Business Hours in Instant Messaging: Configure Agent Availability and SLA Timers in Zoho Desk

Set Up Business Hours for Instant Messaging in Zoho Desk

Overview
Overview
Business Hours in Instant Messaging (IM) let your team focus on conversations during your actual working hours. This helps set clear expectations for customers, prevents agent burnout, and ensures bots respond at the right time.

When set up properly, conversations are routed only when your team is available, SLAs are tracked fairly, and offline messages take over outside work hours.

This guide will walk you through mapping Business Hours to IM channels and managing how bots and SLAs behave based on your working hours.

What are Business Hours? 

Business Hours define the specific days and times when your support team is available to help customers. You can set a working schedule, like Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM, so Zoho Desk knows when to route conversations and trigger responses. Learn how to create Business Hours

In Instant Messaging, Business Hours help ensure:
  1. Conversations are only routed to agents when they’re available
  2. SLA timers run only during working hours
  3. Bots act appropriately, depending on the time
  4. Customers receive offline messages when you’re away
Once your Business Hours are created, you can map them to your IM channels. 

How to map Business Hours to an IM channel   

  1. Go to Setup (⚙️) in the top bar.
  2. Select Instant Messaging under Channels.
  3. Open the Preferences tab.
  4. Click Conversation Rules.
  5. Click the IM Channel.
  6. Choose the Business Hours you want to apply.

Make sure your Business Hours schedule is already created under Setup > Organization > Business Hours. 

What is an SLA?   

SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. It defines the response or resolution time your support team commits to when handling customer conversations. For example, you might promise to respond to a WhatsApp message within two hours of receiving it.  Learn more about SLA in Zoho Desk


Business Hours in IM and how SLAs work only after ticket creation

It’s important to understand that you cannot directly map SLA policies to IM channels. Instead, SLA behaviour is indirectly managed through the Business Hours assigned to an IM channel.
Start by creating Business Hours in Desk
Before configuring SLA or IM channels, you must first create a Business Hours schedule in: Setup > Organization > Business Hours. Learn how to create Business Hours

How it works
  1. When setting up an IM channel, you assign a Business Hours schedule created in Desk
  2. SLA policies are defined in Desk settings and linked to specific departments, along with their associated Business Hours
SLA starts only after ticket creation
SLA policies do not apply directly to IM messages. They come into effect only after an IM conversation is converted into a ticket.

Here’s how it works:
  1. A bot or automation rule creates a ticket from the incoming IM message
  2. The ticket is then assigned to a department in the Zoho Desk
  3. The SLA policy configured for that department is triggered
  4. The SLA timer runs based on the Business Hours assigned in the SLA settings, not the IM channel
Info
SLA timers don’t start when a message arrives in IM. They only start when a ticket is created and assigned to a department,  and they run based on the Business Hours mapped to that department’s SLA policy.
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Component and Role

Component and Role
Component and Role

Component

Role

Business Hours

Defined in Desk and mapped to IM channels. Controls routing, bot behavior, and availability.

Ticket Creation from IM

Performed via bots or automation after an IM message is received. This is the point where the SLA policy is activated.

SLA Policy

Defined in Desk and linked to departments. Triggered only when a ticket is created.


 

Best practices  

  1. Always double-check time zones in both Business Hours and Portal Settings
  2. Name your Business Hours schedules clearly to indicate region/time zone
  3. Don’t assume SLA applies directly to IM. it is only triggered after a ticket is created
  4. Make sure Business Hours used in IM are also assigned in SLA settings under the relevant department

What happens during and after Business Hours?   

Scenarios
Scenarios
Scenario
During Business Hours
Outside Business Hours
Conversation Routing
Conversations are routed based on your logic
Conversations are held until working hours resume
SLA Timers
SLAs begin and run normally
SLA countdown is paused (if SLAs are mapped to Business Hours)
Bots
Greet, qualify, escalate as needed
Show unavailability message, collect input, create tickets
Offline Message
Not shown
Displayed automatically if configured

Bots don’t automatically stop working after hours. To control how they behave based on time, you’ll need to customize their flow. 
 

Customizing bot behaviour by time   

By default, bots are always on. To make them more time-aware:
  1. Add schedule-based conditions in your bot flow (using GC).
  2. During working hours: Greet, collect info, and hand off to agents.
  3. Outside working hours: Show an away message, create tickets, and offer FAQs or articles.
Add fallback logic so customers can still get answers from your help articles or FAQs even when no agents are around. 

How ticketing is affected   

Even when your agents are off the clock, bots and automation rules can still create tickets. Here’s how it works:
  1. Tickets created outside business hours will reflect the customer’s message time.
  2. SLA countdown starts only when working hours resume (if mapped).
  3. Tickets may remain unassigned until your team is back.
Make sure your SLA policies are linked to Business Hours. If not, the timer continues even outside working hours; leading to false SLA violations and unnecessary alerts.

 What happens when you change a schedule?   

Create
Update
Delete
Create
The new schedule is available for use, but doesn’t impact any channel until mapped.
Update
All channels using that schedule are affected immediately. Bots, SLAs, and routing logic are recalculated.
Delete
Channels revert to 24x7 mode. Offline messages won’t trigger unless all agents go offline.
 

Special scenarios to watch out for   

Deleted schedule in use
If you delete a schedule that’s still in use, channels mapped to it switch to 24x7 mode. Bots respond at all times, and offline messages won’t appear unless all agents are offline.
Same schedule mapped to multiple channels
When a schedule is shared across channels, any change affects all of them instantly. To avoid surprise impacts, use different schedules for different teams or regions.
Time zone mismatch
If the time zone is wrong, bots may act out of sync and agents might get messages outside their actual shift. Always double-check before saving.
No schedule mapped
If no Business Hours are mapped, the IM channel runs 24x7. Conversations are always routed, and offline messages are skipped unless all agents go offline manually.
No agents on a channel
If no agents are assigned, the IM channel is unstaffed. Business Hours have no effect. Make sure there’s at least one agent assigned so routing and availability work correctly.
 

Best practices   

  1. Set up Business Hours before launching a new IM channel.
  2. Use clear naming for schedules, like EMEA_Support_9to5_MonFri.
  3. Configure your offline message alongside Business Hours.
  4. Link SLA policies to Business Hours.
  5. Build bots to handle both working and non-working times.
  6. Avoid sharing schedules across channels unless they truly operate the same.
  7. Review usage before editing or deleting a schedule.
 

FAQs   

Can different IM channels use different business hours?
Yes! Each IM channel can have its own schedule.
Do bots stop working after hours?
Not unless you tell them to. Add time-based conditions to control their behavior.
Will SLA timers pause outside working hours?
Yes, but only if the SLA policy is linked to Business Hours.
Can tickets be created outside working hours?
Absolutely. Bots or rules can create them, but assignment and SLA may wait until business hours resume.
What happens when I edit a schedule?
All channels using it will update instantly. Use caution when sharing schedules.
Why am I not receiving incoming message pop-ups in the Business Messaging UI?

This can happen if there’s a mismatch between the time zone set in your Business Hours and the time zone configured in your portal settings. In one case, the customer had set up Business Hours with a different time zone than the portal, which caused the system to treat incoming messages as outside of working hours.