Configure business hours and incoming call routing

Set weekly hours, holidays, and custom dates, then give every time period an incoming action.

Incoming routing combines two settings: your hours decide whether the shop is open or closed at the moment a call arrives, and the action configured for the matching time period decides where that call goes. Set your hours first, then give every period an action on every number that should take calls.

How the phone system decides what is open

When a call arrives, the phone system reads the clock in its own time zone and works down this order:

1. Special hours for today. A custom date with hours opens the shop for exactly those hours, even on a day a closure or your weekly hours would otherwise close.
2. Closures. A holiday you selected, or a custom date marked Closed, closes the whole day.
3. Weekly hours. The open range covering the current day and time applies.
4. Closed. Any moment none of the above covers is closed.

A range’s end time is the moment it stops applying, so a split shift — 08 to 12 and 13 to 17 — leaves exactly the midday hour closed.

Prerequisites

• Select the intended phone system in the dashboard header.
• Confirm its time zone under Settings > System Details. Every hours comparison uses that time zone, not the reader’s browser time.
• Have write access to the Hours and Phone Numbers settings you plan to change.
• Create any destination extension, call group, call menu, Call Assistant, or voicemail box before selecting it as a route.

Set your weekly hours

1. Open Settings > Hours.
2. On the Weekly hours card, use each day’s switch to mark it open or closed. A closed day reads Closed; switching it back on restores the hours it had.
3. Set the start and end time for each open day from the time menus.
4. Select + Add hours to give a day a second range — a split shift with a midday break. Remove an extra range with the × beside it.
5. Use the copy button on a day to copy that day’s hours to every other open day.
6. Select Save changes. The footer appears only when there are unsaved edits, and the page warns you before navigating away with edits pending.

The four cards save together through the Save changes footer, so one save commits your time periods, weekly hours, holiday selections, and custom dates at once. The Set up default schedule button on an empty Time periods card is the exception: it posts the default periods and rules immediately, without waiting for Save changes.

Choose holiday closures

The Holiday closures card is a checklist of public holidays, so you do not have to look up the date of a floating holiday like Thanksgiving yourself.

1. Choose United States or Canada.
2. Choose the year. The card offers the current and the following year.
3. Select each holiday you close for. Its date for that year is shown beside it.
4. Turn on Every year for a holiday you always close for. It then applies in every year, with the correct date worked out each year, so a floating holiday moves with the calendar.
5. Select Save changes.

A selected holiday closes the whole day, over whatever the weekly hours say for that weekday.

Add custom dates

Use custom dates for one-off closures and special hours the holiday checklist does not cover.

1. On the Custom dates card, select + Add date.
2. Choose Closed or Special hours.
3. Enter the date, and a label such as Team training.
4. For a closure spanning several days, enter an end date as well.
5. For special hours, enter the start and end time the shop is open that day. The end time must be later than the start time.
6. Select Add date, then Save changes.

A custom date marked Closed closes the day just like a holiday. A Special hours entry is the last word for its date: it opens the shop for the hours you entered even when a holiday closure or your weekly hours would have closed that day.

Route an incoming number

Routing is configured per time period. Your hours maintain those periods for you: saving open hours creates Business Hours, and saving any closure creates Closed as the fallback for uncovered time. Both appear as rows on every voice-enabled number.

1. Open Settings > Phone Numbers > All Numbers.
2. Select Configure for a voice-enabled number.
3. Under Incoming Call Routing, choose an action for every time period. Each period gets its own row, labeled with the period’s name and color.
4. Select the required destination for that action.
5. Select Save.

Send to Remote Phone System appears only when the phone system belongs to a group of related systems. Routing Rules appears only when your role can manage phone numbers.

Use the Time periods card to add, rename, reorder, or remove the periods that weekly ranges and routing rows refer to (for example, a lunch break or after-hours period). The page creates the default Business Hours and Closed periods for you as you save weekly hours and closures; if the card is empty, the Set up default schedule button creates Open Hours, Lunch Break, and Closed and pre-fills a Mon–Fri weekly schedule. Any extra periods you add appear as additional routing rows and can be picked in weekly ranges. You cannot delete the default Closed period, and a period still used by custom dates or call routing rows cannot be deleted until those references are removed.

A period whose saved action this dashboard does not offer is shown as Configured by your administrator with no picker. Leave it alone and ask an administrator to review it rather than replacing it with something you can select.

Expected result

At any moment, the phone system resolves the applicable custom date, holiday closure, or weekly range, then runs the action saved for that number and the matching time period. A test call placed inside your open hours reaches the destination the Business Hours row names.

Troubleshooting

• The call was treated as closed when you were open: Check the phone system time zone first, then today’s custom dates, then your holiday selections, then the weekly hours around the call time.
• No routing rows appear: The number has no hours to route against. Set and save your weekly hours on the Hours page.
• A holiday did not close the shop: Confirm the holiday is selected for that year, or turn on Every year. A selection made for one year does not carry into the next on its own.
• A custom date did not apply: Confirm the date, and check whether a Special hours entry covers the same day — special hours are the last word, so they keep the shop open on a day a closure would otherwise have closed.
• Save changes stays hidden: There are no unsaved edits. The footer appears only once something changes.
• A period says “Configured by your administrator”: The saved action is not editable from this dashboard. Do not replace it indirectly; ask an administrator to review that period.
• A Call Assistant tells callers the wrong hours: It builds its answer from your open weekly hours, so check those first, then today’s holiday closures and custom dates.

Related guidance

• How an incoming call is routed.
• Route calls with conditional rules.
• Create call groups and call menus.
• Route calls between related phone systems.
• Review and configure phone numbers.
• Configure system details.
• Troubleshoot an incoming call.