What it does

Defines when support is available. Attached to queues, chat widgets, and SMS channels to control when they accept work. Outside defined hours, overflow conditions trigger. Also controls AI agent vs. human rep staffing transitions.

Key facts

• Operating hours records cannot be migrated via export/import (Calendar entity limitation): must be manually recreated per environment
• When attached to a queue: system auto-creates an "Out of operation hours" overflow condition with action "Assign to queue anyway": this condition cannot be deleted, only its action changed
• Daylight saving handled automatically per the selected time zone
• Holidays must be entered individually: no bulk tool
• Chat widget: "Show widget during operation hours" toggle controls visibility; a separate "Show widget outside of operation hours" toggle can display widget with different messaging off-hours

When to use / skip

Use on any deployment where the contact centre doesn't operate 24/7 or needs to handle off-hours differently. Required for any voice overflow configuration. Skip only for 24/7 operations with no business hours differentiation.

Configuration decisions

• One record per distinct schedule: don't try to merge multiple schedule patterns into one record; global team, regional team, and specialist team each need separate records
• Chat widget behaviour off-hours: hide the widget entirely, or show it with an alternative message/self-service option; discuss with client before defaulting to "hide"
• Holidays: define the governance process for who maintains the calendar and how public holidays get added each year

Gotchas

• Calendar entity cannot be migrated. It's one of the few Contact Center configurations that must be manually recreated in each environment. Include it explicitly in the UAT-to-production migration checklist.
• The "Out of operation hours" queue overflow condition is created automatically and cannot be deleted: only the action can be changed. If it appears unexpectedly, operating hours were attached to the queue.
• Holidays are easy to miss post-go-live. Without an established process, agents will receive calls on bank holidays because nobody configured the date. Establish ownership during handover.

Consultant notes

• The calendar entity migration limitation is one of the few things in Contact Center that can't be included in a solution file. Put operating hours explicitly on the manual steps list for UAT-to-production migration: it's easy to miss when everything else is deployment-automated. The first time it gets forgotten is usually when a go-live happens to fall the week after a bank holiday and the routing silently drops contacts outside business hours.
• Establish who owns holiday calendar maintenance during handover, not as an afterthought. The most common failure mode is that nobody gets nominated, the project team moves on, and Q4 bank holidays are missing from the calendar because the operations team assumed someone else was handling it. Name a specific person and document the annual update cadence: "update by 31 October for the following calendar year" is the kind of instruction that actually gets followed.
• One record per distinct schedule is the right design principle. Trying to handle multiple schedule patterns (e.g. different hours for specialist teams, out-of-hours cover rotations) in a single operating hours record leads to fragile configurations and confusing overflow routing. Keep schedules simple and discrete, and create additional records as needed.

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Source last updated: 2026-03-18 | Check this: Calendar entity export/import support added, or operating hours relocated in admin center