What Is Time-Based Routing?

What it actually is

Every organization works certain hours, but the phone rings around the clock. Time-based routing is the PBX's way of knowing what to do with a call based on the moment it came in. On the same number, a call at ten in the morning reaches the full menu and the secretaries, and a call at ten at night hears a message that the office is closed and can leave a voicemail.

The building block that everything rests on is called a time group. It is simply a list of time windows: which days, from what hour to what hour. You give the group a name — "Office hours", "Dormitory hours", "Lunch break" — and then use it as a condition: "If the call came in within the group, go here; otherwise, go there."

The big advantage of a named group is that the hours are defined in one place. If the office extends its hours by an hour, you update the group, and all the numbers, menus and queues that use it update together. There is no need to go through ten places and hope you didn't miss one.

How it works behind the scenes

1. The call comes in to the organization's number.
2. The PBX checks caller rules — if there is a special rule for the calling number (see Caller-Based Routing), it is checked first.
3. The PBX checks the time against the time groups defined for the number, in order.
4. The first group that matches decides the destination — a menu, a queue, an extension or a message.
5. If no group matches, the call goes to the number's default destination.

Note the last point, because it is a source of confusion: the default is what happens when no rule matched. That is why there are two equivalent ways to build the same thing. You can set "During office hours — to the menu, and default — to the closed message." Or you can reverse it. What matters is to choose one method and understand it, so that half a year from now, whoever opens the settings will understand what is happening.

The check is made by the PBX's clock, at the moment the call comes in. A call that came in at 4:59 PM and is still in the queue at 5:05 PM is not "thrown out" — the time is checked on entry, not throughout the call.

What you can build with it

• Office hours and after hours — the basics: during hours — a menu and agents; outside them — a message with the office hours and the option to leave a message in a voicemail box.
• Lunch break — a short window in the middle of the day with its own message: "We are on break, we will be back at 1:30."
• Different hours for each department — sales until six, accounting only in the mornings. Each department gets its own group, and a key in the menu behaves accordingly.
• A short day — on Friday the office closes early, so the "Office hours" group includes a shorter window for Friday.
• Evening on-call — after office hours the calls don't go to voicemail, but to the on-call person's mobile or to a small hunt group.
• Planned closure — vacation days or a staff conference, with a dedicated message for those days.

All of these share the same principle: the time decides where the call goes, and the destination itself can be any component of the PBX — an IVR menu, a queue, an extension, a recorded message or a voicemail box.

Real-life examples

A business in Bnei Brak. A store is open Sunday through Thursday from nine to seven, and on Friday from nine to one. One time group, "Store hours", covers both windows. During the hours — the regular menu. Outside them — "The store is currently closed. Our hours are...", and a key for leaving a message.

A yeshiva with a dormitory. The office is open in the morning, but the dormitory needs to be available to parents in the evening hours. In addition, during study sessions you don't want the dormitory phone to ring at all. You build two groups: "Office hours" and "Dormitory contact hours." During a study session, anyone who calls the dormitory hears a message with the contact hours and can leave a message.

A service center. The center works two shifts. In the morning, calls go to a queue with the whole team, and in the evening to a smaller queue for the evening shift. At night — a message, and for urgent problems a key that reaches the on-call person's mobile.

A nonprofit. A gemach information line works around the clock, because it only plays messages. But the key "To speak with a volunteer" is active only during the hours when volunteers are available. Outside them, the key announces when to call back and offers to leave a message.

Common mistakes

• Hours defined in several places — the same hours typed by hand in the menu, in the queue and in the number. When they change, one gets forgotten. It is better to have one named group that everyone uses.
• Changing a group that "belongs to someone else" — a group that looks like "Sales hours" is actually also used by service. Someone shortens it, and service closes early without anyone intending it.
• A closed message with no information — "The office is closed" and nothing more. The caller doesn't know when to call back. Always include the business hours.
• No option to leave a message — a caller outside the hours who can't leave a message may try once more, and may turn somewhere else.
• An unclear default — when it isn't clear what happens "when no rule matches", you eventually discover that at three in the morning the calls reach someone's extension.
• Forgetting to test — after every change in hours, dial once within the hours and once outside them.

Practical tips

• Give groups names that explain themselves: "Office hours — general" and not "Group 3".
• Before you change a group, check where it is in use. If it is used by several departments and only one is changing — create a new group for that department.
• Record messages in advance for closures you know are coming, and save them. Next time you only need to connect them.
• If you have an on-call person, give them a fixed mobile number in the PBX, not the private number of whoever is on duty today. That way you can replace the on-call person without touching the routing.
• The "after hours" message is an opportunity: you can refer callers in it to the website or to the information line, and save calls the next day.

Calendar planning: planned closures, not surprises

Most organizations define business hours once and forget. Then the eve of a holiday arrives, the office is closed, and the menu promises "An agent will answer shortly." The solution is a calendar: a separate time group for planned closures, checked before the "Office hours" group, and leading to its own message.

Here is how to work on it once a year, in one hour:

1. Open the organization's calendar and write down all the closed days: holidays, days before holidays, conference days, the staff's summer vacation, the yeshiva's yahrzeit day.
2. For each date, mark whether it is fully closed or partially open ("the eve of a holiday until 12:00").
3. Create a "Closures" time group with those dates, and update it when next year's calendar is published.
4. Record one general message — "The office is closed for the holiday. We will resume on the next business day. To leave a message, press 1" — without mentioning a date, so that it works for all closures.
5. For a long closure (a week or more), record a dedicated message with the return date.

The order between the groups matters: "Closures" is checked first. Otherwise, on a holiday at ten in the morning, "Office hours" will match, and the call will reach the regular menu of an empty office.

A full example: the work week of an accounting office

An office with five employees that wants the phone to behave exactly like the office. This is what its time groups look like, in the order they are checked:

A few small decisions hide in the table: the lunch break is defined as a separate group, and not as a "hole" in the office hours, because that way it has its own message that says when you will be back. Friday gets a separate row so that it can be canceled in the summer without touching the rest. And "Office hours" stays simple — five days, one opening hour and one closing hour.

In the winter the office moves its Friday closing earlier, to 11:30. You change one number in the "Short Friday" group, and it applies to the main number, to the direct customer line and to the queue — because they all point to the same group.

Mistakes you only notice after months

• The closures group from last year. The dates weren't updated, and the office is "closed" on a regular day. It is worth setting a calendar reminder a month before Rosh Hashanah.
• Daylight saving time. The PBX works on Israel time, but someone who defined hours abroad according to their own local time will discover a one-hour difference.
• A Friday defined like a weekday. At 2:00 PM on Friday the phone rings in an empty room.
• A break message with no return time. "We are on a break" — until when?
• Changing hours without testing. Dial once within the group and once outside it, for every group you changed.