have a Meta Business Account ready. This step may be a bit tricky, so we recommend you to take the Whatsapp course in the Aircall Learning Lab to learn more about it.
Important: Having a Meta Business Account ready is required for Whatsapp to work.
  1. Add WhatsApp in Aircall to your subscription in Aircall Dashboard > My Company > Plan. Please note this will need to be done by someone with Owner permissions.
  2. Follow Setting up WhatsApp in Aircall to connect the correct numbers
  3. Create WhatsApp message templates that best serve your business needs
  4. In the Aircall dashboard, in the users & teams section, assign licenses to your agents, under assigned add ons,  so they can use WhatsApp with their Aircall numbers

6. Get your team working in Aircall Workspace

Mainly relevant for: Admin & Supervisors

Make sure agents know where to work and how to handle calls from day one.

Introduce Aircall Workspace

  1. Share our articles What is Aircall Workspace? or How to access Aircall Workspace and make calls with all new agents.
  2. Emphasize that Aircall Workspace, whether web, desktop, or mobile, is their main app for calls, messages, and call history.
  3. For agents and supervisors, share with them our Agent getting started guide: your first week in Aircall Workspace.

Align on basic behaviors

Clear expectations here will help your team get more value from Aircall and make reporting more meaningful. Make sure your agents know:

  1. How to change their agent availability status and how their status impacts call routing and reporting
  2. When and how to use After Call Work (ACW) to finish notes and tagging post call
  3. How to log quality notes, tags and dispositions so that Analytics and monitoring data stays relevant and useful.

You can reinforce these expectations in whatever format your team already uses (for example, a short internal doc, onboarding checklist, or coaching sessions).

For more details on these concepts, see our articles:

7. Connect your key tools with Aircall (integrations)

Mainly relevant for: Admin

Connecting Aircall to your other tools keeps calls, customer context, and follow-up actions in one place. Integrations reduce manual work, improve reporting, and makes Aircall harmonious embedded in your day-to-day workflows.

You can find articles with detailed information about the basics of using integrations in our Integration Basics section.

Choose one primary integration to start

Start with the tool that is most central to your team’s daily work, typically your CRM or helpdesk.

Most common CRM and helpdesk integrations include: Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Pipedrive, Monday.com and Shopify. 

You can also explore many more options directly from the Aircall App Marketplace, where you’ll find all supported integrations and their requirements.

Before configuring, quickly check any prerequisites in the integration’s documentation (permissions, plan requirements, technical setup, etc.).

Use the “How to configure” articles

  1. Open the integration’s setup guide:
  2. Configure:
    • How calls are logged (automatic versus manual),
    • Where notes and tags appear (if available for your integration),
    • Which objects calls attach to, such as contacts, tickets, or deals.

8. Use Aircall Analytics and Live Monitoring in your first month

Mainly relevant for: Admin & Supervisors

Aircall offers a suite of analytics and live monitoring tools that help you measure how your team is using Aircall, understand agent & team performance, and run your operations more effectively. 

You can access these in the left-hand menu of the Aircall Dashboard. The main ones are:

Live Monitoring

Use Live Monitoring to see what’s happening in real time (current calls, queues, agent status) so you can provide your teams with live support.

The exact capabilities depend on your plan: Live Monitoring Lite if you have an Essential plan, Live Monitoring Pro if you have a Professional plan, or Live Monitoring+ if you have the Analytics+ add-on. 

For details, please see our article Get started with Live Monitoring & Live Monitoring+.

Analytics

Under Analytics, you’ll find several dashboards that help you understand trends and performance over time. The exact dashboards and its capabilities depend on your plan (Essential, Professional or Analytics+ add-on), but typically include:

  • Overview: overall activity across calls, messages, and AI Voice Agent usage; key trends and KPIs at a glance.
  • Network Diagnostics: detect and troubleshoot network or quality issues.
  • Inbound / Outbound / Unanswered / User Activity (available for customers with the Professional plan and the Analytics+ add-on): focused views to understand inbound call volume, outbound call volume, missed calls, and agent behavior.
  • Analytics+ dashboards (for example, User Activity+, Inbound+, Outbound+, Unanswered Calls+, Monitoring+, User Status History+): advanced analytics available to customers with the Analytics+ add-on.

For a full breakdown of which Analytics dashboards are available on each plan, please see our article Analytics features by plan: what’s included? 

For step-by-step guidance on specific dashboards and best practices, visit our Analytics & Monitoring section in the Help Center.

9. Other high-value features to explore

Once your basics (numbers, routing, messages, integrations and AI Voice Agent) are stable, you can start exploring other productivity features that amplify the value of Aircall.

  • Power Dialer (only available on the Professional plan): a sequential/single line sales dialer that automatically moves through call lists so reps can speak with more prospects with less manual dialing, especially when combined with CRM integrations.
  • AI Assist Pro: advanced AI that gives real-time coaching, live prompts, and automated post-call workflows to help agents run better conversations and save time on admin.
  • Aircall Surveys: allows you to send after-call surveys by SMS or email to measure customer satisfaction and team performance on the phone.

Each of these has its own dedicated Help Center section with setup steps and best practices. If you want to explore other Aircall features, please see aircall.io/pricing

10. If you need help

While experiencing issues using Aircall Workspace or Aircall Dashboard, you can seek help by:

Checking our Help Center and AI Assistant

  • Open our Help Center and use the Aircall AI Assistant for instant suggestions.
  • Make sure you explain in detail what you are looking for: what are you trying to do? What kind of difficulties are you experiencing?. 
  • Follow the recommended troubleshooting steps for your situation.

If you have questions about charges, invoices, or payment methods, see our Billing & Subscription section.

If you need further assistance, you can reach out to Aircall Customer Support.

Tip: If you would like to have a deep dive on everything we have shared with you in this guideline, please visit Aircall Learning Lab: An Overview. You will find relevant learning paths, such as Smartflows, analytics, or AI features.