Create your account and set up your business

Welcome. This is the first of six short guides that take you from signing up to a live assistant answering your calls. Creating your account is free — no card, no trial clock. You pay only when you pick a plan on the last screen and take your assistant live.

Create your free account

Go to the signup page and create an account with your name, email, and a password — or with Google. We send one verification email; click it and you're in.

How setup looks

Setup is five screens, counted by the bar across the top: Business, Hours, Assistant, Duties, and Go live. Each one says which step it is and about how long it takes, and everything you enter is saved as you go — from screen 2 on, Save & finish later, at the top right, takes you to Home whenever you want to stop. On a wide screen, a dark preview on the right shows your assistant taking shape as you answer: the greeting callers will hear, a sample exchange, the duties it will run. It's a preview built from your answers, not a live call.

Screen 1 — Business

"Let's set up your front desk." Three things: your business name; What do you do? — the business type closest to yours, as a row of chips; and your website or Google listing (optional — if you give one, your assistant drafts your services, hours, and common questions from it in the background while you keep going). The business type gives your assistant a head start: what counts as an emergency, the common services and how long they take, the questions worth asking a caller. If nothing fits exactly, pick the closest — you can fine-tune everything after. A few types that aren't open yet are listed under Not open yet, with Request it. Under the website, a line shows the time zone your hours will run on, with change if it's wrong.

You won't be asked for your phone carrier here — that comes up when you connect your phone, after you're live. Your cell comes up on screen 4.

Screen 2 — Hours

"When are you open?" First your hours: tap the days you're open and set Opens and Closes (pre-filled from your website, or a weekday start you can change; Different hours on some days? sets each day on its own). Then When should your assistant answer?

• Every call, day and night — your assistant answers everything and puts callers through to you when you've asked it to. The simplest setup: one forwarding code, done.
• After hours and overflow — calls ring you first during open hours; your assistant picks up when you don't, and takes every call outside your hours.

Use these hours, beside Continue, keeps the hours shown; everything here is editable later in Settings.

What's next

Next you'll teach your assistant about your business — the services you offer and the questions customers ask most. That's step 2.