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Set Up a Teams Auto Attendant and Call Queue for a Small Office
The usual small-office setup: callers reach one main number, hear a short greeting, press 1 for sales or 2 for support, and ring whoever's free. After hours they get voicemail. In Teams that's an auto attendant (the menu) feeding one or more call queues (the groups who answer). Here's the order to build them in and the settings that matter.
Plan the call flow first
Write it on one page before you click anything:
- Main number: which number callers dial.
- Business hours and the holidays you close.
- Menu options: keep it to two or three choices, plus "0 for the operator."
- Who answers each option, and what happens if nobody does: voicemail, another queue, or a mobile.
Microsoft says auto attendants can have different routing for business hours, after hours, and holidays, can use text-to-speech or uploaded audio prompts, and support both voice commands and keypad input (Plan auto attendants and call queues). Call queues hold callers until someone in the queue answers. Microsoft says queues can redirect callers when no agents are signed in, when too many callers are waiting, or when someone has waited too long.
Step 1: Get the resource account licenses
Each auto attendant and call queue that answers calls needs a resource account, and each resource account needs a Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license. Microsoft says these licenses no longer cost anything, and says not to assign a Teams Phone Standard license to a resource account (Teams Phone Resource Account licenses). If you bought Teams Phone Standard or Teams Phone with Calling Plan, Microsoft says you still complete the checkout for your allocation, at zero cost (Manage resource accounts).
The licensing background is in Teams Phone licensing with Business Premium or E3.
Step 2: Create the resource accounts
- In the Teams admin center, go to Voice > Resource accounts and select Add.
- Enter a display name and username, and set the type to Auto attendant or Call queue. Create one for the main-line auto attendant and one for each queue, such as Sales and Support.
- Assign the Teams Phone Resource Account license to each one.
- For the main-line resource account, select it, choose Assign/unassign, and add the phone number.
Steps from Manage resource accounts. Microsoft says the admin creating resource accounts needs both a Teams administrator role and the User Administrator role.
Tip: Microsoft says a resource account needs the license whether or not it has a phone number (Resource Account licenses). So a queue that callers only reach from the auto attendant menu doesn't need its own number.
Step 3: Build the call queues
Build queues before the auto attendant, so the menu has somewhere to send calls. Go to Voice > Call queues > Add. Microsoft offers a Quick setup and an Advanced setup (Set up a call queue). The settings that matter most for a small office:
- Who answers: a Teams team and channel, or a list of users or groups.
- Routing method: Microsoft offers Attendant (ring everyone at once), Serial (ring people in order), Round robin (spread calls evenly), and Longest idle. For a few people answering the same line, Attendant routing is the simplest.
- Conference mode: Microsoft recommends setting it to On, and says it's required if users need to consult or transfer calls with call queues.
- Overflow: the maximum calls waiting defaults to 50 (0 to 200). Decide where extra calls go.
- Timeout: the maximum hold time can be 0 seconds to 45 minutes. For a small office I'd send callers to voicemail after a couple of minutes rather than leave them on hold.
- No agents signed in: decide where those calls go, such as a shared voicemail.
Step 4: Build the auto attendant
Go to Voice > Auto attendants > Add, choose Quick or Advanced setup, and work through the steps (Set up an auto attendant):
- General info: name, time zone, and the language for prompts. Microsoft recommends setting an Operator, and notes you also have to add an Operator key to the menu for it to work.
- Call handling hours: Microsoft says that if you don't change them, business hours default to 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day of the week. Set your real hours, including lunch breaks if you close.
- Business-hours call flow: a greeting (none, uploaded audio in .WAV, .MP3, or .WMA up to 5 MB, or typed text up to 1,000 characters), then the menu keys that point to your queues.
- After-hours call flow: usually a short message and voicemail.
- Holidays (optional): add each closure with its own message.
- Resource accounts: attach the main-line resource account that has the phone number.
Microsoft notes that the licensing required for outbound PSTN calling from auto attendants and call queues changed on November 1, 2025. If you want calls redirected to external numbers, check the current requirements on the setup page.
Step 5: Test like a customer
- Call the main number from a mobile during business hours and try every menu key, including 0.
- Have nobody sign in to a queue, and check where the call ends up.
- Change the time zone or hours temporarily (or test after hours) to hear the after-hours flow.
- Leave a voicemail and confirm the right people get it.
If calls sound choppy once you go live, see Teams call quality basics. Moving your existing main number from another carrier is covered in Port your business number to Teams.
More in the Teams Phone series: Calling Plan vs Operator Connect vs Direct Routing · Teams Phone licensing with Business Premium or E3 · Port your business number to Teams · Teams call quality basics · Teams-certified headsets and desk phones. Choosing a Microsoft 365 plan first? See Business Premium vs E3.
Sources
- Plan auto attendants and call queues (Microsoft Learn)
- Manage resource accounts (Microsoft Learn)
- Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account licenses (Microsoft Learn)
- Set up a call queue (Microsoft Learn)
- Set up an auto attendant (Microsoft Learn)
Useful links for this guide: Microsoft's auto attendant and call queue planning guide. These are ordinary links, not affiliate links.