Availability Schedules - AI Assistant
Overview
Availability Schedules let you define business hours and assign them to assistants so live transfers are only offered when your staff is available to answer. You can create one schedule and assign it to multiple assistants, or rely on an org-wide default. Schedules are managed from the Availability Schedules tab on the Live Transfer Management page. Learn more about per-transfer availability modes on the Live Transfers page.
Availability Schedules Tab
The Availability Schedules tab appears alongside the Transfers tab and gives you a central place to manage all schedules across your organization.
Schedules Table
The table shows all availability schedules in your organization:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Schedule name | The schedule name — hover a row’s tooltip for the full day-by-day breakdown |
| Hours | Summary of configured days and times — hover for the full schedule |
| Assigned assistants | Which assistants use this schedule |
| Actions | Assign to assistants, edit, or delete |
The row for the schedule assigned to your currently selected assistant is highlighted in blue so you can quickly identify which schedule is active.
Creating a Schedule
Click Create schedule to open the schedule editor.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Optional. If left blank, a name is auto-generated from the configured hours. |
| Set as organization default | When checked, this schedule applies to any assistant without its own explicit assignment. |
| After-hours message | What the assistant says when a caller triggers a schedule-gated transfer outside of available hours. |
| Weekly hours | Toggle each day on or off, then set open and close times. At least one day must be enabled. |
| Assistants | Optionally assign this schedule to specific assistants at creation time. |
Hours are stored without a timezone. Each assistant applies the schedule using its own configured timezone. A schedule showing 9:00 AM–5:00 PM will open at 9:00 AM in whatever timezone each assistant is set to.
Editing a Schedule
Open the actions menu on any row to edit it. When you update an org default schedule, the change affects every assistant that relies on it without its own assignment. When editing, the assistants field shows which assistants are currently assigned. Add or remove them directly in the modal.
Deleting a Schedule
Deleting a schedule removes it from all assistants. Transfers that were set to During schedule or Outside schedule on those assistants will fall back to Always on behavior until a new schedule is assigned.
Assigning a Schedule to an Assistant
Use the Assign schedule modal — accessible from the availability strip on the Transfers tab or from the Actions menu in the Schedules table — to assign or change a schedule for a specific assistant.
- Schedules marked as the org default are labeled with a badge in the list
- Select any schedule and click Assign schedule to save
- You can deselect a schedule to unassign it, unless the assistant is currently using the org default — in that case, you must either choose a different schedule or delete the org default first.
If you try to clear the selection when the org default is active, you’ll see: “This assistant is assigned the org default schedule. Selection can’t be left empty — choose another schedule, or delete the org default first.”
You can also click Create a new schedule from within this modal to build one without leaving the flow.
Organization Default Schedule
Setting a schedule as the org default means it is automatically applied to any assistant that has not been explicitly assigned a schedule. This is useful when most assistants share the same hours. Only one schedule can be the org default at a time. Updating it immediately affects all assistants that rely on it.
Tips
- Set up an org default schedule first if most assistants share the same hours, then override individually for exceptions.
- Use Outside schedule mode for transfers you want available only after hours — like an emergency contact or an after-hours routing option.
- Combine During schedule and Outside schedule transfers on the same assistant to route callers differently depending on the time of day.
- Use Pause transfers for short-term closures (holidays, unexpected outages) without editing schedules.
- Keep your after-hours message actionable — tell callers what to do next, not just that you’re unavailable.