Business hours

Send calls one way while you are open, another when you are closed, and another on holidays — set on one screen, with one Save.

TL;DR

• What it is — schedules that decide where a call goes by the moment it arrives: weekly opening hours, holidays and special days, and a Close now button for the day the office floods.
• Who it's for — Account Owners and Admins of a Lodgestory Voice account. Agents simply see After hours on the calls that arrived while you were closed.
• Top outcome — no call rings a desk nobody is sitting at, every holiday has its own greeting, and every missed call says whether it was missed in hours or after hours.

At a glance

How to find it

Sidebar: Settings → Calling → [your account] → Business hours.

Direct URL: https://lodgestory.com/crm/settings/calling/{accountId}/hours

📸 [SCREENSHOT: business-hours-list.png — schedule cards, each with a status chip, the week as seven bars, destinations and the numbers that follow it]

What is Business hours?

The problem it solves

A phone number that rings the front desk at 2 AM is worse than one that says "we open at 9". So is a number that rings an empty office on Diwali, or one that keeps taking calls during a fire drill because nobody could find the setting.

Business hours puts the three answers in one place: when you are open, where calls go when you are and when you are not, and which days are different. The schedule then shows, at every moment, whether it is open and when that changes — so you never have to work it out.

What you get

• Weekly hours you can read. Switch a day on, type the times. The page says the week back to you in words (Mon–Fri 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM) and draws it as seven bars.
• Breaks and split shifts. A day can have several ranges. A lunch hour can send its calls somewhere else — voicemail, another team — without closing the line.
• Overnight shifts. Friday 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM means Friday night into Saturday morning. The range is labelled ends next day.
• Holidays that are real dates. One day or several, this year only or every year, closed all day or open at different hours, with their own greeting if you want one.
• Public holidays in three clicks. Tick the days you close for from the India or United States list, or from a list your organisation uploaded.
• Close now and Open now. Close the phones at once for an hour, until the next opening time, until a time you choose, or until you turn it back on. Open them on a day the schedule says closed.
• A status on every schedule. Open now · closes 6:00 PM, Closed · opens Mon 9:00 AM, Closed for Diwali · opens tomorrow 9:00 AM, Closed by Priya · until 5:00 PM.
• Check a date. Ask "what happens to a call on 8 November at noon?" and see the answer, including changes you have not saved yet.
• After hours on every call. Calls that arrived while you were closed are marked in the call log, in reports, in Insights, on webhooks and in automations.
• Nothing disappears by accident. A schedule that numbers, menus or call flows still use cannot be deleted; the page names what uses it.

Customer scenarios

1. A hotel reservations line. Monday to Saturday 9 to 9, Sunday 10 to 6. Closed calls go to the After-hours voicemail box; the team returns them in the morning from the voicemail inbox.
2. Lunch cover. The front desk is open 9 to 6, but from 1 to 2 calls go to the duty manager's phone. One extra range on each weekday, with its own destination.
3. A night desk. Friday and Saturday 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM go to the night team; every other hour goes to the day team's schedule.
4. Diwali. Closed on 8 November 2026 with a recorded festival greeting. Next year's date is added from next year's list, because the festival moves.
5. Christmas Eve. Open 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM on 24 December only; the weekly hours return on the 26th.
6. A power cut. An admin presses Close now, picks In 1 hour, and types a message for this closure. The line reopens by itself.

Core concepts

Quick Start — open 9 to 6 on weekdays, closed on Diwali

Step 1 — Pick a starting point

Open Business hours. On a first visit the page asks When are you open? Choose Weekdays 9 to 6, Every day 9 to 9, Open 24/7, or Set the hours myself.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: bh-qs-1-first-visit.png — "When are you open?" with the three starting points]

Step 2 — Name the schedule and adjust the week

Type a name — Front desk hours. Switch days on or off and type the times. Time boxes accept 9, 930, 9:30, 9pm and midnight. + adds a second range to a day; the copy button applies a day's hours to other days.

Step 3 — Choose where calls go

Under Where calls go, pick the destination when you are open and when you are closed. A message can be a recording from your Media library or text you type.

Step 4 — Add your holidays

Under Holidays and special days, press Add public holidays, choose the country and year, and tick the days you close for. Use Add a day for anything that is not on a list.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: bh-qs-4-holidays.png — the public holidays list with Diwali and Christmas Day ticked]

Step 5 — Check a date

Press Check a date, pick 8 November at 12:00 PM, and read the answer: Closed for Diwali, and where that call goes.

Step 6 — Create the schedule

Press Create schedule. Anything that needs fixing is marked in red beside the field, in plain words.

Step 7 — Put it on a number

Under Used by, press Choose numbers and tick the numbers that follow this schedule. They start following it at once.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: bh-qs-7-numbers.png — the Choose numbers dialog listing each number with where it goes today]

How it works

When a call reaches a number that follows a schedule, Lodgestory asks the schedule one question — open or closed, right now? — and sends the call to the matching destination. The answer comes from four rules, the first that applies:

The details that decide the edge cases:

• Times are read on the schedule's time zone. A caller's own clock does not matter. Summer-time changes are followed automatically.
• A closing time is the moment you close. Open until 6:00 PM means a call at 6:00 PM exactly is closed.
• Midnight as a closing time means the end of the day. Midnight to midnight is a full day; so is Open 24 hours.
• An overnight range belongs to the day it starts on. Friday 10:00 PM – 6:00 AM covers Friday night and Saturday morning, not Friday morning.
• A holiday closes the day from midnight to midnight. An overnight range from the evening before stops at midnight.
• When two days could apply, the more specific wins. A one-off date beats a yearly one; a single day beats a longer run of days.
• Ranges may not overlap, with one exception: a range that sits wholly inside another and has its own destination — the lunch hour inside the working day. The inner range wins while it lasts.
• A holiday's greeting. A holiday with its own destination uses it; otherwise the schedule's holiday destination; otherwise the closed destination.
• Calls already in progress carry on. Closing — by the clock or by hand — affects new calls only.

Features in depth

The schedule list

One card per schedule: its name, status, the week in words and as seven bars, the open and closed destinations, the next holiday, and what uses it. Close now or Open now is on every card. The card's menu offers Edit, Duplicate — a copy that opens as a new, unsaved schedule — and Delete.

Opening hours

• A switch per day, and time boxes you can type into or pick from.
• + adds a range for a break or a split shift. The new range starts after the last one.
• Copy applies one day's ranges to the days you tick — Weekdays and Every day are one click.
• Each range has a menu: Open 24 hours, Send these calls somewhere else…, Remove this range.
• Start from replaces the week with a starting point: Weekdays 9 to 6, Every day 9 to 9, Open 24/7.
• Overlapping ranges are flagged as you type, on both ranges — including a night shift that runs into the next day's hours.

Where calls go

Three destinations: when you are open, when you are closed, and — optionally — on holidays. A message, then hang up plays once and ends the call; it is either a recording from your Media library or typed text. Typed text is read in an English computer voice, so a recording sounds better and can be in any language.

A call flow that has never been published is listed but cannot be chosen: it has nothing to take a call with yet.

Holidays and special days

Add a day opens in place:

Days that have passed and do not repeat fold away under past days, where Clear past days removes them.

Public holidays

Add public holidays lists the days for a country and year. Tick the ones you close for.

• India — holidays of central government offices. State holidays differ.
• United States — federal holidays, with the observed date where a holiday falls on a weekend.
• Your own lists — any list your organisation uploaded for chat away hours.

Each holiday is added for its own year and never as a yearly repeat, because festival dates move. A date that depends on the sighting of the moon says so. The days still to come are listed first. Days already on the schedule are marked Added; days that have passed fold away at the end of the list and cannot be ticked. The list names its source and the date it was last checked — confirm the dates that matter to you before relying on them. A year appears once its official list is published.

Close now and Open now

Both act at once, and both end by themselves unless you choose otherwise.

With Close now you can type a message for this closure; otherwise callers go to the closed destination. While it is in force the status reads Closed by Priya · until 5:00 PM, and the button becomes Back to the schedule.

Check a date

Pick a date and time. The answer says what the schedule does at that moment and why — Open, inside the weekly hours, Open, in the period called "Lunch cover", Closed for Diwali — and where the call goes. It uses what is on the page, including changes you have not saved. Close now and Open now are left out: the question is about the schedule.

Used by, and choosing numbers

A schedule only acts on what points at it. Used by lists the numbers, WhatsApp numbers, menu keys, call flows, other schedules and campaigns that do.

Choose numbers puts the schedule on a number without leaving the page:

The Numbers page shows the same mapping from the other side: each number's schedule, and whether it is open now.

After hours on your calls

Every call that passes a schedule records the decision.

• Calls list — an After hours chip on the call, and a Business hours filter: After hours or In hours.
• Call detail — a Business hours line with the reason and the schedule: After hours — Closed for Diwali · Front desk hours.
• A caller who only heard the closed message is logged as a missed call, marked After hours. Missed-call webhooks, automations and lead capture run for it like for any missed call.
• Calls → Team day card — Missed by business hours: missed calls split into After hours and In hours. Each opens the calls behind it; hover After hours for how many have not been called back.
• Insights → Agents — a Missed (after hours) column, shown once a call has rung somebody after hours.
• Call Log report — Business Hours and Schedule columns, and an after-hours filter.
• Webhooks — business_hours on every call.* event.
• Automations — call.afterHours, call.hoursState and call.scheduleName on call rules, and a ready-made After-hours call catch recipe.

A call that never passed a schedule carries no mark and counts as in hours.

In IVR Studio

The Business hours step follows a schedule and has an exit for Open, Closed, each named period and — optionally — Holiday. Without a Holiday exit, holiday callers take Closed. The test panel can run a flow as if it were another date and time, read on the schedule's own clock. See IVR Studio.

In outbound campaigns

A campaign with a schedule dials only while the schedule is open. It pauses on holidays and while the schedule is closed with Close now, and carries on at the next opening time. See Outbound Campaigns.

Rules from the old editor

Rules made before this page existed that it cannot express — a date in every month, for example — are listed under Rules from the old editor. They keep working as they are and cannot be edited; remove one to stop it.

Roles & permissions

Every change records who made it; the schedule shows Last changed by.

Connections

• Voice Menus (IVR) — a menu key can check a schedule; a schedule can send callers to a menu.
• IVR Studio — the Business hours step, with a Holiday exit.
• Departments — the usual open destination.
• Call Recording & Voicemail — the usual closed destination.
• Masked Connect — switched on during delivery hours, off outside them.
• Outbound Campaigns — calling hours that respect holidays.
• WhatsApp calling — WhatsApp numbers follow schedules too; WhatsApp's own calling hours are a separate setting.
• Calls, Reports and Analytics — where after-hours calls show up.
• Automations — follow up an after-hours call differently from a missed one.
• Webhooks — business_hours on call events.
• Away Schedule — the hours for chat replies. A separate schedule: changing one does not change the other.

Limits a user will run into

• A number follows one schedule at a time.
• Callers already waiting in a department queue at closing time stay in the queue until they are answered or the queue's own maximum wait ends.
• Agents have no working hours of their own here. Use availability and breaks for that.
• A campaign's calling hours follow the schedule's time zone, not the time zone of the person called.
• Yearly repeats are by date. "The fourth Thursday of November" cannot be set as a repeat; add it each year from the public holiday list.
• Typed messages are read in an English computer voice. Use a recording for any other language.
• The schedule keeps who changed it last, not a history of changes.
• After hours is recorded from the day the feature is switched on for your account. Earlier calls carry no mark.
• Chat away hours and WhatsApp calling hours are separate schedules.

Errors & FAQ

• "Two ranges on Monday overlap." Shorten one of them, or give the inner one its own destination if it is a break inside the working day.
• "This overlaps a range on Sunday." A night shift runs into the next day's hours. End it at midnight, or start the next day later.
• "There is already a schedule called …" Names are unique within an account.
• "… is still in use." The schedule cannot be deleted while a number, menu, call flow, schedule or live campaign uses it. The message lists them; move each to another schedule or destination first.
• "Choose who or what takes these calls." A destination is missing its target — the department, the voicemail box, the recording.
• "Holidays need an update that has not been installed yet." Weekly hours and destinations work meanwhile. Contact support.
• "Close now is not switched on yet." Holidays and Close now are saved but not applied to calls until support switches them on for the account. The status and Check a date show what calls do today.
• Admins only. Only Account Owners and Admins can open the page.
• Do holidays repeat? Only when Repeats every year is ticked. Days added from a public holiday list never repeat.
• What does a caller hear when the open destination was deleted? The closed destination. If that is missing too, a short spoken apology — never a dead line.
• I closed the line by hand and forgot. The status chip on the schedule and on the Numbers page says Closed by …. Press Back to the schedule.
• Is a call cut off at closing time? No. Closing affects new calls only.

API

Schedules are managed in the app. What a partner can read:

• Webhooks. business_hours on call.answered, call.completed, call.missed, call.recording_available and call.transcript_available — see Webhooks.
• Voice API. Each call carries businessHours; afterHours=true or afterHours=false filters the list.
• AI assistants (MCP). The call list filters on afterHours; the Call Log report takes callAfterHours. See MCP.

Changelog

• Oct 2026 — Business hours rebuilt: one screen for weekly hours, destinations and holidays; holidays as real dates with built-in public holiday lists for India and the United States; Close now and Open now; a status on every schedule; Check a date; delete protection; overnight ranges and full days; after hours recorded on every call, in the call log, reports, Insights, webhooks and automations; callers who hear only the closed message are logged as missed calls.

Related modules & next steps

• Voice product hub — the overall picture.
• Voice Menus (IVR) and IVR Studio — what to play when you are open.
• Call Recording & Voicemail — a voicemail box for when you are closed.
• Automations — a WhatsApp message to every after-hours caller.