How do I forward inbound calls to different teams based on business hours?

You can do this by setting up time-based call routing in your phone system/VoIP platform. The exact steps depend on the provider, but the general pattern is:

1. Define business hours

   • Set your normal hours for each team or location.
   • Include holidays and special schedules if needed.

2. Create routing rules

   • During business hours, route calls to the appropriate team queue, ring group, or hunt group.
   • Outside business hours, route calls to a different destination such as:
     • an after-hours team
     • voicemail
     • an answering service
     • an on-call agent
     • a different office/team in another time zone

3. Set rule priority

   • Put the most specific rules first, such as:
     • holiday schedule
     • after-hours schedule
     • regular business hours
   • Make sure the system checks time rules before applying general call handling.

4. Use IVR if needed

   • If callers should choose a team, add a menu like:
     • “Press 1 for Sales”
     • “Press 2 for Support”
   • Then apply time-based routing to each menu option.

5. Test the flow

   • Call in during business hours and after hours.
   • Verify calls go to the correct team and that voicemail/fallback works.

Example flow

• Mon–Fri, 9 AM–5 PM → Sales calls go to Sales queue, Support calls go to Support queue
• After hours → All calls go to voicemail or on-call staff
• Holidays → Auto-attendant message + emergency line only

If you tell me which system you use (e.g. RingCentral, Zoom Phone, Teams, 3CX, Aircall, Twilio, Cisco), I can give you exact setup steps.