Defining Business Hours and Holidays - Online Help | Zoho Desk

Setting Business Hours and Holidays

Organizations that cater to customers from different countries or have employees operating globally from regional offices often observe multiple sets of work hours. This enables them to do business overseas and mark their presence globally with a wider outreach. These organizations mostly have customer support teams operating in different time zones and shifting to provide timely assistance to their customers. To ensure customer tickets are not left unattended, escalated, or overdue due to unavailability of support agents, it is essential to arrange work hours carefully.
Zoho Desk allows organizations to define multiple sets of business hours, which enables them to assign and address customer queries proactively. 

Availability 
Permission Required
Users with administrative privilege can set Business Hours and Holidays.
Check Availability and Limits

Creating Business Hours

Business or operational hours help to manage time-bound activities in the organization. For example, certain businesses follow SLA policies that require customer support team to resolve tickets within a stipulated time. For example, an SLA policy states that tickets must be resolved within 24 hours of submission, so the due date of the ticket will be computed based on the business hour that is set for the org.
Likewise, several automated actions, such as approvals, workflows, and blueprints, that are time-bound use business hours to calculate escalations and due dates.
In Zoho Desk, business hours can be set for a particular timezone in three ways:
  1. 24x7 (always) - For organizations that work round-the-clock, that is 24 hours a day everyday.
  2. Specific hours - Suitable for organizations that work at specific time for a select number of days in a week. For example, Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
  3. Custom hours - Works for organizations that operate at different hours for the days of the week. For example, Monday 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Tuesday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and so on.  
To create business hours and holidays
  1. Go to Setup  ) > OrganizationBusiness Hours.
  2. On the Business Hours page, click Add Business Hour.
    If you have already created a business hour, click New Business Hour in the upper right area.



  3. In the New Business Hour Details section, do the following:
    • Enter a Name for the business hour. For example, New York Office or Eastern Daylight Time NY
    • Select the Time Zone from the drop-down list
    • Specify the Operational Hours, you can select either one:
      • Always 
      • Specific Working Hours
      • Custom
    • Drag the top or bottom of the time block (green bar) to customize the start or end time.
      Click the 
      Close icon ( X ) on the time block to remove hours from a day.
  4. Toggle Associate Holiday List.
  5. Create New Holiday List.
    If you have already created a holiday list, click Associate Existing Holiday List.



  6. On the holidays window, do the following:
    • Enter a Name for the holiday list.
    • Click on a date in the calendar, enter a name for the holiday and then click Add.
      You can select multiple dates as a range for adding extended holidays.
      Click on a date again to add more holidays to this list.
    • Click Save Holiday List to return to the Business Hour page.
  7. Click Save.
You can edit or delete a business hour from the Business Hours List page. Before you delete a business hour, you must dissociate the SLAs and the Time-based rules that are associated with it.

Creating Holiday List

Create a holiday schedule to add exceptions to the business hours configured in your help desk. The holidays you add will be considered as outside of business hours and the SLAs, Blueprint, and time-based rules will ignore them while setting due dates and triggering escalations. You can create holiday schedules for multiple regions or time zones which can then be associated with their respective business hours. For example, U.S. Holidays, British Holidays, and Australian Holidays.
Notes
  • You cannot create two holiday lists with the same name.
  • You cannot set a partial day as holiday for example, half day.
  • You cannot clone a holiday.

To create your holiday list
  1. Go to Setup  ) > Organization > Business Hours.
  2. Under Business Hours sub-menu click Holiday Lists .
  3. On the Holiday Lists page, click New Holiday List.



  4. On the New Holiday List page, do the following:
    • Enter a Name for the holiday list.
    • On the calendar view, click on a date to open a detailed view for that day.
      You can select multiple dates as a range for adding extended holidays.
    • Enter a Name for the holiday and then click Add.
    • Click on a date again to add more holidays to the list.
  5. Click Save.

Associating a Holiday List to Business Hour

Business hours can be associated with holiday lists to ensure tickets, SLAs or pending activities are escalated only during the operational hours that can prevent delays due to unavailability of support agents. The days that are marked as holidays will be excluded while setting due dates and triggering escalations for SLAs, Blueprint, and time-based rules. You can create holiday schedules for multiple regions or time zones for eg., US holiday list, UK holiday list,  Australia holiday list, etc. which can be associated with the respective business hours. 
Note
  1. A business hour can be associated with only one holiday list.
  2. A holiday list can be associated with more than one business hour.
To associate business hours to holidays
  1. Go to Setup > General > Business Hours > Holiday Lists.
  2. Click the Edit icon (  ) corresponding to the holiday list you want to associate with business hours.
  3. On the Edit Holiday List page, toggle Associate Business Hours.
  4. Select the business hours you want to associate from the drop-down menu.
  5. Click Save.

Behavior of SLAs with Business Hours

You can create service-level agreements that will comply with your business hours in Zoho Desk. While creating an SLA, you must enter the resolution time. Sequentially, the resolution time will set the due date for the tickets. The behavior of business hours and the logic behind setting the ticket due dates are explained with an illustration below:

Let's take, for instance, the following business hours:
Monday to Friday: 9.00 A.M. to 6.00 P.M.
Saturday: 9.00 A.M. to 1.00 P.M. &
Sunday: Holiday

Resolution Time Set in Hours
For example, you configure an SLA with the resolution time of 50 hours. In this case, a ticket coming in at 10.00 A.M. on a Monday will be due on the following Monday at 11.00 A.M. Here is how it is calculated:
Business hours remaining on Monday: 8 hours (10.00 A.M. to 06.00 P.M.)
Business Hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (9hours*4days): 36 hours 
Business Hours on Saturday: 4 hours (9.00 A.M. to 1.00 P.M.)
Monday: 2hours (9.00 A.M. to 11.00 A.M.)
Due on: Monday @ 11.00 A.M. at the end of 50 hours.

Resolution Time Set in Days
For instance, you configure an SLA with the resolution time of 1 day. In this case, the due date will be set based on the exact business days, and it will not consider the working hours. Please note that the business day calculation will include Saturdays (as in the illustration), though it has got only 4 working hours. 

Here are a few sample cases, when you setup the resolution time as 1 day:
Tickets created: 
  1. At 10.00 A.M. on Monday, will be due at 10.00 A.M. on Tuesday if it is not a holiday. 
  2. At 10.00 P.M. on Monday, will be due at 06.00 P.M. on Tuesday if it is not a holiday. 
  3. At 10.00 P.M. on Friday, will be due at 01.00 P.M. on Saturday if it is not a holiday.
  4. During the after hours on Saturday or Sunday, will be due at 06.00 P.M. on Monday.

Deactivating Business Hours

To deactivate a business hour
  1. Go to Setup  ) > Organization > Business Hours.
  2. On the Business Hours page, move your mouse pointer over the business hour you want to deactivate.
  3. Click the On toggle to Off on the business hour.
  4. Click Save.
    The business hour will be deactivated and moved to the Inactive list.



Deleting Holidays

At times, a holiday is not guaranteed the next year, or it falls on an off day. You can delete these holidays from the list. 
To delete a holiday
  1. Go to Setup  ) > Organization > Holiday Lists.
  2. Click the Edit icon (  ) corresponding to the holiday list you want to modify.
  3. Click on the holiday you want to delete from the calendar.


  4. Click the Delete icon  ) on the holiday window.
  5. Click Save.

Deactivating Holiday List

You can deactivate a holiday list if you need to. When you do so, the associated business hours are not suspended during any holidays with which they are affiliated.
To deactivate a holiday list
  1. Go to Setup  ) > Organization > Business Hours.
  2. Click Holiday Lists under the Business Hours sub-menu.
  3. On the Holiday Lists page, move your mouse pointer over the holiday list you want to deactivate.

  4. Toggle Off the holiday list.
  5. Click Save.

    Access your files securely from anywhere

      Zoho CRM Training Programs

      Learn how to use the best tools for sales force automation and better customer engagement from Zoho's implementation specialists.

      Zoho CRM Training
        Redefine the way you work
        with Zoho Workplace

          Zoho DataPrep Personalized Demo

          If you'd like a personalized walk-through of our data preparation tool, please request a demo and we'll be happy to show you how to get the best out of Zoho DataPrep.

          Zoho CRM Training

            Create, share, and deliver

            beautiful slides from anywhere.

            Get Started Now


              Zoho Sign now offers specialized one-on-one training for both administrators and developers.

              BOOK A SESSION






                          Quick Links Workflow Automation Data Collection
                          Web Forms Enterprise Begin Data Collection
                          Interactive Forms Workplace Data Collection App
                          Encrypted Forms Customer Service Accessible Forms
                          Digital Forms Marketing Forms for Small Business
                          HTML Forms Education Forms for Enterprise
                          Contact Forms E-commerce Forms for any business
                          Lead Generation Forms Healthcare Forms for Startups
                          Wordpress Forms Customer onboarding Order Forms for Small Business
                          No Code Forms Construction RSVP tool for holidays
                          Free Forms Travel
                          Prefill Forms Non-Profit

                          Intake Forms Legal
                          Mobile App
                          Form Designer HR
                          Mobile Forms
                          Card Forms Food Offline Forms
                          Assign Forms Photography
                          Mobile Forms Features
                          Translate Forms Real EstateKiosk in Mobile Forms
                          Electronic Forms

                          Notification Emails for Forms Alternatives
                          Holiday Forms Google Forms alternative 
                          Form to PDF Jotform alternative





                                            You are currently viewing the help pages of Qntrl’s earlier version. Click here to view our latest version—Qntrl 3.0's help articles.




                                                Manage your brands on social media

                                                  Zoho Desk Resources

                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                    Zoho Marketing Automation

                                                      Zoho Sheet Resources

                                                       

                                                          Zoho Forms Resources


                                                            Secure your business
                                                            communication with Zoho Mail


                                                            Mail on the move with
                                                            Zoho Mail mobile application

                                                              Stay on top of your schedule
                                                              at all times


                                                              Carry your calendar with you
                                                              Anytime, anywhere




                                                                    Zoho Sign Resources

                                                                      Sign, Paperless!

                                                                      Sign and send business documents on the go!

                                                                      Get Started Now




                                                                              Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                                      Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                                                        Zoho DataPrep Demo

                                                                                        Get a personalized demo or POC

                                                                                        REGISTER NOW


                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now









                                                                                                              • Related Articles

                                                                                                              • SLAs - Scope, Purpose, Understanding, and Setting up

                                                                                                                Service-level agreements (SLAs) are a critical component in any contract that is signed between the service provides and the customer or external supplier. They define the type and quality of service that a business provider agrees to give its ...
                                                                                                              • Applying for a WhatsApp Official Business Account

                                                                                                                WhatsApp Green Badge The Green Badge next to the contact's name confirms that this is an authentic and verified business account. In this guide, we are going to walk you through the steps to get the verified Green Badge for your Business Account on ...
                                                                                                              • Add an embeddable Business Messaging chat bubble to your website

                                                                                                                You can handle your customer questions instantly from a dedicated Business Messaging channel facilitated by Zoho Desk. This feature also allows businesses to communicate the latest trends, track their sales, and more. The Business Messaging user ...
                                                                                                              • Adding a Business Messaging widget to your website

                                                                                                                You can integrate Zoho Desk's native Business Messaging widget seamlessly across webpages and apps, customizing it to align with your brand's style. This allows seamless hand-offs between bots and agents and automation to facilitate personalized and ...
                                                                                                              • Setting up Gamescope

                                                                                                                Life as a customer support agent can be a boring, repetitive, and thankless job. You need to deal with the negativity of customer complaints, answer the same questions day in and day out and feel completely unrewarded. Not anymore! With Zoho Desk's ...
                                                                                                                Wherever you are is as good as
                                                                                                                your workplace

                                                                                                                  Resources

                                                                                                                  Videos

                                                                                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho CRM.



                                                                                                                  eBooks

                                                                                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho CRM.



                                                                                                                  Webinars

                                                                                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho CRM basics, from customization to sales force automation and more.



                                                                                                                  CRM Tips

                                                                                                                  Make the most of Zoho CRM with these useful tips.



                                                                                                                    Zoho Show Resources