About the Time Groups Module
A Time Group (found under the Favorites menu in the Administrator Dashboard) is a list of times against which incoming or outgoing calls are checked. The rules specify a time range, by the time, day of the week, day of the month, and month of the year. Each time group can have an unlimited number of rules defined. Time groups typically are associated with time conditions, which control the destination of a call based on the time. A time group can also be assigned to an outbound route in order to limit the use of that route to the times defined in the time group.
Adding a Time Group
From the Time Groups main page, click the blue “+Add Time Group” button, then fill out the information as described below:
-
Description: Enter a description to identify this time group. For example, “Closed Hours” works better to something generic like “Time Group 1.”
- Time to start
- Time to finish
- Week Day start
- Week Day finish
- Month Day start
- Month Day finish
- Month start
- Month finish
Time(s): This is where you will define a time range. By default, there is one range available. You can define multiple ranges in the same time group by clicking the Add Time button. The Time Group will evaluate to “True” during the times/days/months you define. Available parameters are:
Tip: Unset Parameters
Unset (blank) week day, month day, and month parameters will default to “all.” For example, setting a start time of 09:00 and an end time of 17:00, and nothing else (no day, month, etc.), will make the condition true from 9AM to 5PM every day of the week, every day of the month, every month of the year. If times are unset (blank) and there is also a week day, month day, and/or month range set, the day/date range will be considered an exclusion. You are essentially telling the system, “I want no time during this day/date range to be considered a match.” You can use this technique to exclude certain days/dates from a broader time period.
Excluding Time Periods Such as Holidays: After you have defined your “normal” or default time period(s) by adding one or more time ranges as described earlier, you can then add entries to exclude certain dates. To define an excluded period, leave the time to start and time to finish BLANK. (Make no selection for times). Then, select a week day, month day, and/or month range in which you want this exclusion to apply.
Date-Specific Holidays:Holidays such as Christmas, which always fall on the same calendar date, can be set by choosing the day of the month (for both start & finish) and the month (for both start & finish).
Floating Holidays: Holidays that do not always fall on the same calendar date require a bit more logic. You want the system to look for a specific day of the week within a possible date range. For example, Thanksgiving in the U.S. is the 4th Thursday of November. The possible dates are 11/22 through 11/28. To set an exclusion for Thanksgiving, you’d ask the system to look for a Thursday within that date range in November.This type of logic can be applied to any “floating” date, such as “the second Tuesday of each month,” for example.
Save: Click the Submit button, then click the Apply Config button.
Assigning Time Groups to Time Conditions
After you create a time group, it will become available for selection in the Time Conditions module.
