Holidays and Custom Closures
Business Hours, Holidays & Custom Closures
Configure when your support team is available so Messenger, Voice AI, and Reminder Agents know when to respond live and when to show an out-of-office message.
Workspace Business Hours
Business hours set the defaults across Messenger, Voice AI, and Reminder Agents. They live in Workspace settings and apply to every client unless overridden.
To configure:
- Select your Time zone — all hours below are interpreted in this zone.
- Toggle Open 24 hours, 7 days a week if your team is always available, or
- Check the days your team is online and set the open/close time for each day.
Holidays
Set the holiday schedule when your team is offline. When a holiday is active, Messenger displays an out-of-office message and can route conversations to a matching Flow.
How holiday calendars work:
- Select your Business country to load that country's public holiday calendar.
- National holidays are selected by default. State, province, and region-specific holidays are displayed but unchecked — turn them on only if they apply to your team.
- Dates shown reflect the current year and update automatically each year, so once a holiday is selected it carries forward without manual maintenance.
Custom dates:
Use + Add date to create one-off closures that aren't on the public calendar (team offsites, office renovations, regional weather events, etc.). Custom dates support a date range and can be created, updated, or deleted at any time.
Messenger Hours (read-only view)
The Hours tab inside Messenger settings shows a read-only summary of the business hours, holidays, and custom closures inherited from Workspace settings. To make changes, use the Manage hours & holidays link, which takes you back to the Workspace configuration.
Out-of-Office Message
Toggle on Use custom out of business hours message to show clients a custom note when they message outside business hours or during a holiday closure. If left off, the system default is used.
Client-Specific Overrides
If a specific client is supported on a different schedule (for example, a client in another time zone or with different holiday observances), you can override the workspace defaults for just that client.
To override:
- Open the client's settings page.
- Turn on Override workspace defaults.
When the toggle is off, the client follows the workspace's business hours, holiday closures, and out-of-office message.
When the toggle is on, you'll see the full set of configuration options — time zone, 24/7 availability, business country, holidays, and custom dates — scoped to that client only. Settings here do not affect any other client or the workspace default.
Messenger Out-of-Office Banner
When a client opens Messenger during a holiday or custom closure, a banner appears at the top of the conversation list showing:
- The name of the holiday or custom date
- The time the support team will be back online
This makes the reason for the delay clear and sets the right expectation for when to expect a reply.
Tips
- Set your workspace defaults first, then add client-specific overrides only where needed — this keeps the bulk of your configuration in one place.
- Review the auto-selected national holidays each time you add a new business country to make sure they match your team's actual observance.
- Use custom dates for anything outside the public calendar — team events, weather closures, or short-notice schedule changes.
- Pair holiday closures with a Flow to route urgent inquiries to a ticket form or alternate channel while your team is offline.
