⚒️Managing Working Hours

Working hours are the hours of operation for customer service. They can be set at the organization level and changed at each level down the tree for local hours.

To define working hours in the organization, you create one or more Working Hours Calendars and apply them to the organization or units.

Global Working Hours

Configuring working hours on the organizational level allows you to define the baseline working hours that any organizational unit can inherit, saving the need to define them separately for each unit.

To configure the organization's working hours:

• Go to Manager Tools / Working Hours

• Click on the organization name.

Configuring working hours is a two-phase process: first, you create a working hour calendar and then apply the calendar to the organization.

Creating a Global Working Hour Calendar

A Working Hours Calendar consists of rules defining the working hours on specific dates or recurring days of the week, days of the month, etc.

• Click on Calendar Definitions to list the working hours calendars in your organization.

  
• Click on a calendar from the list to edit it, or click New Calendar to create a new one.

• When you create a new calendar, you need to give it a unique name (for example: "Default Working Hours", "Holidays", "Summer Vacation Hours", etc.

Applying a Calendar Globally

• Click Working Hours to view the Global Working Hours page.

• Click Add Calendar to select the calendar to add to one of the following sections:

  • Applied globally: The calendar's rules can be overridden by local rules defined by local working hours calendars.

  • Applied globally, overrides child units: When you apply a calendar here, the calendar rules override any child unit rules. Use this option to enforce working hours on all units globally.

You can apply multiple calendars to each section. The order in which the calendars are applied matters. Each calendar rules override the rules of previous calendars.

Local Working Hours

A unit can inherit working hours from the organization or a parent unit. You can change the unit's working hours by applying specific calendars to the unit.

A local working hours calendar is defined in an organizational unit. A local calendar can be applied to the unit it is defined in or any of its descendant units.

To create a local calendar:

• Click on a unit in the organization tree.

• Click on Calendar Definitions to list the unit's calendars.

• Click on a calendar from the list to edit its settings, or click New Calendar to create a new local working hours calendar.

Applying Working Hours Locally

Units can inherit their working hours from their parent unit or organization. Turn the "Inherit working hours from parent" switch on to inherit parent working hours.

The inherited working hours serve as the baseline. You can apply additional global and local working hours calendars to the unit. These calendars will override the parent's working hours when applicable.

To apply a calendar to a unit:

• Click Add Calendar to open the Add Calendar dialog.

• Select a global or local calendar from the list.

• Click Add.

Like with global calendars, you can apply a calendar to the unit, allowing its rules to be overridden by child units, or apply it to the unit, enforcing it on all descendant unit rules.

Working Hours Calendar Settings

Global and Local calendars are managed in the same way. The Working Hours Calendar page is divided into three sections:

• Calendar Details: This section allows you to modify the name and description of the calendar.

• Working Hours Manager: This section lists the working hour rules and allows the administrator to edit or create new rules.

• Preview: The Preview section displays a preview of the working hours specified by the calendar on selected dates. It considers all the rules in the current calendar.

Example:

A local calendar defines a rule named "Leadership Workshops" for configuring shorter working hours between Feb 26 and 27:

The Preview section depicts the effect of this rule:

Creating and Editing Rules

To add a new rule to a working hours calendar:

• Click the Add New Rule (➕) button to open the New Rule dialog.

• Enter a descriptive name for the rule (e.g., "Weekdays", "Christmas Day", "Happy Tuesday", etc.).

• Click Create.

By default, new rules are configured to occur daily and have no working hours.

The rule consists of two parts:

• Schedule

• Working hours

Rule Working Hours

To configure working hours, click Add Time Block and edit a time block. You can add multiple time blocks to each day.

Rule Schedule

To edit the rule's schedule, click the Edit (✏️) button to open the Rule dialog:

This dialog allows you to edit the rule name and define when the rule is applied. You can combine any methods described below to apply the rule on specific dates or recurring days of the week, days of the month, etc.

Date Range

To apply the rule on specific dates, choose Starting or Between.

Daily Recurrence

To apply the rule on specific days of the week, choose Specific Weekdays:

To apply the rule on specific days of the month, choose Specific Dates:

Weekly Recurrence

To apply the rule on specific weeks of the month, choose Specific Weeks:

This option is often combined with specific weekdays. For example, if you want to apply a rule on every first Monday of the month, configure the rule like this:

Monthly Recurrence

To apply the rule on specific months, select Specific Months and choose the relevant months:

See Also