How do I set business hours for my channels and queues?

Business hours tell Assembled when your team is open for business on each channel, and, if you need finer control, on individual queues within a channel. They're used across the product: they determine whether live chat handled by AI agents is offered to customers or routed to a fallback like email, they power business-hours versions of metrics like first response time and service level, and they can shape your forecasts and staffing requirements so you're never asked to staff hours you aren't open.

This article covers how to view, create, edit, and delete business hours from the Business hours settings page.

• How do channel and queue business hours work together?
• How do I create or edit business hours?
• Can I set more than one time range per day?
• How do I delete business hours?
• What do business hours affect?
• FAQ
  • Do all my queues need business hours?
  • What happens if I don't set business hours at all?
  • Can different queues be in different timezones?

How do channel and queue business hours work together?

Business hours can be set at two levels:

• Channel level: the default hours for a channel (for example, chat or email). These apply to every queue in that channel unless a queue has its own hours.
• Queue level: hours for a specific queue that override the channel default for that queue only.

For example, if your chat channel is open 6am to 6pm but your Billing queue is only staffed 9am to 5pm, you can set 6am to 6pm at the channel level and add a queue-level entry for Billing with 9am to 5pm hours. Every other chat queue continues to follow the channel default.

How do I create or edit business hours?

1. Navigate to Configure and select Business hours:
   
2. Select Create business hours on the upper right corner of the page(or select an existing entry to edit it):
   
3. Choose the channel, and optionally a queue if these hours should apply to a specific queue rather than the whole channel.
4. Select the timezone the hours should be evaluated in.
5. For each day of the week, set the open and close times, or mark the day as closed.
6. Select Create schedule:
   

Can I set more than one time range per day?

Yes. Each day supports multiple hour ranges, which is useful if your team closes for part of the day, for example 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Select Add range (+) on a day to add another time window.

How do I delete business hours?

1. Navigate to Configure and select Business hours.
2. Find the entry you want to remove.
3. Click the "three dots" icon next the hour.
4. Select Delete and confirm:

What do business hours affect?

Business hours are referenced across Assembled:

• Live chat availability and handoffs: Outside of business hours, chat escalations are routed to your configured fallback (such as email or a case form), and customers can be shown when your team is next available. If a specific queue is outside its hours, wait-time estimates for that queue are suppressed so customers aren't shown misleading numbers.
• Metrics and reporting: Metrics like first response time, service level, wait time, and volume all have business-hours variants (for example, "first response time within business hours"), so performance is measured against the hours you're actually open.
• Forecasting and staffing requirements: Depending on your configuration, staffing requirements can be zeroed out for intervals outside business hours, so forecasts and generated schedules don't ask you to staff times you're closed. For email and back-office channels, SLA targets can also be measured in working time rather than wall-clock time. A 24-hour SLA on a ticket that arrives Friday afternoon comes due Monday, not Saturday.

FAQ

Do all my queues need business hours?

No. Set hours at the channel level and they'll apply to every queue in that channel. Add queue-level entries only for queues whose hours differ from the channel default.

What happens if I don't set business hours at all?

Without business hours, Assembled treats the channel as always open. Chat handoffs won't switch to a fallback based on time of day, and business-hours metric variants won't have hours to measure against.

Can different queues be in different timezones?

Yes. Each business hours entry has its own timezone, so a queue staffed out of a different region can keep hours local to that team.