# Overview of Business Hours and Holidays Cloud Voice routes and handles calls differently depending on when they arrive. Before you set up your schedules, it helps to understand the building blocks the system uses to describe time. This page explains those concepts so the configuration steps that follow make sense. You do not change any settings here: read it first, then move on to the setup pages linked throughout. ## Key concepts ### Time zones A time zone is the local standard time for a geographic region. It keeps time in sync across areas so call handling stays aligned with the working day of the people and offices it affects. Cloud Voice lets you run on a single default time zone or define several, depending on how your business is spread out. - **Default time zone**: The system derives a default time zone from the PBX (Private Branch Exchange, your phone system) date and time configuration, found under **System > Date and Time > Time Zone**. Unless you add others, this zone governs every time-based setting across the system. - **Additional time zones**: If you operate in more than one region, you can add extra time zones for regional offices or customers elsewhere, then build business hours and holidays around each one's local time. For details, see [Set Multiple Time Zones](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-multiple-time-zones/). :::caution The default time zone is inherited from the PBX date and time settings. Confirm it is correct before you build any schedules, because every business-hours and holiday rule is evaluated against this local time. A wrong time zone means calls are handled on the wrong schedule. ::: ### Business hours Business hours are the periods when your company is open and working. Short rest breaks taken during the workday still count as business hours. You can define one company-wide schedule and, where needed, more specific schedules for particular groups or individuals. - **Global business hours**: Your company's primary schedule. This usually fits the majority of staff who keep a fixed, standard workday. See [Set Business Hours](/pbx/administrator-guide/set-global-business-hours/) and [Route Inbound Calls based on Business Hours](/pbx/administrator-guide/route-inbound-calls-based-on-global-business-hours/). - **Custom business hours**: Schedules for departments whose hours differ from the company norm. Create a tailored schedule that reflects each department's working times and how its calls should be handled. See [Route Inbound Calls based on Department Hours](/pbx/administrator-guide/route-inbound-calls-based-on-department-hours/). - **Custom time periods**: Schedules for individual employees who keep their own hours. See [Route Inbound Calls based on Employee Hours](/pbx/administrator-guide/route-inbound-calls-based-on-employee-hours/). :::tip Start with global business hours to cover most of your staff, then add custom business hours or custom time periods only for the departments and individuals whose schedules differ. This keeps your setup simple and easier to maintain. ::: ### Holidays A holiday marks a day your business is closed. Holidays fall into two categories: - **Fixed-date holidays**: Occur on the same calendar date every year. - **Moveable-date holidays**: Fall on a different date each year. You can enter a holiday by date, by month, or by week to match its type, and assign a distinct prompt to each one. See [Create a Holiday](/pbx/administrator-guide/create-a-holiday/). :::note Because each holiday can carry its own prompt (the recorded message callers hear), you can greet callers differently on, for example, a public holiday versus a company shutdown day. ::: ### Outside business hours Outside business hours covers any time that is neither business hours nor a holiday. :::note You do not configure outside business hours directly. The system automatically treats any leftover time as outside business hours, so you can send those calls to a separate destination such as an after-hours greeting or voicemail. ::: ## How these settings are applied Once your business hours and holidays are in place, Cloud Voice applies them across a range of features that manage users and handle calls. To see where these time conditions come into play and how the system uses them, see [Time Condition Overview](/pbx/administrator-guide/time-condition-overview/).