Configure holidays and date overrides

Public holidays and one-off closures need to be reflected in your opening hours, otherwise SLA timers count through them and IVR flows route customers to a “we’re open” experience on Christmas Day. Atender handles this with two layers: a country-based holiday calendar (auto-imported), and per-date overrides (manually set).

Before you start

• A working opening-hours rule (create one)
• A list of company-specific closures or special hours (your office closes between Christmas and New Year, for instance, even though those aren’t all public holidays)

Step 1 — Pick a country for the holiday calendar

Atender imports public holidays automatically based on the country code you set on the rule.

1. Open the rule in Settings → Opening Hours.
2. Find the Holiday calendar field.
3. Pick the country whose public holidays apply to your team. Common options: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, etc.
4. Save.

Holidays from the selected country are now treated as closed — SLA timers pause, IVR routes after-hours, automation schedule restrictions evaluate as “outside hours.”

The holiday calendar updates as new years roll in. You don’t need to maintain a list yourself.

Multi-region teams

If your team operates in multiple countries (US team, EU team, UK team), use separate rules per region with different country codes. One rule per region, each with the appropriate holiday calendar. See multi-timezone hours.

Step 2 — Add date overrides for company-specific events

Date overrides handle anything that’s not a public holiday: company-only closures, half-days, special-event hours.

For each:

1. In the rule, find Date overrides (or similar — depending on UI version, the section may be labeled “Custom dates” or “Exceptions”).
2. Click Add override.
3. Pick a date.
4. Set the behavior:
   Closed — fully unavailable. Same effect as a holiday.
   Custom hours — define start and end times for that specific date. Useful for Christmas Eve 08:00-12:00, Black Friday 06:00-22:00, etc.
5. Save.

Override an imported holiday

Some teams want to operate on certain public holidays (a 24/7 critical-issue team, say). To override an imported holiday with custom behavior:

1. Add a date override for the same date as the holiday.
2. Set the override to Custom hours (or even regular hours if you’re operating normally).
3. Save.

The override takes precedence over the imported holiday for that date. The next year’s holiday will need its own override unless you’ve created a recurring pattern.

Step 3 — Verify

1. After saving, open a conversation that should be affected (e.g., on a holiday date).
2. Check the SLA badge — it should say “paused” or remain at its last value rather than counting down.
3. Check any automation that uses schedule restrictions — it should behave as if the workspace is closed on the holiday.
4. For voice channels: test an IVR flow’s Is Open node — the call should route to the after-hours branch.

Common patterns

• Standard public holidays — Set country code; nothing else needed
• Company-only closures (year-end shutdown) — Date overrides marked Closed for each date
• Half-day Christmas Eve — Date override with custom hours 08:00-12:00
• Black Friday / extended hours — Date override with custom hours 06:00-22:00
• Operating on holidays — Date override with custom hours matching your normal day
• Different holiday calendars per team — One rule per team-region pair, each with appropriate country code

Maintenance

A few practices that prevent the calendar from drifting:

• Annual review. Once a year (typically December), review the next year’s company-specific closures and add date overrides ahead of time.
• Don’t override imported holidays unnecessarily. If a holiday should be closed, the country calendar already handles it. Adding a redundant override creates clutter.
• Use descriptive override names (if your UI version supports them). 2026-12-24 Christmas Eve half-day is more useful than just the date alone.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: Public holidays aren’t being recognized. Fix: Check the country code on the rule. Common mistake: setting it to the team’s location (US) when your holiday calendar should be the country (Canada).
• Symptom: A specific date should be closed but the timer is counting. Fix: That date isn’t a public holiday in the imported calendar. Add a date override marked Closed.
• Symptom: Override applies on the wrong day. Fix: Timezone mismatch. The override date is interpreted in the rule’s timezone — verify it matches.

See also

• Set up your team’s opening hours
• Set up split shifts and multi-timezone hours