Set business hours and after hours routing

Business hours tell your system when you're open. During open hours, calls follow their normal path. Outside them, calls go to an after hours destination you pick, such as a voicemail box or an on call phone.

Some labels in your portal or apps may look slightly different from this guide.

Choose where to set them

You can give a schedule to your whole account, a phone number, a phone menu, a ring group or a single user. Each one has three choices:

• On: use the schedule set right here.
• Off: skip the check, so calls always go through.
• Inherit: follow the schedule one level up, usually your account's.

Every schedule runs in your account's own time zone, which CallSprout sets when it builds your account. Voicemail uses the same time zone.

The simplest setup is one account schedule with everything else on inherit. Give a number or menu its own hours only when it really keeps different hours, like a support line that opens earlier.

You manage business hours yourself for the account, phone menus, ring groups and users. The account schedule is under Settings. Phone numbers are managed by CallSprout support, so for hours on a phone number, ask support. Send the number, the open hours and where calls should go when you're closed.

Set the hours

1. 1
   Step 1:

   Open the schedule

   For the account, go to Settings. For a phone menu, ring group or user, edit it and show its advanced options.

2. 2
   Step 2:

   Open the business hours settings

   Open Operation Times.

3. 3
   Step 3:

   Turn the schedule on

   Set business hours to on here, or to inherit if it should follow the account schedule. If you pick inherit, you're done.

4. 4
   Step 4:

   Pick the after hours destination

   In Default Destination, choose where calls go when you're closed. Tick Is Voicemail to send them straight to that user's voicemail instead of ringing them.

5. 5
   Step 5:

   Add a closed greeting (optional)

   Choose a Greeting callers hear when you're closed. Greetings have to exist before you can pick them.

6. 6
   Step 6:

   Enter your open hours

   Add a row for your working days and hours, for example Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00. Calls outside these hours go to the after hours destination.

7. 7
   Step 7:

   Save

   Save your changes, then test with a call from a cell phone.

Handle lunch breaks and weekends

Use Custom Destinations when part of the week should go somewhere other than your normal after hours destination. For example, send lunch hour calls to a ring group of whoever's covering. Each row also has an option that decides whether callers hear your closed greeting before they're sent on. Place a test call after you save to hear which way yours is set.

For holidays, add closed dates. Add holiday closures walks through it.

How the system decides

For each call, the system checks in this order and stops at the first match:

1. Closed dates. A call on a holiday goes to that date's destination, or to the after hours destination.
2. Custom destinations. A call inside one of those windows goes to its destination.
3. Open hours. A call inside your open hours carries on as normal. Anything else goes to the after hours destination.

Business hours come before caller rules. If a number also has caller rules, they only apply to calls that get past the hours check, so after hours calls follow the schedule.

To open or close early for one day without editing the schedule, use the star codes in open or close early.

Set many rules at once

The business hours settings offer a CSV template, upload and download. That's handy for copying one schedule to several menus or ring groups.

Troubleshooting

• Calls switch over at the wrong hour. Check the schedule's times first. Your schedules run in your account's time zone, so if that time zone is wrong, contact support to change it.
• Hours on a number seem to be ignored. Look at the menu or ring group the number points to, because that one's own hours apply once the call reaches it. If that looks right, ask support to check the number's own setting.