Bot Working Hours - Schedule When Your Chatbot Is Active

Overview

When your support team clocks out, your chatbot can clock in. Bot Working Hours lets you define exactly when your chatbot should be active. Outside the configured hours, the bot simply will not trigger, giving you full control over when automated conversations happen.

The most common use case is running a chatbot outside office hours to handle customer inquiries when your live agents are unavailable. During business hours, your human team takes over. You can also use it the other way around, or run different bots for different time windows. The schedule gives you complete flexibility.

Where to Find It

Bot Working Hours is configured in the Starting Step (trigger node) of your chatbot flow in the Studio.

1. Open your chatbot in Studio
2. Double-click the Starting Step node
3. Look for the Bot Working Hours toggle

How to Configure Working Hours

Step 1: Enable the Schedule

Toggle Bot Working Hours from No to Yes. This reveals the timezone selector and the weekly schedule table.

Step 2: Select Your Timezone

Choose the timezone that matches your business location from the Select Timezone dropdown. All start and end times are interpreted in this timezone. The system handles daylight saving and UTC conversions automatically on the backend.

Note: Picking the correct timezone is critical. If your business is in New York, select America/New_York so that "9:00 AM" means 9:00 AM Eastern, regardless of where your customers are located.

Step 3: Configure Each Day

The schedule table shows all seven days of the week. Each day has:

Control	What It Does
Toggle switch	Turn the day on or off. When off, the bot will not respond on that day at all.
FROM time	The time the bot starts responding.
TO time	The time the bot stops responding.
+ Add button	Add additional time slots for that day (up to 5 per day).
Copy button	Copy the current day's times to other selected days.

Step 4: Submit

Click Submit to save the schedule to your trigger node. The node preview on the canvas will show a compact summary of your configured hours.

Common Use Cases

After-Hours Bot (Most Common)

Your live agents work 9 AM to 5 PM. You want the chatbot to take over when they leave. Set the bot's active hours to the off-duty window.

• Mon - Fri: 05:00 PM to 09:00 AM (On)
• Sat - Sun: All day (On), 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM

This way, the bot greets customers, collects their details, and queues conversations for your team to pick up the next morning.

Weekend-Only Bot

Live agents handle weekdays. The bot covers weekends when no one is in the office.

• Mon - Fri: Off
• Sat - Sun: 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM (On)

Overnight Coverage with a Gap

Your agents work 9 AM to 6 PM, but you also have a part-time evening agent from 8 PM to 11 PM. The bot only needs to cover the gaps.

• Slot 1: 11:00 PM to 09:00 AM (overnight)
• Slot 2: 06:00 PM to 08:00 PM (evening gap)

Click + Add on any day to create the second slot. The bot stays silent during agent-covered hours.

Business Hours Bot

Some teams prefer the opposite: the bot runs during business hours to handle FAQs and route conversations, while after-hours messages go unanswered until agents return.

• Mon - Fri: 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM (On)
• Sat - Sun: Off

Use the Copy button on Monday to quickly apply the same times to Tuesday through Friday.

What Happens Outside the Configured Hours

When a customer sends a message outside the bot's configured active hours, the bot does not trigger at all. The message is still received and stored in your inbox, but no automated flow runs.

This is by design. For the most common setup (after-hours bot), this means your live agents handle conversations during office hours without the bot interfering. When agents leave for the day, the bot kicks in automatically.

You can also:

• Run two separate bots with different trigger keywords, one for business hours and one for after-hours
• Let the bot collect customer details overnight so agents have context when they start the next day
• Use a fallback greeting configured at the channel level for any uncovered windows

The behavior is simple and predictable: inside the schedule, the bot works normally. Outside the schedule, it stays silent.

Validation and Safeguards

The system includes built-in validation to prevent configuration errors:

• End time must be after start time: You cannot set a slot where the TO time is earlier than or equal to the FROM time.
• Overlap detection: If two time slots on the same day overlap (for example, 09:00-14:00 and 12:00-17:00), the system will flag the conflict and prevent submission.
• Maximum 5 slots per day: Each day supports up to 5 separate time windows.

Best Practices

• Always verify your timezone before configuring times. A wrong timezone will shift all your hours.
• Use the Copy feature to set identical hours across multiple days quickly, then adjust individual days as needed.
• Keep it simple when possible. A single time slot per day is easier to manage and less error-prone than multiple split windows.
• Test after publishing. Send a test message during and outside your configured hours to confirm the bot responds (or stays silent) as expected.
• Coordinate with live agents. If your bot stops at 5 PM, make sure your team knows to monitor the inbox for messages that arrive after hours.

Troubleshooting

Bot responds outside configured hours

1. Verify the timezone is correct. A timezone mismatch is the most common cause.
2. Confirm you clicked Submit after making changes, and then published the bot via Save Changes.
3. Check that the correct days are toggled On in the schedule.

Bot does not respond during configured hours

1. Ensure the Bot Working Hours toggle is set to Yes.
2. Check that the specific day is toggled On (not just configured with times).
3. Verify the FROM and TO times cover the current time in the selected timezone.

Time slots show default values after reopening

1. Make sure you clicked Submit before closing the modal.
2. Publish the bot using Save Changes in the top bar to persist changes to the server.

Next Steps

• Studio Overview - Learn about the flow builder and other node types
• Getting Started - Set up your first chatbot
• Channels - Connect your bot to WhatsApp, Instagram, and more