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Updated on October 16, 2024

TUTORIAL: Set up office hours

Estimated reading: 10 minutes

On PBXware, schedules are used to specify a period during which the system redirects calls to predefined destinations.

Thus, it is possible to manage the hours, closing days, exceptional closings & redirections in a very precise way and on all levels of PBXware.

Schedules can be defined in several different places in PBXware.

These can be defined for the following destinations:

  • Queues
  • IVR
  • Extension groups
  • Extensions
  • Trunks
  • Routes

However, the schedules can be defined at a higher level, on the entire system; this location differs between the two editions:

Multi-Tenant Edition

  • At the Master Tenant level: 

Settings > Tenants > Master Tenant > Advanced options > General settings > Schedules

  • At the tenant level:

Master Tenant > Settings > Chosen tenant > Advanced options > General settings > Business hours

  • At the DID level:

Chosen tenant > Home > DID > Chosen DID > Advanced options > Schedules

Business & Contact Center Editions

  • At the server level: 

Settings > Servers > Edit your server > Advanced options > General settings > Schedules

  • At the DID level directly: 

Home > DID > Advanced options > Schedules

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Click the button located in the advanced options of the section to which you want to apply schedules.

The screenshot below shows the schedules that can be seen on each of the destinations mentioned, except on the extension, as it is an enhanced extension service.

For more details, see Enhanced services > Schedules

Basic options

  • Drop CSV

Click this button to load the schedule configuration from a CSV file.

  • Download CSV

Click this button to download the current schedule configuration as a CSV file.

  • Download CSV template

The CSV template is a file that already contains the necessary headers that should help a user when creating files. These can be dropped by clicking the button Drop CSV.

  • Enabling schedules

On

If this option is selected, the time rules will be applied.

Disabled

If this option is selected, the time rules defined will not be applied.

Inherit

If this option is set, the time rules will be inherited of the higher level. (E.g. if a user sets schedules at the level of a Tenant, the time rules will be inherited from this Tenant.)

By default, the schedules are in the position Inherit.

Default destination

  • Default destination

Select a destination to which all calls will be redirected in case the call arrives outside working hours, and if it is not otherwise defined with additional rules available.

  • Voicemail

If this box is checked, a call must be directed to the voicemail of the predefined default destination in case a default destination is called.

  • Greeting

    Choose a greeting sound file that should be played to callers during closing dates.

Closed days

This section allows users to define the specific date(s) and time(s) at which all calls are redirected to the Default destination.

Custom destinations

This section allows users to redirect all calls received during the defined days/hours (for example the week- end ) to the specified destination. Example: every Tuesday afternoon, calls must be redirected to extension 102:

Opening days

This section allows users to define the system's operating hours.

If a call is received outside the hours defined here, the call will be redirected to the Default destination.

You can set the opening days by clicking on them and applying hours ranging from 00:00 to 23:59 in the fields From and Up to.

You can also write a short description (Example: Morning opening…).

Schedules are stackable. For example, it is possible to overlap the morning and afternoon hours so that the schedules are closed in between, as in the screenshot below:

Here the schedules are applied to a DID.

As shown in the example, if a call comes in during business hours, which are set from 08:00 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 18:00, the call will be correctly routed to a composed destination.

If the call arrives outside of business hours, the call is redirected to the Default destination configured above.

Configuration example

The screenshot above shows the functionality Schedules enabled on one of the destinations.

In this case, the time rules are applied at the DID level.

As shown in the example, if a call comes in during business hours, which are set from 08:00 to 17:00, the call will be correctly routed.

If the call arrives outside of business hours, the call is redirected to the Default destination which, in this example, is extension 108. Moreover, since the option Voicemail is checked, the call will go to voicemail of this extension instead of ringing extension 108.

Furthermore, if a call arrives between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM, (for example during a lunch break), the call will be redirected to Destination 102. Also, since the option 'o' is checked, the caller will hear the greeting defined in the “Greeting” section.

If the call arrives during the dates mentioned in the “Closed Dates” section, the call will be redirected to destination 600.

Outside of all these time rules, the caller will be automatically redirected to the voicemail of extension 108, the default destination.

Access codes

Schedule management can also be performed via access codes .

  • Opening hours

A user can dial *401 to open the opening hours.

(For example, during closed periods, users can dial the mentioned access code to open the operation times and thus become available).

  • Close the schedule

A user can dial *402 to close the opening hours.

(For example, during business hours, users can dial the mentioned access code to close the operation times and thus become unavailable, after which the rules defined in the operation times settings will be applied.)

  • Reset schedules

A user can dial *403 to reset the system schedules and restore the rules entered in the settings.

  • Reset at midnight

A user has the ability to set the option to reset operation hours at midnight to one of the following options:

Yes

If this option is selected, the access codes will be reset today.

No

If this option is selected, the reset* of hours at midnight will be ignored.

Undefined

If this option is set, the time rules will be inherited of the higher level. (E.g. if a user sets schedules at the level of a Tenant, the time rules will be inherited from this Tenant.)

*Reset means a return to the previously configured schedules, not a full reset of the configurations. Since enabling an opening access code overwrites these schedules, the reset allows a return to the standard schedules.

BLF

Some additional settings related to operating times can be defined via the BLF keys.

  • Open/Close: *404

A user can program a BLF key on their phone to *404 in order to monitor the status of schedules and use it to enable or disable time rules.

(For example, if a user stays at the office after the activation of the operation times rules during off-hours, the BLF will inform the user of the status change by lighting up the BLF indicator or changing its color.)

  • Close/reset: *405

To reset the time rules, a user will need to dial *405 manually. Dialing the mentioned access code uses the initial schedule settings that were defined.

Furthermore, the two BLFs mentioned can be used in combination with a DID in case a user does not want to open/close or reset the schedules at the global level and wants to do so at the DID level. (For example, dial *404+DID would open the hours of operation only for a specific DID. The same applies to the other access code: *405.)

Extension schedules

It is possible to configure opening & closing hours on PBXware extensions. For this, a dedicated enhanced service exists and is configurable by the user.

See: Enhanced services > Schedules

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