An IVR is a press-1-press-2 phone menu: callers hear an announcement and press a key on their phone to be routed to the right destination.
IVRs are managed at Tools / Setup → Interactive Voice Response. They are often combined with time conditions so the menu only plays during business hours.
An IVR needs an audio playback — a WAV file or a text-to-speech announcement. If you haven't created one yet, see Announcements first, or add one while creating the IVR.
¶ Create an IVR
- Go to Tools / Setup → Interactive Voice Response.
- Click New IVR (①).
The IVR editor has two tabs: IVR Settings and Route Configuration.
¶ IVR settings
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | A label for the IVR. |
| Description (①) | Your notes on the menu. Make it mirror the audio (e.g. "Press 1 for Sales…") so the setup is easy to read. |
| Audio Playback (②) | The announcement callers hear. Pick an existing one or click Add New Announcement. |
| Selection Timeout (③) | How many seconds to wait after the announcement for the caller to press a key. |
¶ Route configuration
The Route Configuration tab has two parts: keypad routes and system routes.
¶ Keypad routes
Keypad Routes (①) is a grid of the keys a caller can press: 1–9, 0, * and #.
- Click a key to set what it does.
- Choose the destination — a User, Call Group, Queue, a multi-step route, another IVR, and so on. These are the same route types as Call Routes.
- Repeat for each key your announcement mentions.
Configured keys are highlighted in the grid. A single key can point at a multi-step route — for example, ring an extension directly first, then fall through to a call group or queue if there's no answer.
¶ System routes
System Routes (②) cover the edge cases. All three are required.
| System route | When it runs |
|---|---|
| Error Occurrence | Something goes wrong handling the call. |
| Invalid Keypad Selection | The caller presses a key that isn't configured. |
| Keypad Selection Timeout | The caller presses nothing before the Selection Timeout expires — e.g. replay the IVR, or push them through to an extension, call group, or queue. |
Direct extension dialling: while the IVR announcement is playing, a caller can dial a user's extension directly — either their 6-digit number or their MyPBX short code — to reach that person without using the menu.
¶ Example: a typical menu
| Key | Destination |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sales (call group) |
| 2 | Support (queue) |
| 3 | Accounts (user) |
| No selection | Reception (via Keypad Selection Timeout) |
The description for this IVR would read: "Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Support, 3 for Accounts" — matching the announcement word for word.
¶ Put the IVR live
An IVR does nothing until a call reaches it. Add it as a step in a number's call route — see Call Routes.
Test the IVR by calling the number yourself: check every configured key, press an unconfigured key, and let the announcement time out to confirm each route behaves as expected.