How do I make outbound calls for my client? What are the 'rules' here?

We believe it is important and helpful for all of the team to be happy making a reasonable, but limited amount of calls from your mobile, as part of your day-to-day work in supporting a client, providing that your phone contract has sufficient inclusive minutes. However:

• We don’t expect you to call internationally. You shouldn't be doing this from your mobile - be careful!

• We don’t expect you to make more than a few calls here and there. You shouldn't be making large volumes of calls from you mobile - we recommend you discuss the client taking out an account with a VOIP provider in this case.

• It’s important to remember that you aren’t supporting your client as their 'virtual receptionist', and so you shouldn’t be handling their incoming calls. Again, we can recommend providers here for you to work in tandem with.

Alternative Solutions

If you need to make international or high volumes of calls for your client, it's reasonable to discuss this in detail with them directly, particularly with regards to the costs involved (we don't want you to incur anything unreasonable here). You can always add an expense into the portal, once you agree on a better approach here.

If you do plan to recover any expense from a client, you must always agree how much you anticipate the call (or the solution more widely) costing, before the calls are made.

It is not fair on a client to make a long international call from your mobile, incur substantial call charges, and then expect to be reimbursed. We would instead ask you to think about this first, and come up with a better solution together.

Possible solutions:

• VOIP - for UK clients, we recommend Nimvelo, which we use internally. The client will receive £20 free credit if they use this referral link to create their account. You can make unlimited mobile and landline calls for just £15 per month - plus you are making calls from a 'professional-looking' landline number, rather than your own mobile phone. Your client might also have an existing VOIP account they can give you access to! This will allow you to make calls, with the call charges billed directly to the client and not yourself.

• Skype To Go - you can use Skype to call numbers anywhere. Your client could prepay for the credit, so there’s no hidden spend.

• Google Hangouts (the Google Hangouts Dialler app is essentially a VOIP phone call). Calls to an Australian landline are as little as 1p, for example.

• Zoom Phone is also a great option, with audio-only available too, if suitable.