Automatically Switch Extension Presence Based on Time

Instead of asking staff to update their presence by hand throughout the day, you can tie an extension’s presence to your organization’s schedule. Once configured, the extension advertises the right status at the right time, and the Cloud Voice App reflects the change automatically.

This page walks through a worked example: mapping presence to the business hours, break periods, and holidays already defined on the system.

Before you begin

This example relies on the business hours and holidays set for the system’s default time zone (Call Control > Business Hours and Holidays). The schedule below drives the presence changes:

Time period	Definition	Presence to display
Business Hours	09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday	Available
Break Hours	12:00 to 14:00, Monday to Friday	Lunch Break
Holidays	December 25 to January 5	Off Work
Outside Business Hours	Any time not covered above	Off Work

Caution

The auto switch only follows a schedule that already exists. Confirm that Business Hours and Holidays are defined under Call Control > Business Hours and Holidays before you start. If those periods are empty or wrong, the extension has nothing to follow and its presence will not change.

Note

This walkthrough uses the default time zone’s schedule. If a user works to a different schedule, you can define business hours on their extension individually and drive presence from those instead. See Set Business Hours for an Extension.

Configure time-based presence

1. Sign in to the PBX (Private Branch Exchange, the phone system) management portal and go to Extension and Trunk > Extension. Open the extension you want to switch presence automatically for editing.
2. Select the Features tab and locate the Time-conditional Presence Auto Switch section.
3. Choose the presence status to apply during each time period. For the example schedule:
   • Business Hours: set to Available.
   • Break Hours: set to Lunch Break.
   • Holidays: set to Off Work.
   • Outside Business Hours: set to Off Work.
4. Click Save.

Note

When time periods overlap, the system applies presence in this order of precedence: Holidays > Break Hours > Business Hours > Outside Business Hours.

Result

The extension now updates its own presence as the clock moves through the schedule. For instance, once the day passes 18:00, the presence shown in the Cloud Voice App changes to Off Work.

Manual schedule overrides are honored as well. If someone overrides the time condition for the system, presence follows suit: force the system into Business Hours, for example, and the extension’s presence is pushed to Available.