Help with Helm.

You keep your number. Forwarding sends the calls you can't answer to your Helm number, and every call you do pick up rings exactly as it does today.

From the shop phone, dial the code for your carrier followed by your Helm number. Use the missed-calls code, not the one that forwards everything, or your own phone stops ringing.

Verizon: dial *71 and then your Helm number. *73 turns it off.

AT&T: dial *61* and then your Helm number. #61# turns it off.

T-Mobile: dial **61* and then your Helm number. ##61# turns it off.

On another carrier or a business phone system, call them and ask for conditional call forwarding to your Helm number. It's a standard request.

Then open Going live in the console and press the test button. Helm calls your line and tells you whether the forward landed.

Helm answers with your shop's name and the assistant name you chose, says it's an AI assistant and that the call is recorded, and asks what's going on. Those two notices are always said. No setting turns them off.

It asks what a dispatcher would: the address, what the equipment is doing, how urgent it is. It quotes from your prices and books into times your technicians are actually free.

If a caller describes a gas smell, carbon monoxide or smoke, Helm doesn't book anything. It tells them to leave the house and call 911 from outside. That line is fixed and no setting changes it.

When a caller asks for a person, or when Helm isn't sure, it hands the conversation to your team rather than guessing.

Every call is written down in the console with the transcript, so you can read exactly what was said in your name.

Open Settings, then Business. Set your timezone, when you open and close on weekdays, and whether you're open Saturday mornings, then save.

Helm uses these hours when it tells callers and texters when you're open.

Quiet hours are separate. They're the hours Helm won't start a text on its own. A reply to a customer who just messaged you always goes out.

Only an owner or admin can change hours.

Customers can text your Helm number, and Helm replies in the same thread. It only texts people who have called, texted or booked with you.

Before any business can text customers in the US, the carriers have to approve a registration under that business's name. It usually takes about a business week and no one can hurry it. Going live in the console shows each step.

Until it's approved, calls are still answered and texts still arrive. Helm writes its replies as drafts in your inbox, so you can send them from your own phone.

A customer who replies STOP is never texted again unless they reply START. Texts Helm starts on its own wait until your quiet hours are over.

Open Settings, then Phone, and tick Send all calls to my phone. Helm stops answering and callers ring straight through to you, the way they did before. It takes effect on the next ring. Untick it to hand calls back.

That's different from Pause Helm in the AI settings. Pausing stops Helm replying, but it still answers the phone.

Helm bills monthly per location, or once a year if you chose annual prepay. The first month is paid at checkout.

If Helm hasn't caught a job you'd otherwise have missed in your first 14 days after your number is forwarded, we refund the month in full. Email us to ask.

To change your card or cancel, open Billing in the console and choose Manage billing. Cancelling stops the next renewal; Helm keeps working until the end of the period you've paid for.

Your records sit in your own space. The database itself refuses to return another company's rows, and we test that on every change.

Everything travels encrypted. Card numbers go to Stripe and never pass through Helm.

Helm doesn't sell your data and nothing is trained on it outside your account. The companies that process it for us are listed on our subprocessors page.

Found a security problem? Email security@helmpro.io. The full detail is on our security page.

Email support@helmpro.io. A person reads everything, every day.

We work Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm Central. Outside those hours we still read everything, but we don't promise an answer before the next working day.

If your phone line is down, or Helm is texting customers wrongly, we aim to reply within 2 hours during those hours, and to tell you what we're doing before it's fixed. If something is broken but calls are still being answered, 1 working day. For a question or a change you'd like, 2 working days.

Those are aims, not a signed support agreement. Our Terms, under service levels and support, promise no response time unless you have signed one.

Say which business you are and what happened, roughly when. If calls aren't reaching you, say that first.

We don't cover nights and weekends yet. If your line matters overnight, keep your old forwarding as a fallback, and tell us so we can help set it up.

There isn't a staffed phone line. We'd rather say so than give you one that rings out.