The rules, plainly
Recording sales calls legally
Recording calls helps with coaching, disputes and notes, and the rules are simpler than they look: most places need one party's consent, a dozen need everyone's, and one sentence at the start of the call covers all of them.
What's the difference between one-party and all-party consent?
Under one-party consent, a person on the call can record it without telling anyone else. Federal law works that way (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)), and so do most states.
Under all-party consent (often called two-party consent), everyone on the call must agree. In some states, such as Washington and Connecticut, consent counts as given when the recording is announced at the start and the announcement is itself recorded. In Massachusetts and Illinois, what's banned is secret recording, so announcing it is what matters.
Which states require all-party consent?
For phone calls: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington. Two more are disputed: Delaware and Michigan.
- California: All-party consent: everyone must agree before a confidential call is recorded.
- Connecticut: All-party for phone calls under civil law; one-party under criminal law.
- Florida: All-party consent: everyone must agree.
- Illinois: All-party consent for secretly recording a private conversation.
- Maryland: All-party consent: everyone must agree.
- Massachusetts: All-party: secret recording is a crime.
- Montana: All-party: recording without everyone's knowledge is a crime.
- Nevada: All-party for phone calls (by court ruling); one-party in person.
- New Hampshire: All-party consent: everyone must agree.
- Pennsylvania: All-party consent: everyone must agree.
- Washington: All-party consent: everyone must agree, or be told on the recording.
- Delaware: Disputed: one statute says one party, another says all parties.
- Michigan: Disputed: the statute reads all-party; a court held a participant may record.
Which law applies when a call crosses state lines?
When the two people on a call are in different states, follow the stricter state's law: if either state is all-party, get everyone's consent. Announcing the recording at the start of every call satisfies every state and province.
The leading case is Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney (2006). A Georgia brokerage recorded its calls with California clients without telling them, which Georgia allowed and California didn't. The California Supreme Court applied California law, reasoning that California's interest in protecting its residents' privacy would be more impaired than Georgia's interest would be by applying California's rule. It let the clients seek an injunction going forward, but refused damages for past recordings because, until then, it had been unclear which state's law governed. Since then, an out-of-state business recording calls with Californians has been on notice that California law applies.
California's rule also reaches the people on the call, not only eavesdroppers: in Smith v. LoanMe (2021), the California Supreme Court held that Penal Code § 632.7 applies whether the recording is made by a party to the call or by someone else.
Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)) is one-party, but it sets a floor, not a ceiling: states may require more.
What about Canada?
Canada's Criminal Code is one-party (s. 184(2)(a)), but businesses also fall under privacy law: PIPEDA federally, or the private-sector acts of Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, which apply instead of PIPEDA inside those provinces. The Privacy Commissioner's guidance: tell customers at the start that calls are recorded and why, keep the purpose narrow, and give them a choice. As of October 8, 2026, the Commissioner treats voiceprints as sensitive biometric information that may need express consent.
In practice, that means the same sentence works in both countries: 'This call is recorded for quality and training.' If a customer objects, offer to continue without recording.
Do I need consent for a voicemail or a call I receive?
The same rules apply whichever way the call goes: what matters is where each person is and whether everyone agreed. An inbound caller who hears 'this call is recorded' before speaking to a rep and stays on the line is generally treated as consenting.
Dropping a prerecorded voicemail isn't recording the other person, but it's a prerecorded message, which brings its own consent rules under the TCPA for cell phones. That's a separate question from recording consent.
How TopReach handles call recording
In TopReach, an admin sets recording for the whole workspace: never, always, or each rep's choice, with recording off by default. Live transcription and AI call summaries are separate settings, on by default, that an admin can turn off.
TopReach doesn't play a recording announcement for you, so if you record calls into all-party states or Canada, have reps say it in the first sentence. The settings screen reminds admins to check that their jurisdictions permit recording before choosing 'always'.
