A guide on how to create new time frames which can be used for time based routing.
Index
- Overview
- Adding a Time Frame
- Always
- Days of the Week
- Specific Dates
- Holidays
- Custom
- Assigning the Time Frames
Overview
A Time Frame is an object that stores time data. It does nothing on it's own but can be combined with Answering Rules and Time of Day Numbers to route calls different at different times of the day and on different days of the year.
For example, you can create a time frame that starts at 9am on a Monday morning, and ends at 5pm on Monday evening, this repeats every week on Mondays. You can then create a rule that applies to main business number which points towards a user when the time frame is active, you can then configure the default route to go to voicemail.
In this scenario, when ringing the main number between 9am and 5pm on Mondays, the user will ring, however if rang any other time, it will go to voicemail.
You can also select specific, none repeating dates and holidays.
Adding a Time Frame
Firstly, navigate to the "Time Frames" tab under the domain view, from here select the owner you want to add the time frame to.
Selecting the domain as the owner will create a time frame that anyone in the domain can use, unticking "Hide Users Without Time Frames" and assigning the time frame to a specific user will make it so only that specific user can use the time frame.
From here click the "Add Time Frame" button
Here you can see you have 3 options, "Always", "Days of the week and times", and "Specific Dates or ranges". There is also a field to give the time frame a name.
Always
An always time frame is simply a time frame that covers all periods of time.
This option exists because answering rules require a time frame to be created first before you can add one, therefore the always option is there for when you want a rule that is always active.
Always timeframes are also usually used when a user wishes to manually enable/disable rule instead of have it toggled automatically.
This can be done manually on the portal or the app, or you can assign what is known as a "night key" to phone screen to toggle the rule on/off.
See here on how to create a night key.
Days Of The Week
Days of the week and times allows you specify days and times on a weekly basis, this will be the same every week. This option is generally used to configure opening hours of a business or organisation.
To configure this, select which days you want to be active on the left hand side. You can then configure a start and end time by selecting a time from the drop down box.
TIP: If you want a more specific time, you can type in the box.
If you want the same configuring to be applied to every day, then select "Copy to all". Note that this only copies to the days you can ticked.
You can have 2 separate periods of time in one day by selecting the green "+" icon next to one of the boxes.
For example, if a business closes for lunch, this would allow you to have a time frame that covers 9am-12pm and 1pm-5pm all within the same configuration.
Custom Recurrences
It is also possible to create custom recurrences, by default the days of the week time frame will activate every week on the selected days.
If you set the recurrence to custom, this allows for a few more options:
Starts: Lets you set a start date for the time frame, the time frame will not activate until the date is reached.
Recur Every: Configure the repeat pattern, for example "Recur Every 2 weeks" will cause the time frame to alternate from active to inactive each week. This option uses the "Start Date" value to determine where to start from. The first week is always active and then the recurrences start from there.
Ends: Lets you configure a date for the time frame to stop being active.
Specific Dates
Specific dates lets you configure a time frame that only covers a specific date or range of dates in the year. This is generally used to configure seasonal periods of closure for a business or organisation, such as a holiday or a training day.
Click the date field to bring up a calendar, then configure a start and end date, then select the time field to select a start and end time.
Once done click on the "+" icon to add your range to the configuration.
You can add multiple date ranges by simply filling the boxes in again with a new range then selecting the "+" button. When you are done configuring click save.
Custom Recurrences
By default specific dates will not recur at all, however you have a few options for automatic recursion available.
The options you see will change depending the date range you have, so for this example we have the date range configured as 12:00am on the 3rd July 2024 (a Wednesday) until 11:59pm on the 7th July 2024 (a Friday). This totals as a 3 day period.
With this date we get the following options:
Every month on the first Wednesday: This option will cause the time frame to recur every month on the first Wednesday for the time period of time as the original occurrence (3 days). It will start at the same time configured on the start date, which in this case is 12am. The day will depend on the day of the start date, for example if your start date was a Monday then this option would say "on the first Monday".
Every month on day 3: The time frame will occur for 3 days starting on the 3rd day of every month at 12a.
Every year on July 3: The exact same period configured will occur every year.
Every year on the first Wednesday of July: The time frame will last for 3 days starting at 12:00am on the first Wednesday of every July each year
You can also select a custom recurrence, which lets you set any number of days/weeks/months/years after the date range has ended for the time range to reoccur.
Holidays
Holidays allows you to configure a time frame that covers known holidays across the world. This is generally used to configure organisational closures during holiday periods.
To begin, select the country and region that you would like to search known holidays for.
From here you can select which holidays you want to include in the time frame, you may include multiple.
Once added, each holiday will show a preview detailing the next time each holiday will occur.
Under time, configure a start and end time for the time frame to be active, this time will apply to every holiday in the configuration. You can select the "+" icon to configure 2 time periods for each day.
Lastly, you can choose to have the time frame never recur, or recur every year.
When ready select "next" to go to the "Observed Holidays" tab.
Observed Holidays
The observed holidays tab allows us to configure how the time frame will handle what happens when the holiday falls upon a weekend.
To begin configure the work week for the time frame, by default it will be Monday to Friday with Saturday and Sunday as weekends.
From here, configure what happens for each day, the options you get will depend on if you configured the day as a weekday or a weekend.
The default configuration is to apply as normal for Monday to Friday, apply for the previous Friday if the holiday lands on a Saturday, and apply for the following Monday if the holiday lands on a Sunday.
Weekend
Observe on holiday Only: The time frame will apply on the day.
Observe on prior workday: The time frame will apply on the closest previous work day.
Observe on holiday and prior workday: The time frame will apply on the day and the closest previous work day.
Observe on next workday: The time frame will apply on the closest work day following the day.
Observe holiday and next workday: The time frame will apply on the day and the closest work day following the day.
Work Day
Observe on holiday only: The time frame will apply on the day.
Observe on holiday and prior day: The time frame will apply on the day and on the previous day.
Observe on holiday and next day: The time frame will apply on the day and on the next day.
Custom
The custom option lets you create a timeframe that contains multiple of any of the other options in the same time frame.
In the above example we have 2 days of the week, 1 specific dates, and 3 holiday timeframes, all built into the same time frame.
This allows for more organisation when building your time frames.
Assigning the Time Frames
Once a time frame is created it doesn't do anything until it's assigned to something, this could be either a User's Answering Rules, or a TOD Phone Number.
These are both covered in separate articles:
Answering Rules: How do I configure answering rules?
TOD Phone Number: How do I configure time based routing on phone numbers?