Introduction

The office hours function allows you to handle calls differently based on the time of day. Office hours are configured at department level and any extensions or system extensions such as an IVR that are part of that department will automatically inherit the office hours from the department they are a member of. These office hours are then referred to in the extension or system extensions configuration so that you can then set different destinations based on the time the call is received.

An important concept to understand is that the office hours of the endpoint/extension/system extension at which the call arrives are applied. So it does not matter from which IVR or SIP trunk the call came from, it only matters where it arrives.

Let's say you have a general IVR in your default group which uses the main office hours and offers callers a choice of the sales or the support queues. These have slightly different work hours, for example sales takes a longer lunch break.

This is configured by creating an IVR in the default group with main office hours and then having a support and a sales department with different break times. If you then place the sales queue in the sales department, the sales queue will inherit the office hours and apply these to the call once the call is received.

Version 18 versus version 20

For existing users of 3CX coming from version 18 it's important to note that 3CX no longer has global office hours which are applied at SIP trunk level, but now the department office hours are applied at system extension/extension level. Rather than apply office hours based on which SIP trunk a call is received, office hours are applied based on the destination of the call. This gives greater flexibility and makes day to day administration much easier.

For example in v18, if you had a SIP trunk with 100 DIDs, you faced the issue of having to create multiple trunks and assign DIDs accordingly to apply different office hours. Not so in v20, different office hours can be applied at the call destination, making it much easier to manage.

FREE, Small Business versus Dedicated

Small Business and Free versions do not have departments so in this case all extensions will use the same office hours.

Step 1: Configure Office hours

To configure your office hours:

1. In the 3CX Admin console go to “Office hours”. Select the department you want to configure the office hours for. (3CX FREE/SMB don't have departments so you can skip this step).
2. Click on the days and specify your opening hours.
3. Add any breaks.
4. Use the “Add” and “Clear” button for each section to add or remove times for every day of the week in one single bulk action.
5. If this group is in a different time zone, set the time zone at the bottom of the page.
6. Repeat this process for each group.

Step 2: Route calls to Department, IVR, Ring Group or Queue

After you have configured your office hours you have to route your calls to an entity that uses these office hours. Generally you would route your calls to an IVR or a queue. Alternatively, if you don't need a full blown IVR or queue you can use a group menu which simply plays an announcement and routes the call based on office hours immediately.

1. From the admin console go to “Call Handling”. 
2. From here select where you want to route calls.
3. Remember that the office hours of the department the extension is a member of will be applied!
4. Go to the “Assigned DID numbers” section of the IVR/Queue you want to send calls to. Select a DID that has not been assigned.
5. Now select a destination for calls received during office hours, out of office hours and break.

Step 3: Configure Holidays

Going away? From your admin console go to “Office Hours” and configure your holiday days here to have your calls handled as if your office is closed.

Click on “Office Holidays” and then “Add”.

Step 4: Overriding open, closed or break mode

Only users with receptionist role and up can trigger this function. It will only work if your configured IVR or Queue are part of the group of the receptionist!

Got into work early and want to open the office? You can override the open office hours from the account menu in the Web Client. Of course you can do the same thing to close the office early.

1. Click on your avatar. You need to have either the “Receptionist” or “Manager” role.
2. Select “Override office hours”.
3. Select the department, override office hours to and the duration.
4. Click “OK”. After the time elapses the default office hours will come into effect again.