Phone:
Walk up to any shared phone in the office, dial a code, punch in your extension and PIN, and the phone is yours. Incoming calls ring there, outgoing calls show your caller ID, and your voicemail is accessible — all without touching a single setting in the admin panel. When you're done, log out or just log in somewhere else. Included at no additional charge.
Walk to whatever desk is open — the break room phone, the conference room, a visiting office down the hall. Dial *11 to start the login.
The system prompts you for your extension number and your voicemail PIN. That's the same PIN you already use — nothing new to remember or set up.
Your extension is now active on that phone. Inbound calls, ring groups, queues, caller ID, voicemail — everything works as if it were your assigned desk. Dial *12 to log out when you're done.
When you log into a hot desk phone, the system doesn't just forward calls. It transfers your entire phone identity to that device.
| What Moves | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Inbound Calls | Direct calls, ring group calls, queue calls, follow-me routing, DID routes — everything that would normally ring your extension now rings the hot desk phone |
| Outbound Caller ID | Calls you make from the hot desk phone display your name and extension on both internal calls and external PSTN calls |
| Voicemail | Dial *97 and you reach your personal mailbox — your messages, your greetings, your PIN. Not the phone's mailbox. |
| Call Records | CDR logs show your extension as the source or destination, not the hot desk phone's extension. Your call history stays clean and attributable to you. |
| DND & Call Forward Cleanup | The system automatically clears any do-not-disturb or call forwarding settings on both your extension and the hot desk phone during login and logout. Starts fresh every time. |
While someone is logged in, direct calls to the hot desk phone's own extension go to voicemail. The phone is fully dedicated to the logged-in user — no confusion about which extension is active.
Active sessions persist through server reboots and system reloads. If the PBX restarts overnight, everyone who was logged in is still logged in when it comes back up.
Routing changes happen in real time through the PBX's internal database. Login and logout take effect within seconds — no waiting for a system apply or config push.
Hot desking is a great fit for many offices, but not every environment needs it. Here's an honest look.
Day shift and night shift share the same physical desks but need their own extensions, voicemail, and caller ID. Each person logs in at the start of their shift and the phone takes on their identity.
Doctors and nurses move between exam rooms, nursing stations, and offices throughout the day. Their extension follows them from room to room without anyone calling IT.
Agents rotate seats daily or between shifts. Each agent logs in and keeps their personal extension, caller ID, queue membership, and call history regardless of which station they sit at.
Employees who work from home part of the week don't need a permanent desk. When they come into the office, they grab any open desk and log in. No wasted desks sitting empty.
Employees visiting another office location can log into any available phone and their extension follows them. No advance setup, no admin tickets. Just show up and dial in.
Tenants who rent desks by the day or hour get phone service at whatever station they sit down at. Each tenant has their own extension that activates when they log in.
| Code | What It Does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| *11 | Log in to a hot desk phone | Prompts for extension and voicemail PIN. Takes effect immediately. |
| *12 | Log out of the current phone | Restores the phone to its original state. Clears DND and forwarding. |
| *97 | Check voicemail | Reaches the logged-in user's mailbox, not the phone's. Standard FreePBX code. |
Feature codes are customizable. If your system already uses *11 or *12 for something else, we can change them.
Your voicemail PIN. There's no separate hot desking password to manage. If you change your voicemail PIN, the hot desk login changes with it automatically.
Your extension stays active on that phone until you log in somewhere else (which disconnects the old session automatically) or until an administrator forces a logout from the admin panel. It's a good habit to dial *12 when you leave, but logging in at another phone handles it for you either way.
No. Each phone supports one logged-in user at a time, and each user can only be logged into one phone at a time. Logging into a new phone logs you out of the previous one.
Yes. Hot desking is compatible with all PBX routing features — ring groups, call queues, IVR menus, follow-me, time conditions, and DID routing. If something normally rings your extension, it will ring the hot desk phone you're logged into.
Hot desking works with any SIP phone on the system. Cisco, Yealink, Polycom, Grandstream, Fanvil — brand doesn't matter. If the phone is registered to the PBX and in the hot desk pool, it works.
No. Hot desking is included with every VoipPlus account at no additional cost. We built the module ourselves and its part of the platform. No per-user fee, no per-phone fee.
VoipPlus hot desking is powered by our open-source FreePBX Hot Desking module, developed and maintained by our team. The module is available under the MIT license for the FreePBX community.
Hot desking is included with every VoipPlus account. Tell us which phones should be in the pool and we'll set it up.
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Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 — Serving Chicagoland businesses since 2001