Hours of Operation

Overview

The Hours page tells the phone assistant when your business is open and what to do when it is closed. The phone assistant uses these hours to decide whether to take orders, book appointments, or play an after-hours message.

Open this page at: i118.ai/app/hours

Setting your hours

Time display format

You can switch between 12-hour (AM/PM) and 24-hour time display. This only affects how times appear on the dashboard.

Special date overrides

You can set one-time overrides for specific dates (up to 1 year ahead) without changing your regular weekly schedule. This is useful for:

• Holiday closures — close on Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any holiday

• Shortened hours — close early on a specific day (e.g., New Year’s Eve)

• Extended hours — stay open later for a special event

To add a special date override:

1. Find the special dates or overrides section on the Hours page

2. Select the date

3. Set the hours for that date, or mark it as closed

4. Click Save

The override applies only to that specific date. Your regular weekly schedule remains unchanged and automatically resumes the next day.

Your company's hours vs. phone assistant hours

There are differences between your company hours (when you are physically open for business) and your phone assistant hours (when the phone assistant is on duty). The assistant answers calls based on the Phone Assistant Hours setting and will automatically stop taking calls once those hours end. However, if appointments are allowed, they will be scheduled within your company's hours, even if the request is received outside those hours.

Should the phone assistant accept orders and appointments outside your business hours?

Pre-open and pre-close buffers

Certain businesses, such as restaurants, may want the phone assistant to start taking orders slightly before opening and stop slightly before closing.

• Pre-open buffer: If you want the phone assistant to start accepting orders 15 minutes before you open, set the time 15 minutes earlier.

• Pre-close buffer: If you close at 9 PM but want to stop taking orders at 8:45 PM, set your time 15 minutes earlier.

The phone assistant hours do not have separate "buffer" fields — just adjust the open/close times to match when you want the phone assistant to be active.

After-hours behavior

When a call comes in outside of both business hours and phone assistant hours, the call flow follows the After-Hours Call Handling setting (the Outside Business Hours Action dropdown) on the Additional Settings page:

On-Duty Staff Phone

You can assign an On-Duty Staff Phone number for each day of the week on your company's hours schedule. This number determines where live calls are routed when a customer needs a human staff member. A transfer is triggered when a caller:

• Presses 0 during the initial greeting audio.

• Ask the phone assistant to speak with a staff member.

• Triggers an escalation rule you set (e.g., when a question remains unresolved).

You can set a different phone number each day — useful when different staff members are on call for different shifts.

Common issues