Business hours tell Voice when your organization is open. During open hours, inbound calls follow your normal routing — IVR, queues, or extensions. Outside of open hours, calls follow the after-hours action: typically voicemail or a forwarding number.
Setting accurate business hours prevents callers from being sent to a queue with no available agents and ensures after-hours messages are captured properly.
Configuring Business Hours
- Go to Org Settings in the Voice admin panel.
- Find the Business Hours section.
- Set the open and close times for each day of the week. Toggle a day off entirely if the office is closed that day.
- Set your time zone. This is critical — all business hours checks compare the current time against your configured time zone.
- Save.
After-Hours Action
The after-hours action defines what happens to inbound calls that arrive outside your open hours:
- Voicemail — The caller is sent directly to your organization's voicemail box.
- Forward — The call is forwarded to an external phone number (e.g., an answering service or on-call mobile).
To set the after-hours action:
- In Org Settings, find After-Hours Action.
- Choose Voicemail or Forward.
- If forwarding, enter the phone number to forward to.
- Save.
Holiday Schedules
For days when your office is closed outside your normal schedule — holidays, company events, etc. — use Holiday Calendars:
- Go to Holiday Calendars in the admin panel.
- Click Create Calendar and give it a name.
- Add specific dates that should be treated as closed days, regardless of the normal weekly schedule.
- Save the calendar and link it to your organization's routing.
When a holiday date matches the current date, the system treats the day as closed and applies the after-hours action — even if your normal hours say the office should be open.
Per-Number vs. Organization Hours
The business hours configured in Org Settings apply organization-wide and affect all inbound calls to your main numbers. If you need different hours for different numbers or departments, contact your MSP admin — this requires custom routing configuration at the IVR or queue level.
How Business Hours Fit Into the Routing Cascade
Business hours is the first check in the inbound routing sequence. If the call arrives outside open hours, routing stops and the after-hours action is applied immediately — IVR menus, queues, and extensions are not involved. See Call Routing for the full routing sequence.
Troubleshooting
Inbound calls are going to voicemail even during business hours. Check that your time zone is set correctly in Org Settings. A wrong time zone is the most common cause. Also confirm the day and time in your time zone actually falls within your configured open hours.
After-hours forwarding isn't working. Confirm the forwarding number is entered in full international format (e.g., +15551234567 for US numbers). Missing the country code is a common mistake.
FAQ
Can I set different hours for different days? Yes. Business hours are configured per day of the week. Each day can have its own open and close time, or be set to closed.
What happens on a holiday that also falls on a normally-open day? If a date appears in a Holiday Calendar linked to your organization, the holiday takes precedence. The day is treated as closed and the after-hours action applies.
Can individual users have their own availability schedules? Yes — this is handled through Do Not Disturb and scheduled DND at the extension level, which is separate from org-wide business hours. See Do Not Disturb.