How to disable time of day manually in the callflows.

[Fadi Maz]

my client asked if there a way to disable time of day manually in the callflows. he has flexible hours and he wants to disable time of day when he wants.

[Karl Stallknecht]

See:
https://helpcenter.2600hz.com/2600hz/topics/best-practice-out-of-office

[Fadi Maz]

Hi Karl

I don't have access to the content

[Karl Stallknecht]

Hmm, someone from 2600hz will have to add you to that section of the community. Sorry!

[Rick Guyton]

Hi Fadi, it's my write up any how. Here's CleaRing's best practice:

On the last reseller call, I told you guys I'd give you our best practice for allowing clients to force their office open, closed or reset back to schedule. This is our process. BTW, this looks WAY worse than it is. Do it a couple times, and you can complete all of this in just a few minutes.

SETTING UP BUTTONS:
1) Pick three sequential start codes to use. i.e. *89, *90 & *91 (We don't have a standard for what codes to use, recommendations would be awesome) For us, the first number is always for force open, the second is always for force close and the third is always for reset to schedule.

2) Creating your "Force Open" callflow.
a) Open ADV callflows, then create a new callflow.
b) Click Add number, extension radio box, then *89 in this case.
c) Drag over a manual presence action and assign it ID: *89, make status busy. (this will make our OPEN light turn red when pressed)
d) Drag over a manual presence action and assign it the next feature code number *90 in this case, make status Idle. (this will turn off the closed button's busy lamp if it was enabled previously)
e) Drag over Enable Time Of Day and select the TOD you are toggling.
f) Save Changes
g) Click the Label icon and label the call flow *89 {TOD CONTROLLED} Open. In my example this controls a time of day for a company called Walker. So my label is *89 Walker Open
When you are finished it should look like this: http://i.imgur.com/ubfOvgY.png

3) Creating your "Force Closed" callflow.
The rest of these callflows are very similar. To reduce confusion, I always keep the lowest Presence on top (the open feature) and the middle presence below that (the close feature). So the only things that change are the status of the lights, the end function of TOD and the label.
So, I'd basically duplucate Step 2, but set the extension to *90, set *89 to Idle, set *90 to busy and use the DISABLE time of day.
Result should look like this: http://i.imgur.com/ACb7RLy.png

4) Creating your "Reset" callflow.
Set EXT to *91. Both *89 & *90 should be idle now, use RESET time of day function at the end.
Result should look like this: http://i.imgur.com/YRYq5AE.png

5) Finally, you use 3 buttons on the phones and subscribe them to *89 (OPEN), *90 (CLOSE), *91 (REST Schedule)

TRAINING CLIENTS:
First things first, I tell the clients to press the buttons and WALK AWAY. I tell them that she doesn't like to be hung up on and they will regret it if they do so. (wife joke happens more than I'm proud of here) Why? Well, if the client's supper fast on that hook switch, I've seen the system complete the BLF status, but never get to the TOD change. So, the lights will show something different than what's going on.

Then I explain how the buttons work.

I tell my clients that the Open button will open the office until the end of time. I tell them to use this if they want to open the office early one day. But, to press the reset button after normal hours start otherwise the'll surely forget to do it when they leave.

Then I tell my clients to use the closed button for vacations, holidays, ect. I explain they they can just hit the closed button on their way out the door after normal business hours and the system will just stay closed until they come in 2-3 days later are RESET normal operation. Again, I explain CLOSED will keep them closed until the end of time.

I touch on the reset button real quick, but usually they get it by then.

END EFFECT:
For 5 minutes making the call flows and another five or ten explaining how the buttons work, I NEVER have to deal with holidays. And the end users can very easily manage this stuff themselves. The lights provide a reminder when the office is manually forced open or closed. So, I never really get calls about why calls aren't coming through. They look at their phone and realize it immediately. 

FUTURE EXPANSION:
It's bothersome to me how many buttons this takes up. I've been playing with the idea of making a single button that leads the client into a menu system to open, close or reset office hours. Then making that single feature "busy" when closed "ringing" when open and idle when reset back to schedule. If I find a client that'd benefit from this I'll do it an post my results. So far, it's just not that big a deal to me since the phones I use have so many programmable buttons.


Good Luck!!!

[Fadi Maz]

Thank you Rick;
it works fine

[Rick Guyton]

:) Glad to hear it.

[Rick Guyton]

Wowah, Karl's official now. :)

[Karl Stallknecht]

Wow, I'm honored lol

[Karl Stallknecht]

I wonder if someone mistook me for the 2600hz Karl on accident haha

[keith roach]

Definitely some good info here Thanks!