# Switch Business Hours and Holidays

Your phone system decides where an incoming call goes based on whether it arrives during business hours, outside business hours, or on a holiday. From the operator panel you can override the current period by hand, which is handy when the day does not go according to plan.

## How call routing follows the schedule

The operator panel shows the period that is currently active, calculated from the Business Hours and Holiday settings that your administrator configured for the system's default time zone. Calls are routed to a different destination in each of these three periods:

- **Business Hours**: the working hours when your team is open and conducting business.
- **Outside Business Hours**: the parts of a working day when staff are off the clock.
- **Holiday**: dates that are set aside by custom or law and on which normal operations pause or scale back.

Switching periods is useful whenever reality departs from the planned schedule. For example:

- Something unexpected forces you to close mid-shift on an ordinary working day. Switch from business hours to outside business hours, and callers are sent to the destination your administrator set for that period.
- You want to run a limited service on a day the system treats as a holiday. Switch from holiday to business hours so those calls can reach your team.

## Before you start

- You need the **Switch Business Hours and Holidays status** permission.
- Your administrator must have already defined business hours and holidays for the system.

## Switch the current period

1. In the top-left corner of the operator panel, click the time-switch icon ![Time-switch control](/images/pbx/switch-time.png).

   ![Operator panel prompting to confirm switching the active time period](/images/pbx/operator-panel-switch-business-hours-to-break-hours.png)

   The system asks you to confirm that you want to change the period.

   :::note
   The operator panel always displays the period that is currently active. After you switch, glance at that indicator to confirm the new period took effect.
   :::

2. In the confirmation dialog, click **Yes**.

:::caution
The switch takes effect the moment you confirm. Every incoming call is immediately routed to the destination your administrator set for the new period, so make sure you are switching to the period you intend before you click **Yes**.
:::

:::tip
When you are ready to reopen, switch back to business hours yourself, or let the system return to schedule automatically at the start of the next working day. This automatic behavior is controlled by the Automatic Reset of Time Condition setting.

If you would rather have a manual switch stay in place until you change it again, ask your administrator to disable Automatic Reset of Time Condition.
:::