Build an inbound IVR

An inbound IVR is the menu a caller hears when they ring your number: press one for this, press two for that. You build it as a flow chart at Phone›Inbound IVR.

The six node types

+ Add Node gives you six things, and that is the whole vocabulary:

Node	What it does
Greeting	Says something. Text-to-speech, or your own recording.
Menu	Says something, then waits for a digit. One output per digit.
Send SMS	Texts the caller, and optionally speaks a line after sending.
Forward Call	Rings a real phone.
Voicemail	Records a message.
Hang Up	Ends the call.

Build it

Add your nodes first, then wire them. Every new node lands in the same spot in the middle of the canvas, so drag each one into place as you create it or they stack on top of each other.
Fill in a node by clicking it. Its properties open on the right. Click Apply when you are done — an edit that is not applied is not saved.
Connect two nodes by clicking the output dot on the first, then the input dot on the second. It is click-then-click, not drag. The grey dot on top of a node is its input; the red dots are outputs. A menu has one red dot per digit. Press Esc to cancel a connection you started by mistake.
Save with Save Flow.
Turn it on with the Enable IVR toggle — deliberately separate from saving, so you can build and save a flow without it answering calls yet.

Add every menu option before you type anything

Clicking + Add Option redraws the properties panel and clears any edits you have not applied yet. Add all your option rows first, then fill in the labels and the prompt, then Apply. Otherwise you will type a prompt, add an option, and watch the prompt vanish.

Recording your own voice

Greeting and Menu nodes both have a Record button next to the text-to-speech box. Record straight into the node — no files, no uploading. Audio overrides the typed text, and the typed text stays as a fallback, so you can build and test the whole tree before you record a word.

If you do record, do all of them in one sitting, in the same room, at the same distance from the mic. A menu where option three sounds like a different room is what makes a phone system feel cheap.

Four limits to design around

These are not bugs, they are the shape of the builder. Knowing them before you design saves rework.

There is no condition node. You cannot branch on business hours, so there is no separate after-hours menu. Unanswered calls falling to voicemail is the substitute.

There is no tagging node. If you want calls tagged by which option they picked, that has to come from an Automation triggered off the inbound call, not from the tree.

Menu timeouts have no route. A Menu takes a timeout in seconds, but there is nowhere to send a caller who says nothing, so silence most likely ends the call. Leave the timeout generous and always name a way out in the prompt.

Forward Call is terminal. It has no output and no "require key press to accept" option, so an unanswered forward goes wherever your carrier sends it — very likely the personal voicemail on the phone you forwarded to, which is outside the CRM entirely.

Test the ring-out before you rely on it

Call your own number, choose the option that forwards, and let it ring out without touching the phone. Find out where the caller actually lands. If it is your cell's own voicemail, the fix is on the phone: turn that voicemail off, or push its answer delay past the ring timeout set on the node so the CRM gives up first. Messages left there never reach your account.

Writing the prompts

Say the action before the digit. "For billing, press two" — not "press two for billing." People stop listening the moment they hear their own reason for calling.
Four options at most. Past four, callers stop holding the list in their head.
Keep zero for a human. Callers expect it.
Never leave a dead end. Every branch should text something, book something, connect someone or record a message.

Where to go next

Record your voicemail greeting — the recording most people forget