Setting up Teams phone and resource accounts

Hi EI J,

Thanks for contacting us, I'm glad you are using Teams phones for your business communication.

• A resource account is a special type of account that is associated with a phone number and a license, and is used for auto attendants and call queues in Teams.
• You can assign your main number to a resource account and use it as the public number for your business. You can also configure the resource account to forward calls to your user accounts or to a call queue.
• You can unassign the phone number from your user account and assign it to the resource account. However, you will need to assign another phone number to your user account if you want to make or receive calls from your Teams app.
• The best practice is to have one phone number per user account and one phone number per resource account. This way, you can have more flexibility and control over your calling features and settings
• You will need at least two phone numbers to do what you want: one for the resource account and one for your user account. You can either buy another number from Microsoft or transfer an existing number from another provider.

I hope this answers your questions and helps you set up your Teams phone and resource accounts correctly.

Regards, Sola

You're welcome. I'm happy to clarify your questions.

• The minimum of two phone numbers is for the resource account and the user account that will be using the Teams phone app. The resource account needs a phone number to be the public business number and to be used for the global outgoing caller ID. The user account needs a phone number to be able to make and receive calls using the Teams phone app. You can have more than one user account with a phone number, but each user account will need a separate Teams Phone with Calling Plan license.
• If you want to have two user accounts receive calls coming from the resource account, you can set up a call queue or an auto attendant that will ring both user accounts simultaneously or in order. You will need to create another resource account for the call queue or the auto attendant and assign it a Teams Phone Resource Account license. You don't need to assign a phone number to this resource account unless you want to dial out from it. You can then assign the resource account with the public business number as the call agent for the call queue or the auto attendant.
• The resource account with the public business number can have a voice mail for unanswered calls. You can configure the voice mail settings in the Teams admin center or using PowerShell. You can also forward the voice mail email to both user accounts by creating a mail flow rule in the Exchange admin center.

Let me know if this helps or if you need further assistance.

Regards, Sola

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Sola,

Thanks for the response. Just a couple questions for clarity:

You said at the end the minimum is two phone numbers. But does that mean then than only one person can make calls? Two user accounts can receive calls coming from the resource account, but only one can call? Or are you saying only the one user account with the phone number can make and receive calls?

The vast majority of our communication is by email, so I am just trying to keep the voice costs low.

Second question, with the resource account / number have a voice mail for unanswered calls that I can forward to both user accounts? I set it up now that the user account with the main number currently just forwards the VM email.

Thanks!!

Jefe