Set up split shifts and multi-timezone hours

Two non-trivial scheduling patterns and how to implement them: a single team with split shifts (e.g., lunch break), and multiple teams across different timezones.

Pattern 1 — Split shifts within a single day

Many European teams take a long midday break — it’s not closed-with-everyone-online-async, the agents are actually unavailable. Encode this with two time slots per day.

Steps

1. Open the rule in Settings → Opening Hours.
2. For each weekday with a split shift:
   Toggle the day on.
   Add time slot 1: 09:00-13:00.
   Add a second time slot (most UI versions have an “Add slot” button): 14:00-18:00.
3. Save.

The rule is now open in two windows per day, with a 13:00-14:00 gap when timers pause.

Verify

A conversation arriving at 13:30 should show its SLA timer paused. The same conversation at 14:30 should show the timer counting down again, with the value bumped forward by however long the gap was.

When to use this

• Teams with mandated lunch breaks (common in southern Europe, Latin America)
• Two-shift coverage where the morning and evening agents are different people, with a gap for handoff
• Half-day Friday schedules paired with a Monday-morning team meeting

When NOT to use split shifts

If the gap is short and async work continues during it (agents take staggered lunches, but someone is always available), you don’t need split shifts — keep the rule continuous. SLA timers pausing during lunch when the team is technically still covering is more confusing than helpful.

Pattern 2 — Multi-timezone teams

Each timezone needs its own rule. A single rule can only have one timezone setting, so encoding “9am everywhere” in one rule produces wrong behavior for at least two of three offices.

Steps for a US/EU/APAC team setup

Three teams configured in Settings → Teams: Support US, Support EU, Support APAC.

Three opening-hours rules:

• US Hours — Support US — America/New_York — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00
• EU Hours — Support EU — Europe/London — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00
• APAC Hours — Support APAC — Asia/Singapore — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00

For each:

1. New rule in Settings → Opening Hours.
2. Set Team Assignment to the corresponding team.
3. Channel Assignment — typically all support channels for that team.
4. Set the timezone explicitly (don’t rely on the auto-detected timezone — it’d be the timezone of whoever creates the rule, not the team’s).
5. Set the schedule (9am-5pm in the team’s local time).
6. Save.

How conversations are scoped

When a conversation routes to Support US, the US Hours rule applies (matched by team scope, score 2). Ditto for EU and APAC. Conversations not assigned to any of these teams fall back to whatever rule covers the channel-only case, or to the no-rule defaults.

Cross-region handoffs

If a conversation moves between teams (US team picks up a chat that the EU team started, follow-the-sun style), the active opening-hours rule changes mid-conversation. SLA timers that pause/resume use whichever rule is active at the moment of evaluation — they don’t lock in to the original rule.

Variants

• Default fallback rule. Add a fourth, low-specificity rule with no team scoping that covers any channel — used when conversations are unassigned or assigned to a team without its own opening-hours rule.
• Always-on async channels. Add an Email Async rule that’s 24/7 and channel-only, separate from the team-specific live-channel rules. SLA timers on email never pause; chat timers respect the team’s local hours.
• Holiday calendars per region. Each rule’s country code matches the team’s region — US for US Hours, GB for EU Hours, SG for APAC Hours.

Combining split shifts with timezones

A Mediterranean team with a long lunch in their local time:

1. Rule scoped to the team and their timezone (Europe/Madrid).
2. Schedule: Mon-Fri 09:00-13:00 + 14:30-18:30 (note the 90-minute lunch).
3. Holiday calendar: ES (Spain).

Combine the two patterns freely.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: Split-shift gap doesn’t pause the timer. Fix: Check both time slots are saved. Some UI versions don’t show a slot if its end time isn’t set; the slot may have been silently lost.
• Symptom: Multi-timezone rule applies to wrong team. Fix: Re-check Team Assignment on each rule. The assignment matrix in rule resolution explains how scoping works.
• Symptom: Same-team conversation shifts between rules. Fix: That’s expected if the conversation moves between teams (handoff). Check the conversation’s team-assignment audit trail to confirm the move is intentional.

See also

• Set up your team’s opening hours
• Configure holidays and date overrides
• Rule resolution reference