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The words, in plain words.
Twenty-five terms you'll meet on this site and everywhere else in the category, defined in a line each. Nothing here is required reading — setting her up never uses a word you don't already know.
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What do the words on an AI receptionist's page mean?
Most of them describe one of three things: how a call reaches her, what she's allowed to do once she picks up, and what it costs. Buffer, lead time and booking horizon are calendar rules. Conditional forwarding is a carrier setting. Minutes and top-ups are billing. Twenty-five terms, defined below.
They run in alphabetical order. Where a term has a page of its own, the entry is one line and points at that page instead of repeating it. Where it doesn't, what you read here is the whole answer.
A few of them are Heyline's own settings — the ones you can change — and those entries say what the setting does. The rest are ordinary phone and calendar words that every provider in this category uses, sometimes to mean slightly different things.
Two of the entries carry a warning rather than a definition: the industry uses them for things Heyline does not do. They are still here. A glossary that quietly leaves out the awkward words is a sales page with a dictionary's manners.
Every term on this site, defined
- AI disclosure
Telling the caller out loud that she is an AI. Heyline's greeting does it on every call. Full answer: AI disclosure and recording
See also Recording toggle, All-party consent
- AI receptionist
Software that answers your business line, talks with the caller, and books or takes a message. Full answer: What is an AI receptionist?
See also Virtual receptionist, Answering service
- All-party consent
A rule in some states and provinces that everyone on a call must agree before it is recorded. Full answer: recording and privacy controls
See also Recording toggle, AI disclosure
- Answering service
A company whose staff answer your calls and pass on messages, billed by the call or the minute. Full answer: AI receptionist vs answering service
See also Virtual receptionist, IVR (phone tree)
- Booking horizon
How far ahead she'll offer an appointment. Heyline's is 14 days; past that she names the last bookable date. Full answer: Google Calendar booking
- Browser test call (WebRTC)
Talking to your receptionist through a web page instead of a phone. WebRTC is the browser technology carrying the audio. Full answer: browser test call
See also Dedicated number
- Buffer
Padding around an appointment so two jobs never sit end to end. Heyline leaves 15 minutes by default and you can change it. A caller can't book into the gap, which is what keeps drive time from quietly disappearing off the calendar.
See also Lead time, Booking horizon
- Business Brief
Everything she knows about your shop — services, hours, area, answers — read off your website and editable line by line. Full answer: built from your website
See also Intake question, Read-back
- Busy and no-answer forwarding
The two conditions worth forwarding: your line is engaged, or it rings out. Set both and every call you don't get to lands with her, while the ones you pick up never leave your phone. Heyline's go-live wizard gives you the code for exactly these two conditions, never one that forwards every call.
See also Conditional call forwarding, Dedicated number
- Caller ID
The number the network hands over with an incoming call; a match means she greets a returning caller by name. Full answer: returning-caller recognition
See also Read-back, Intake question
- Conditional call forwarding
A carrier setting that sends a call somewhere else only when a condition is met — busy, or no answer. Full answer: the call forwarding guide
See also Busy and no-answer forwarding, Porting
- Dedicated number
The number Heyline gives your receptionist at go-live. Publish it, or forward your missed calls to it. Full answer: your number and forwarding
See also Porting, Conditional call forwarding
- Free/busy
The plainest question you can ask a calendar: is this slot taken? Heyline asks it before naming a time, so the openings she offers are ones your calendar shows as free. It is the same check every time, before every offer.
See also Booking horizon, Buffer
- Intake question
A question you tell her to ask before finishing a booking or a message — square footage, gate code, the year of the furnace. Full answer: intake questions
See also Business Brief, Read-back
- IVR (phone tree)
Press 1 for sales, press 2 for service: a menu that makes the caller do the routing. Full answer: What is an AI receptionist?
See also Answering service, Warm transfer
- Lead time
The shortest notice she will accept. Heyline's minimum is one hour, so a caller at 8:10 AM is not offered 8:30 and you get a look at the booking before you are due somewhere. It is the front edge of the window; the booking horizon is the back edge.
See also Buffer, Booking horizon
- Porting
Moving a phone number from one carrier to another. Heyline doesn't do it; you keep your number and forward missed calls. Full answer: your number and forwarding
See also Dedicated number, Conditional call forwarding
- Read-back
The last thing she does before a booking is done: says the day, the time, the caller's name and the callback number out loud — all four, every time. It is the cheapest way to catch a wrong digit while the person is still on the line.
See also Caller ID, Intake question
- Recording toggle
The per-business switch for saving call audio. Transcripts and summaries are kept either way. Full answer: recording and privacy controls
See also All-party consent, AI disclosure
- Spend cap
A ceiling you set on top-up charges in a month. Nothing is capped until you set one. Reach it and the line pauses — callers hear a short, not-billed notice rather than dead air — until the period resets or you raise the cap.
See also Top-up
- Timezone-aware
Every business on Heyline keeps its own clock; hours and slots are answered in your local time. Full answer: Google Calendar booking
See also Booking horizon, Lead time
- Top-up
What happens when a plan's minutes run out: $10 buys 20 more, automatically, with a receipt. Full answer: pricing and minutes
See also Spend cap
- Virtual receptionist
A person who answers your calls under your business name from somewhere else. Full answer: what an AI receptionist is
See also Answering service, AI receptionist
- Voice-agent platform
A developer toolkit for building phone agents yourself — you supply the setup, the wiring and the testing. Full answer: receptionist or platform
See also AI receptionist
- Warm transfer
Passing a live caller to a person mid-call. Heyline doesn't do it — she takes a message instead. Full answer: the Heyline FAQ
See also IVR (phone tree)
Which of these words get mixed up most?
Four pairs do most of the damage. Each one changes what a caller hears.
| The pair | The first one | The second one |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time vs buffer | How soon from now she can book at all — nothing sooner than an hour out. | The gap she leaves either side of a job. Fifteen minutes unless you change it. |
| Booking horizon vs bookable hours | How far ahead she'll go: 14 days, then she names the last bookable date. | Which hours inside those days she may offer. Seeded from your hours, yours to refine. |
| Conditional forwarding vs forwarding everything | Only the rings you miss leave your phone: busy, or nobody picked up. | Every call leaves your phone, answered or not. Heyline never asks for this one. |
| Transcript vs recording | The conversation in writing, after every call, on every plan. | The audio. Growth and Scale, and switchable off per business. |
Lead time, buffer, booking horizon, conditional call forwarding and the recording toggle each have an entry above.
Decide with your ears — not a sales deck.
Paste your website and talk to your own receptionist, free, in your browser.
Which words change what a caller actually hears?
Six of them are settings. Get these right and the rest is vocabulary.
- Bookable hours — the hours she is allowed to offer. They start from your own opening hours and you refine them afterward.
- Lead time — one hour. A caller at 8:10 AM is not offered 8:30.
- Buffer — 15 minutes around each job by default, so two appointments never sit end to end.
- Booking horizon — 14 days. Ask for something five weeks out and she says how far she can go, and names the last date.
- Recording toggle — on or off per business. Transcripts and summaries are kept either way, and the AI-and-recording line in her greeting cannot be edited out.
- Spend cap — your monthly ceiling on top-ups. Nothing is capped until you set one; at the cap the line pauses with a short, not-billed notice until the period resets.
Which of these words describe things she can't do?
Two entries are here because you will meet them elsewhere, not because Heyline does them: warm transfer and porting. She never hands a live caller to a person mid-call; she takes a message instead. She never moves your number off your carrier.
Three more things have no entry because there is no Heyline word for them. She never rings or messages anyone back after the call. She books into one calendar, Google's. She works in English, for businesses in the United States and Canada.
Where the answer is no, the entry says no. There is nothing on this page waiting to become true later.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between lead time and a buffer?
Lead time is how soon from now a caller can book: Heyline's minimum is one hour, so nobody grabs a slot you are already driving to. A buffer is the gap she leaves either side of the appointment itself, 15 minutes by default, so two jobs never sit back to back.
What does read-back mean?
Read-back is the habit of repeating the details out loud before a call ends, so the caller can correct them while they are still on the line. In Heyline's case it is four items, every time: the day, the time, the caller's name, and the number to call back on. Nothing is confirmed silently.
What's the difference between an IVR and an answering service?
An IVR is a menu: recorded options, and the caller presses digits until they land somewhere. Nobody is on the other end. An answering service is people — staff at another company who pick up under your business name and take a message. One is a machine that sorts callers, the other is people who talk to them.
Do I need to know any of these words to set her up?
No. Setup asks for a website address, then a card and a carrier code if you want the calls you miss to reach her. The words on this page are for reading other people's pricing pages, and for the two or three settings you may want to change later.
What is a top-up, and how is it different from a spend cap?
A top-up is the word for buying more minutes without changing plan: it happens on its own once a month's allowance is used up, and each one is receipted. A spend cap is the ceiling you put over those purchases. One is a purchase, the other a limit on purchases — the pair is what keeps a busy month from running open-ended.
Which terms here are Heyline's, and which belong to the industry?
Most are the industry's: conditional forwarding, free/busy, lead time and a phone tree mean the same thing wherever you read them. A handful are ours, because they name a screen you will actually see — the Business Brief, the recording toggle, the spend cap. Those entries say what the setting does.
The words matter less than the voice.
Paste your website and put your own questions to her about a minute later — free, in your browser, no card.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
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