> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.haloagents.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Office Hours

> Set your team's hours, holidays and expected reply time. The widget tells customers when to expect a reply, and routing rules can check whether a conversation came in during office hours.

## What office hours do

Office hours tell customers when your team is around and how fast it usually replies.

* **In the widget**: once a conversation reaches your team (a ticket is created, or the agent sends it straight to the team), the widget posts **"We typically reply in a few minutes."** during office hours and **"We're away, back Monday at 9:00 AM."** outside them. Times are shown in the visitor's own timezone.
* **Agents set to [Team only](https://docs.haloagents.ai/agents/who-answers.md)**: the widget header shows the same status, and outside office hours a visitor who isn't signed in is asked for an email before writing, so your team can reply after they leave. The email is saved on the visitor's contact; it does not create a sales lead or a lead alert.
* **Inbox header**: an **Open** / **Away** badge next to the Inbox title. Hover it to see what customers see right now.
* **Routing rules**: the **Within office hours** condition (is true / is false) checks whether the conversation was created during office hours. Use it to route after-hours conversations to an on-call inbox or raise their priority.
* **Email (optional)**: an acknowledgment for new emails that arrive outside office hours.

While office hours are off, nothing changes in the widget and every conversation counts as **within office hours**.

## Setting up office hours

Go to **Settings > Inboxes > Office hours** (needs the **Edit settings** permission).

1. Switch **Office hours** on.
2. **Weekly hours**: pick the timezone, switch each day on or off, and set its opening and closing times. A day can have several periods (for a lunch break, add a second period). An end time of 00:00 means midnight. Daylight saving time is handled for you: 9:00 stays 9:00 local time all year.
3. **Holidays** (starts closed; click it to open): add the days you are closed. A holiday closes the whole day in the timezone above.
4. **Expected reply time** (starts closed; click it to open): what the widget promises during office hours ("in a few minutes" up to "in a few days") and, optionally, outside them, after "We're away, back …".
5. Click **Save office hours**. The widget picks the change up within a minute or two.

## Out-of-hours email reply

Switch on **Out-of-hours email reply** to acknowledge a new email that arrives outside office hours. Write the message in plain text; `{back}` becomes the next opening, for example "Monday, November 9 at 9:00 AM EST". It is off by default.

* It replaces the general auto-reply (Settings > Emails) outside office hours, so a customer never gets two acknowledgments. In office hours the general auto-reply works as before.
* It is only sent for the email that opens a new conversation, never when an AI agent answers email, and never to an address that bounced, complained or was blocked.

> [!NOTE]
>
> The widget messages ship with the next widget (SDK) release. Until then, saved office hours already drive the inbox badge, the routing condition and the email reply.


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