Rule resolution reference

When you have multiple opening-hours rules, the obvious question is: which one wins for a given conversation? This reference covers the resolution logic.

The matching matrix

A rule “matches” a conversation when its scoping covers the conversation’s team and channel. Three levels of specificity, scored:

• Team + Channel — 3 — The most specific match — beats everything else
• Team only (any channel) — 2 — Used when no team+channel match exists
• Channel only (any team) — 1 — Fallback when only the channel matches

This is the same scoring model as SLA assignments — for the same reason: it lets you set broad defaults and override narrowly without rule duplication.

Worked example

Three rules:

• Default Email — (any) — Email
• Premium Team — Premium — (any)
• Premium Email — Premium — Email

A conversation routes to the Premium team on the Email channel. Resolution:

1. Premium Email matches both team and channel → score 3 → wins.
2. The other two rules don’t run; they’d have lost on score anyway.

Same conversation but on Web Chat instead:

1. Premium Email doesn’t match (channel is Email, not Web Chat) → skipped.
2. Premium Team matches the team → score 2 → wins.
3. Default Email doesn’t match (channel doesn’t include Web Chat) → skipped.

A General-team conversation on Email:

1. Premium Email doesn’t match (team is General, not Premium) → skipped.
2. Premium Team doesn’t match → skipped.
3. Default Email matches the channel → score 1 → wins.

When no rule matches

If a conversation’s team and channel combination doesn’t match any active rule, downstream features that read opening hours fall back to default behavior:

• SLA timers — count continuously (no pausing — same as if Ignore office hours were on)
• Automation rules with schedule restrictions — schedule restrictions evaluated as “always inside hours” (the rule fires regardless)
• IVR Is Open node — defaults to closed (caller routes to the after-hours branch)
• Web chat widget — shows as available

The defaults vary by feature. The safest move is to ensure every team-and-channel combination you actually use is covered by at least one rule.

When two rules tie on score

It’s possible — though rare — for two rules to tie on specificity. Two channel-only rules both targeting Email, or two team-only rules both targeting the same team. When this happens, the resolver picks one but the choice isn’t well-defined.

Fix it by either:

• Making the rules disjoint (one covers Email + Premium team only, the other covers Email + General team only), or
• Merging them into a single rule, or
• Disabling one (the active toggle) and seeing if the remaining behavior is correct

Active vs inactive

A rule with the Active toggle off is treated as if it doesn’t exist for resolution purposes. Useful for:

• Temporarily testing a different schedule (toggle the new one on, the old one off, compare)
• Holiday schedules that only apply for a few weeks of the year (toggle on at the start, off afterward)
• Rules under construction that aren’t ready to apply

Inactive rules don’t count in tie-breaking either — they’re invisible to the resolver.

Audit trail

When a feature reads opening hours for a conversation, it records which rule applied. SLA badges and IVR flows expose this in their respective dashboards. If a rule fires (or doesn’t fire) when you didn’t expect it, this audit trail tells you why.

See also

• What are Opening Hours?
• Set up your team’s opening hours
• Set up channel-specific SLAs — same matching pattern