Office Hours
Setting-up office hours, out of office responses, call forwarding and after hours notifications.
What can I do with Office Hours?
Avochato allows you to set customized Office Hours for each of your inboxes. These define when your team is available to respond to inbound messages and calls. Once configured, you can automatically alert contacts who reach out outside of business hours, control how keywords and AI agents behave, and manage when your team receives push notifications.
Note: This article covers Office Hour settings for your inbox. You can also configure an After Hours response on Live Chat widgets here.
How to Set Office Hours
Office Hours can be configured by going to Settings -> Office Hours.
Office Hours follow a recurring weekly schedule broken down by day of the week. To get started:
- Select your timezone from the dropdown at the top of the page. Avochato will auto-detect your browser's timezone by default, and displays your inbox's current Open / Closed status alongside the current local time.
- Toggle on the days your team is available.
- For each active day, set your start and end times using the time range editor (in 15-minute increments).
- You can add multiple time ranges per day (for example, 9 AM to 12 PM and 1 PM to 5 PM) to account for lunch breaks or split shifts. Use "Add Office Hours" to add a range and "Remove Last Office Hours" to remove one.
- Click Save when finished. You can return and edit these at any time.
Exception Dates (Holidays and One-Off Closures)
In addition to your weekly schedule, you can block off specific calendar dates when your office will be closed, such as holidays or company events.
Under Settings -> Office Hours -> Exception Dates:
- Pick a future date using the date picker.
- Optionally add a label (e.g., "Thanksgiving" or "Company Retreat", up to 100 characters).
- Click Add. The date will appear in your exceptions list and can be removed at any time.
On any exception date, your inbox is treated as Closed for the entire day, regardless of your weekly schedule or agent availability status.
Note: Creating and deleting exception dates requires the Manage role on the inbox.
Agent Availability Mode
If your team's schedule is flexible, you can have your inbox automatically open and close based on whether any agent is actively available instead of relying on a fixed schedule.
Go to Settings -> Office Hours -> Configurations and enable "Automatic Office Hours whenever Agents are Available."
When this is on:
- Your inbox is Open as long as at least one agent has their status set to Available.
- When all agents go Unavailable, the inbox switches to Closed and off-hours behavior activates automatically.
Out of Office Auto-Response
Once your Office Hours are set, you can configure an automatic reply to send when a contact messages you outside of those hours.
Navigate to Settings -> Auto-Responses -> "Auto-Reply when you are out of the Office." Enter your message, toggle the setting ON, and click Save.
Auto-Reply Cooldown (Inactivity Trigger)
To avoid interrupting an active conversation with an automated response, you can set a cooldown period before the out-of-office reply fires again for the same contact.
Go to Settings -> Auto-Responses -> "Enable Triggering Auto-Replies After Inactivity" and set your desired cooldown window.
Note: If you don't want a cooldown, switch this ON and set the time period to 0. Switching the feature off entirely sets an indefinite cooldown, meaning the auto-response will only ever send once per contact.
Call Forwarding Only During Office Hours
If your inbox is configured to forward inbound calls to another number, you can restrict that forwarding to only occur during Office Hours.
Navigate to Settings -> Call Forwarding and enable "Only Forward Calls During Office Hours."
After Hours Push Notifications
Each user can individually choose to silence push notifications for activity that occurs outside of Office Hours.
Click your profile in the top right corner, go to Edit My Profile, and under Mobile App Push Notifications, check "Only send pushes during office hours." Click Save.
How Office Hours Affects Other Features
Feature | Behavior During Off Hours |
Auto-Response | Sends your out-of-office message instead of the standard greeting |
Keywords | Keywords with "Enforce Office Hours" enabled are skipped and only fire during open hours |
Avobots (AI Agents) | Can be configured to respond only during office hours, only outside office hours, or always |
Chat Widgets | Can be disabled or show a custom off-hours message when your inbox is closed |
Call Forwarding | Can be restricted to only forward calls during open hours |
Push Notifications | Users can opt in to only receive pushes during office hours |
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I haven't configured any office hours?
If no schedule has been set, Avochato treats the inbox as open 24/7 and no off-hours behavior is applied.
Does an exception date override Agent Availability mode?
Yes. Exception dates always take priority. Even if an agent is marked Available, an exception date will set the inbox to Closed for the entire day.
Can I have different hours for different inboxes?
Yes. Office Hours are configured per inbox, so each inbox can have its own schedule, timezone, and exception dates.
What if I want my Avobot to handle messages only when I'm closed?
In your Avobot settings, set the Hours of Operation to "Outside Office Hours." The bot will only activate when your inbox is in a closed state.