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Link a team to opening hours

Tie a team to a specific opening-hours rule so SLA timers, IVR routing, and chat availability all reflect the team's actual schedule. Most useful for multi-region teams or specialist teams with hours that differ from the workspace default.

May 12, 20264 min read

Link a team to opening hours

A team’s linked opening-hours rule is what downstream features read to know “is this team open right now?” — for SLA timers, IVR routing, chat-widget availability indicators, and automation schedule restrictions.

By default, opening hours resolve through the matching matrix — the most-specific rule (Team + Channel) wins. So you can have multi-team coverage without per-team links if your rules are well-scoped.

But for teams whose schedule differs significantly from any channel-only or workspace-wide rule — say, a Premium team that’s 24/7 while the workspace default is 9-5 weekdays — explicitly linking the team to its rule makes the relationship visible in the team config and easier to debug.

Before you start

  • Admin permissions on Teams (Teams → Create / Delete or Teams → Edit Members)
  • The opening hours rule already exists (create one first)
  • A clear understanding of which rule should apply to which team — see Rule resolution reference

Steps

  1. Open Settings → Teams.
  2. Click into the team.
  3. Find Opening Hours (or Schedule depending on UI version).
  4. Pick the opening-hours rule from the dropdown.
  5. Save.

The link takes effect immediately. SLA timers and other features now consult this rule when evaluating “is the team open?”

Common patterns

Multi-region teams

Each regional team links to its regional opening-hours rule:

  • EU Support — EU Hours — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00 CET
  • APAC Support — APAC Hours — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00 SGT
  • Americas Support — Americas Hours — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00 ET

Each rule has its own timezone; the link makes sure each team’s downstream behavior reflects its actual operating window.

24/7 vs business-hours teams in the same workspace

  • Standard Support — Standard Hours — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00
  • Critical Issues — 24/7 Coverage — Always open
  • On-Call — 24/7 Coverage — Always open

This is the easiest model for tenants that mix always-on critical-issue teams with normal-hours general support.

Specialist team with shorter hours

  • General Support — Standard Hours — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00
  • Phone Specialists — Phone Hours — Mon-Fri 09:00-12:00
  • Email General — (no link, falls through to channel-only rule) — Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00

The phone team is open shorter; the email team uses the default. SLA timers, IVR open/closed, and chat widget all reflect this.

Downstream features that read team opening hours:

  • SLA timers pause outside the team’s hours (unless the SLA policy has Ignore office hours on)
  • Voice IVR uses team-linked hours when routing — “Is Open” node returns based on the team’s rule
  • Web chat widget shows availability based on the assigned team’s hours
  • Automation rules with schedule restrictions evaluate against the active team’s hours when triggered
  • Per-user availability — agents control their own status (online / away / break) independent of team hours
  • The user’s calendar — Atender doesn’t sync to external calendars
  • Tenant-wide opening hours — the link is per-team; the workspace default still applies to teams without a linked rule

Verify it worked

  1. Outside the linked rule’s hours, open a conversation that should be routed to this team.
  2. SLA timer should be paused (unless policy ignores office hours).
  3. Try the team’s voice number — it should route to the after-hours branch.
  4. Check the chat widget on a page that routes to this team — should show “we’re closed” or similar.

If everything’s working as expected during business hours but the after-hours behavior isn’t — the link probably isn’t applying. Walk through the rule-resolution reference.

Troubleshooting

  • Symptom: Linked the rule but the team behaves like the default. Fix: Check that the rule’s Team Assignment matches this team. The link is a two-way relationship — the team config points at the rule, AND the rule’s assignments need to include the team.
  • Symptom: Different conversations on the same team get different opening-hours behavior. Fix: Rule resolution is by specificity. A more-specific rule (Team + Channel) might win over the team-only rule for some conversations. Walk through which rule applies for each.
  • Symptom: Timezone seems wrong. Fix: Timezones are set on the opening-hours rule, not on the team. Open the rule and verify the timezone field.

See also

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