# What is Business Hours Routing?

Also called schedule-based routing, after-hours routing, hours of operation.

Business hours routing sends an incoming contact down a different path depending on the time it arrives, evaluated against a defined schedule. Inside published hours it follows the normal flow; outside them it reaches an alternative such as an asynchronous handler, a message capture, or a booked callback. The schedule carries time zones, holidays, and exceptions.

A schedule is a set of recurring weekly windows plus overrides. Overrides cover public holidays, seasonal changes, and one-off closures, and they must be able to both close an open window and open a closed one. Every evaluation needs an explicit time zone, since a schedule authored in one region and evaluated against a caller in another will otherwise drift by hours and break twice a year at daylight saving transitions.

The routing decision usually happens early in a flow, before queueing and before any promise about wait time. Common branches are an asynchronous conversation that continues by message, a voicemail or form capture that creates a ticket, an emergency path for urgent categories, and a callback booking for the next open window. The choice of branch is often per intent rather than global.

Clear communication is part of the mechanism. Announcing the next opening time, confirming that a message was captured, and setting an expected response window all reduce repeat contacts. Published hours on a website, in an email signature, and in the routing configuration should come from the same source, since divergence between them is a frequent and hard-to-notice defect.

Automated handlers change the shape of the problem rather than removing it. An always-available assistant can hold a conversation at any hour, but tasks needing a human decision, an approval, or a specialist still land in a queue that opens later, so the schedule remains the record of when those commitments can be met.

## Key points

- Weekly windows plus holiday and one-off overrides
- Every evaluation needs an explicit time zone
- Branches include async handling, capture, callback, and urgent paths
- Published hours and routing config must share one source
- Automated coverage still queues work that needs a decision

## In practice

A message arrives at 22:40 local time on a public holiday. The routing schedule marks the day closed by override, so the flow skips the queue and hands the conversation to an assistant that answers the account question directly. Because the request also asks for a refund approval, the assistant confirms the hours, books a callback for the next open morning, and files the request so it is first in the queue when the window opens.

## Related terms

- [Channel Routing](/en/glossary/channel-routing)
- [Callback Scheduling](/en/glossary/callback-scheduling)
- [Queue Position](/en/glossary/queue-position)
- [Omnichannel](/en/glossary/omnichannel)
- [Calendar Integration](/en/glossary/calendar-integration)

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