Break Types

Lodgestory CRM › Settings › Break Types

Define the break labels your agents pick when they go offline — Lunch, Meeting, Training — so "unavailable" becomes a reason you can see and measure.

TL;DR

What it is — an admin page to create the offline reasons (break types) an agent can choose when they mark themselves unavailable for chats.

Who it's for — Account Owners and Admins set them up. Agents pick from them in the inbox.

Top outcome — every "offline" carries a reason, recorded on the availability timeline, so you can answer how long was the team on lunch vs. actually away? in Analytics → Availability.

At a glance


Plan tiers	All paid tiers.
Who can use it	Account Owners and Admins create, edit, and remove break types. Agents select from them; they don't manage the list.
Channels	Not a messaging surface — this configures availability labels.
Integrations	Feeds the availability status dropdown in Home / Unified Inbox and on Team Members; recorded into the availability history that powers Analytics → Availability.
Top limits	Labels are unique per organisation. Online is reserved.
API	Yes — partner API for list, create, update, and delete.

How to find it

Sidebar: Settings → Break Types.

Direct URL: https://app.lodgestory.com/crm/settings/availability

[SCREENSHOT: break-types-landing.png — break-type list with add field, active toggles, edit and delete]

What is Break Types?

The problem it solves

Before, an agent's chat availability was a plain on/off switch. When someone went offline you knew that they were unavailable, but never why or for how long. Were they at lunch, in a stand-up, or gone for the day? Managers couldn't tell, and there was no record to look back on. Break Types turns "offline" from a single grey state into a small set of labelled reasons you choose — and every choice is written to the agent's availability timeline.

What you get

A short, ordered list of break labels. Add the reasons your team actually uses — Lunch, Meeting, Training, Break — in the order you want them to appear.
The inbox follows your setup automatically. With no break types, agents see a simple Online / Offline dropdown. The moment you add break types, the offline options become your labels — going Online stays a single choice.
Reasons that stick to history. When an agent picks Lunch, that word is stamped onto their availability record and onto the permanent transition log. Renaming or deleting the break type later never rewrites the past — old entries keep the label they were recorded with.
Activate and deactivate without deleting. Retire a label you no longer offer by switching it off; it disappears from the agents' dropdown but your history stays intact.
Measurable breaks. Because every choice is logged, Analytics → Availability can show total available vs. unavailable time and a per-break breakdown over any date range.

How it's different

Snapshot, not a link. The label is copied onto each availability event as plain text, so your reports and timelines never break when you rename or remove a break type. Your history is permanent and self-contained.
Zero-config by default. Do nothing and agents get a clean Online/Offline switch. Break types are purely additive — you only see them once you decide you want them.

Customer scenarios

A property with set break windows. The front-desk lead adds Lunch, Housekeeping round, and Meeting. Agents pick the right one as they step away, and the weekly availability report shows where the desk's offline hours actually went.
A support team going async. They add Focus time and Training. When an agent is heads-down, they mark Focus time instead of just "offline", so the lead knows they're working, not gone.
Cleaning up an old label. Smoke break is no longer offered. The admin deactivates it — it vanishes from the dropdown, but last quarter's report still shows the hours that were logged against it.

How it fits with the rest of Lodgestory CRM

Break Types is the vocabulary for "unavailable". Agents pick a break from the availability dropdown in Home / Unified Inbox; admins can set a teammate's status (including a break) from Team Members. Every change lands in the availability history that Analytics → Availability reports on. Note that any offline state — break or plain Offline — removes an agent from chat auto-assignment and from Ticket Pools running in availability mode, exactly as before.

Core concepts

Term	What it means
Break type	A labelled offline reason (e.g. Lunch) an agent can pick when going unavailable.
Label	The display text of a break type. Unique per organisation. Online is reserved and can't be used.
Active / inactive	Whether agents can currently pick this break. Inactive labels stay in history but leave the dropdown.
Order	The position a break appears in the agent's dropdown.
Availability history	The permanent, append-only log of every on/off (and break) change, with the label snapshotted at the moment of the change.

Quick Start — set up your team's breaks in 2 minutes

Step 1 — Open Break Types

Sidebar: Settings → Break Types.

[SCREENSHOT: break-types-qs-1-landing.png]

Step 2 — Add a break

Type a label (for example Lunch) into the Add a break type field and click Add. It appears in the list, active by default.

[SCREENSHOT: break-types-qs-2-add.png]

You should now see: the new label in the list with an amber dot, plus Deactivate, edit, and delete controls.

Step 3 — Add the rest

Repeat for each reason your team uses — Meeting, Training, Break. They'll appear to agents in the order you add them.

Step 4 — Check the agent view

Open Home / Unified Inbox. The availability dropdown at the top of the conversation list now offers Online plus each break you created.

What's next

See where agents pick them → Home / Unified Inbox.
Measure the result → Analytics → Availability.

How it works

Break Types is a small admin list scoped to your organisation. Creating, renaming, activating, or deleting a break takes effect on every agent's dropdown on their next load.

The important design choice is what happens when an agent uses a break. The label is snapshotted — copied as plain text onto the agent's current availability record and onto an entry in the permanent availability history. There is no live link back to the break type. That's deliberate: it means renaming Lunch to Lunch Break, deactivating it, or deleting it entirely never changes what's already been recorded. Past reports and timelines show exactly the label that was true at the time.

A break is, for routing purposes, simply "offline". The chat auto-assigner, ticket pools in availability mode, and the live "agents available" tile all read one thing — whether you're available — so an agent on Lunch is treated identically to one who is plainly Offline. Break Types only adds the reason, never changes the routing.

Features in depth

The break-type list

Each row shows a status dot (amber = active, grey = inactive), the label, and controls:

Deactivate / Activate — toggle whether agents can currently pick it. Inactive labels leave the dropdown but stay in history.
Edit (pencil) — rename the label in place. Press Enter to save, Escape to cancel.
Delete (trash) — remove the break type entirely. A confirmation reminds you that existing history keeps its label.

Add a break type

Type a label and click Add (or press Enter). Labels are capped at 120 characters and must be unique within your organisation. Online is reserved — the system rejects it, since "online" is always the single available state.

Tips & gotchas

Adding a break type changes the agent experience: with at least one break configured, there's no longer a plain Offline option — agents go offline by picking a break. Keep a general-purpose label (e.g. Offline or Away) if you want a catch-all.
Deactivating is safer than deleting when you're unsure — your reports stay readable either way, but deactivating is reversible.

Roles and permissions

Action	Account Owner	Admin	User
View break types	Yes	Yes	Picks from them in the inbox
Create a break type	Yes	Yes	No
Rename / reorder a break type	Yes	Yes	No
Activate / deactivate a break type	Yes	Yes	No
Delete a break type	Yes	Yes	No

Cross-module workflows

A. Stand up labelled breaks, then measure them

Break Types: add Lunch, Meeting, Training. Home / Unified Inbox: agents pick a reason as they step away. Analytics → Availability: at week's end, read total available vs. unavailable time and the per-break split.

B. Admin sets a teammate's break

Team Members: an admin opens a teammate's availability dropdown and sets them to Meeting during an all-hands. The change is recorded against that teammate (attributed to the admin who made it).

Limits a user will run into

Limit	Value
Label length	120 characters.
Uniqueness	One break type per label, per organisation.
Reserved labels	Online can't be used as a break label.
Break types per organisation	No hard cap; keep the list short enough to scan in a dropdown.

Errors and FAQ

Errors you might see

Message	What it means	What to do
A break type with this label already exists	The label is a duplicate in your organisation.	Pick a different name or edit the existing one.
Break type label is required	You tried to save an empty label.	Enter some text.
"Online" is a reserved label	You tried to name a break Online.	Use a different word — Online is always the available state.
Break type not found	The break you're editing was already removed (e.g. in another tab).	Reload the page.

FAQ

If I delete a break type, does it remove it from old reports?
No. The label is snapshotted at the time it was used, so deleting or renaming a break type never changes history. Past entries keep their original label.

What happens to agents who were on a break I just deactivated?
Their current status keeps the label it had. They simply won't see that option in the dropdown next time, and the inbox still shows their current label correctly.

Is a break different from being offline, for routing?
No. Any break counts as unavailable — the same as plain Offline — for chat auto-assignment, ticket pools in availability mode, and the "agents available" tile. The only difference is the recorded reason.

Do I have to set up break types?
No. With none configured, agents use a plain Online/Offline dropdown.

API

A partner API is available to list, create, update (rename / activate / deactivate / reorder), and delete break types. Contact your account team for access and the current request reference.

Changelog

Jun 2026 — Initial release. Org-configurable break labels, active/inactive state, snapshot-into-history design, and the Online/Offline ↔ Online + breaks dropdown behaviour.

Related modules and next steps

Home / Unified Inbox — where agents pick their status and break.
Team Members — admins set a teammate's availability and break here.
Analytics → Availability — total available vs. unavailable time and the per-break breakdown.
Ticket Pools — availability-mode pools treat any break as offline.