Send calls to different places depending on when they arrive: your team during opening hours, voicemail or an answering service when you're closed, and a special message on holidays. These tools are the scheduling half of intSignal's business-hours and holiday call routing.
You'll find them in Admin → Settings → Settings → Call Flows:
| Tool | Use it for | View |
|---|---|---|
| Business hours | Opening hours for a phone number, plus holidays and an instant open/closed override | Easy |
| Time conditions | A reusable time rule you can use anywhere in a call flow | Advanced |
Time zone
Times are entered in 24-hour format and follow your phone system's clock. Before you rely on a schedule, ask intSignal to confirm the time zone that applies to your account, then test by calling just before and after your opening time.
Business hours
A business hours schedule belongs to one phone number. It sends that number's calls to one destination when you're open and another when you're closed.
Create a schedule
Route the number first
In Numbers & Routing → Phone numbers, make sure the number has a Routes to extension set, such as reception. See Phone numbers.
Start a schedule
In Call Flows → Business hours, select + New schedule. Choose the number in Number ("Select a DID…").
Choose your open days
In the Easy view, choose Mon–Fri, Mon–Sat, Every day or Weekends. In the Advanced view, select individual days.
Set opening hours
Enter Open and Close in 24-hour time, such as 08:30 and 17:30.
Add a lunch break (optional)
In the Advanced view, enter Lunch start and Lunch end, such as 12:00 and 13:00. Calls during
lunch follow your closed route.
Choose destinations
Choose Open →, such as your auto attendant or ring group, and Closed →, such as a voicemail extension or an after-hours announcement. Both are required. Type a number or name to search.
Create and apply
Select Create schedule, then Apply Configuration.
Each number can have one schedule, with one opening window per day. Lunch counts as closed.
| Error | Fix |
|---|---|
| "Number and both destinations are required" | Choose a number, an Open → and a Closed →. |
| "Times must be HH:MM (24h)" | Use 24-hour times such as 09:00 or 17:30. |
| "Lunch times must be HH:MM (24h), or leave both blank" | Fill in both lunch times, or neither. |
| "Destinations must be 2-6 digit numbers" | Pick destinations from the search results. |
| "Those destinations would create a call routing loop: …" | One of the destinations leads back to itself. Change one. |
To remove a schedule, select Remove and confirm "Remove this schedule? The number will route normally (no time rules)." Then apply.
Open or close right now
Each schedule has an override: Auto, Open or Closed ("Manual override (applies now)").
- Auto follows the schedule. This is the normal setting.
- Open keeps you open whatever the time, for example when you're staying late.
- Closed closes immediately, for example for a snow day or a team event.
The override takes effect immediately, without applying configuration, and stays until you change it back to Auto. Set a reminder to switch it back.
Holidays
On a holiday, a number's calls go to a special destination instead of following its business hours. Holidays are on the Business hours tab, under the schedules: "On these dates the number routes to a special destination, ignoring its business hours."
- Choose the Number.
- Pick the Date.
- Enter a Name, such as Christmas Day.
- Choose Route to →, such as a holiday announcement.
- Select Add holiday, then Apply Configuration.
Add each holiday for every number that needs it. Use Edit and Remove to change them. Changing a holiday's date creates it as a new entry, so remove the old date if you no longer need it.
Plan the year ahead
Add all of next year's closures in one sitting, and record a holiday announcement such as "We're closed today for the holiday and will reopen tomorrow at 8:30. Please leave a message."
Which rule wins
When more than one rule could apply to a call, this order decides:
- Override: Open or Closed, if set.
- Holiday: if today is one of the number's holidays.
- Weekly schedule: your open days, hours and lunch.
Time conditions
A time condition is a reusable time rule with its own internal number. Unlike business hours, it isn't tied to a phone number. Send callers to it from anywhere, such as a menu option, a ring group's no-answer destination or a queue's overflow, and it sends them onwards depending on the time.
For example, a support menu option can reach the support team during office hours and the on-call engineer outside them.
In the Advanced view, open Call Flows → Time conditions and select + New time condition.
| Field | Enter |
|---|---|
| Number | 2 to 6 digits, such as 800 |
| Name | For example Support hours |
| Days | Lower case, such as mon-fri, or a list such as mon,wed,fri |
| From / To | 24-hour times, such as 08:00 and 18:00 |
| Lunch (optional) | A break that counts as outside the window |
| During the window (in hours) → | Where calls go during the window |
| Outside the window (off hours) → | Where calls go at other times |
Leaving a destination empty ends the call, so always fill in both. Then apply your configuration.
| Error | Fix |
|---|---|
| "Days must look like mon-fri or mon,wed,fri" | Use lower-case three-letter days. |
| "Times must be HH:MM (24-hour)" | Use times such as 08:00. |
| "Number … is already in use" | Choose a number no other extension, group, queue or menu uses. |
See it on the map
The Visual Flow builder shows each schedule's open, closed and holiday branches, and each time condition's in-hours and off-hours branches, so you can check every path.