Call Route Management

Overview

In VeloPBX, every inbound and outbound call is decided by two pieces of configuration: Inbound Rules and Outbound Rules. Together they answer three questions for every call:

An external party dialed one of our DID numbers — where does that call go?
One of our extensions just dialed an outside number — which trunk should carry it?
The call arrived after office hours, on a holiday, or during night mode — what should happen instead?

This page explains the routing model. The next two pages walk through configuring each rule type in detail.

How Routing Works

Inbound Calls

External caller dials a DID number
        ↓
VeloPBX matches the call against Inbound Rules
(by Trunk + DID number, optionally Caller ID)
        ↓
The matching rule forwards the call to its destination
(Extension / IVR / Ring Group / Queue / Voicemail / External)
        ↓
Office Hours / Holidays evaluation (if configured)
        ↓
Call connects to the chosen destination

Outbound Calls

Extension dials an external number
        ↓
VeloPBX evaluates Outbound Rules
(by dialed prefix, dialed length, calling extension or group)
        ↓
The matching rule selects a trunk
(or a list of trunks for failover / random distribution)
        ↓
Optional digit transformation (strip, prepend) + Caller ID
        ↓
Call is sent out over the chosen SIP trunk

Routing Building Blocks

Component	Role
SIP Trunk	The link to your upstream provider that delivers PSTN calls
DID Number	A public number assigned to a trunk that customers can dial
Inbound Rule	Maps a DID (and optionally a Caller ID) to an internal destination
Outbound Rule	Maps a dialing pattern to one or more trunks, with priority and digit transforms
Office Hours	A weekly schedule that lets routing change between working and non-working hours
Holiday List	Date ranges that override Office Hours (e.g. national holidays, company shutdowns)

Office Hours and Holidays can be global (set at the tenant level and reused everywhere) or rule-specific (defined inside a single Inbound or Outbound Rule). A rule-specific schedule overrides the global one for that rule only.

Inbound Forwarding Destinations

An Inbound Rule can forward a call to any of the following:

Destination Type	Description
Extension	A specific user’s extension
Ring Group	A group of extensions that ring together or in sequence
Call Queue	A queue that distributes calls to agents according to a policy
Virtual Receptionist (IVR)	An automated menu that routes the call based on DTMF input
Voicemail	Sends the call directly to an extension’s voicemail box
External Number	A PSTN number reached over a configured trunk
Hang Up	Terminates the call immediately (useful for blocked numbers)

You can also configure a 1:1 mapping between a range of DIDs and a range of extensions — for example, DIDs 442012345600–442012345800 route to extensions 1100–1300. See the Inbound Rules page for details.

Outbound Routing Strategies

Outbound Rules support two strategies when more than one trunk is configured:

Strategy	Behavior
Prioritized	Trunks are tried in the configured order. If a call fails on the first trunk, VeloPBX automatically tries the next one.
Randomly	A trunk is picked at random from the list. If the call fails, another trunk is selected at random.

Combined with rule Priority, this lets you build patterns such as least-cost routing (cheapest trunk first, fall back to a more expensive one) or carrier failover (primary trunk preferred, alternate trunk on outage).

Office Hours Behavior

Office Hours apply differently to inbound and outbound rules:

Inbound Rules — calls are forwarded to different destinations during office hours, outside office hours, and during holidays. Calls are never blocked.
Outbound Rules — calls placed outside office hours or on a holiday are blocked by the rule, even if every other condition matches. This is the standard mechanism for preventing after-hours toll fraud and personal calls from shared phones.

Next Steps

→ Inbound Rules → Outbound Rules → Office Hours and Holidays

Last updated: 2026-05-01